The following is a small sample of the letters received by The Crimson on the current controversy surrounding University President Lawrence H. Summers:

To the editors:

I thank you for continuing to fuel the flames surrounding University President Lawrence H. Summers’ innocuous remarks in which he simply noted that some social scientists have opined on the reasons for a lack of “women in science.” Intellectual curiosity should be advanced at Harvard, but alas, it is not.

I am a conservative Republican who disagrees politically with Summers on many issues. Yet I come to his defense here as he is assaulted by advocates of “political correctness”—a political philosophy embraced by his very own liberal democrat establishment—perhaps even by you.

He first got spanked for challenging the scholarship of Cornel R. West ’74 and should have learned that one doesn’t tilt against left-leaning windmills. But, Summers is either a slow learner or a conservative plant. Either way, he is exposing the left for its self-righteous attempt to homogenize scientific and political thought.

ROYAL S. DELLINGER

Rockville, Md.

February 15, 2005

To the editors:

It is interesting to me that Harvard chooses someone with a Victorian sensibility to steer the college into the 21st century. Some traditions should not be continued: among them the tired, soggy, shopworn debate on the biological inferiority of women. Perhaps Summers should review his history; at the very least he should revise his communication strategy. In order to give him adequate time to better organize his thoughts, Summers should be relived of his duties immediately.

KATE STICKLEY

New York, N.Y.

February 15, 2005