Both professors who support University President Lawrence H. Summers and those who oppose him are calling for change, from small structural fixes aimed at dispelling faculty discontent to broad administrative alterations that will allow faculty to have more decision-making power.

Professor of Economics David I. Laibson, who co-authored a letter with Lee Professor of Economics Claudia Goldin asking senior faculty members to support Summers, says that he is optimistic that Summers will change his leadership style.

“It’s already begun to happen that we will see a president who will not only be visionary and effective, but one who will also be collegial and responsive,” Laibson said.

Last Thursday, Summers bowed to pressure from the faculty and released the transcript of his contentious Jan. 14 remarks on women and science.

Others, however, say that such changes will be insufficient, and that only adjustments to Harvard’s governance structure itself can give the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) the increased power and freedom of expression it is demanding.

“The real problem in my opinion is not Summers, per se, but the way power is structured at Harvard,” Professor of Biology and of Geology Charles R. Marshall wrote in an e-mail last week.

Marshall describes Harvard’s leadership structure as “way too top-heavy.”

Professors disagree as to how Harvard Faculty members and administrators can find a middle ground between the “top-down” and “collegial” models that they see as theoretical ideals.

BETWEEN TWO THEORIES

Professors say there are two main models of university governance—a top-down model in which a university is run much like a corporation, and a more collegial model in which the FAS has a greater leadership role.

And in higher education, they say, the recent trend is toward a business-style university.

“What’s happening is a distrust of the old models of university governance because increasingly, in our culture, the only models that are taken as legitimate are those that are business models,” says Joan C. Tronto, professor of political science at Hunter College and chair of the Hunter College Senate.

Tronto adds that the top-down style of university management conflicts with some of the oldest elements of universities.

“The university is a medieval institution, and it’s important to remember that certain kinds of guild thinking make sense,” she says.

Those involved in the current debate about Summers’ leadership echo Tronto’s statement that the top-down governance model is of recent origin.