But LaFlamme notes that Summers and his entourage of press officials may be consciously trying to encourage interaction with students in order to rebuild the credibility Summers lost in his dealings with the faculty.

“I have felt that Summers was perhaps more invested in face time with students, which was interesting given his reputation for being anti-democratic and unreceptive,” LaFlamme said. “Time will tell whether the time with Harvard students was an investment with credibility and a PR blitz, or whether Summers was actually receptive to dialogue.”

CULT OF PERSONALITY

This spring, while the tide of Faculty opinion appeared to be against Summers, and some students rose up in protest of Summers’ comments, many students on campus publicly supported the president.

Apart from staging rallies outside of the series of Faculty meetings devoted to the Summers affair, students also took to the web to state their stance on their high-profile leader.

A pro-Summers website, studentsforlarry.org, garnered 647 signatures from students and alumni across all of Harvard’s 10 schools, while an online petition started by the Coalition for an Anti-Sexist Harvard calling for Summers resignation garnered just 114 signatures, including non-Harvard affiliates.

Apart from the “Viva” shirts, students decorated dorm room doors with “Summers Safe Space Stickers” which resembled the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance safe space stickers distributed at the beginning of annual ‘Gaypril’ month.

While no formal vote was taken among undergraduates, students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences voted in a March poll that they had confidence in President Summers.

Isaias N. Chaves ’08, a member of the “Students Supporting Summers” group on thefacebook.com, says that much of the president’s support may stem from students’ perception that Summers was unfairly persecuted by the Faculty this spring, rather than his personal appeal.

“A lot of people thought that branding him as sexist was unfair,” Chaves said. “I’m not sure it’s anything special about Summers himself. I’m not even sure he’s a very charismatic guy; even the students supporting Summers say he’s rough around the edges.”

Groups on thefacebook.com run the gamut of Summers support, from the “Larry Summers Defamation League” to “Students for Summers,” with the more ambiguous “Coalition of Harvard Students for the Exorcism of the Hundreds of Souls Living in Larry Summers” and “Larry Summers is a Douchebag, But I Support Him Anyway” also garnering dozens of members.

THE POLITICIAN

To some students, “Larry” provides comic relief, but to others, he has become a poster child of sorts for free speech.

In the last four years, Summers has spoken out against the presence of military recruiters on campus and against professors who advocated divestment from Israel.

“Just the thought of someone like that not being solely interested in placating the Corporation but advocating particular issues or being able to just suggest controversial things,” Wolf says. “You know that if you listen to President Summers he’s going to engage your mind, your thoughts, your opinions, and that’s so much more interesting that just listening to someone spout equivocations.”