“Skocpol will divide the department,” said then-professor of sociology Ezra Vogel. “Wherever she has been, there’s always been conflict.”

According to Waters, most of Skocpol’s opposition came from the same individuals who had initially rebuffed her. “When she came back to the sociology department it was very hard for her,” says Waters, who arrived on campus that year. “The people who had voted against her still here weren’t very nice or friendly…and she was only woman in department—she had to really establish herself.”

Skocpol only added fuel to the fire when she began publicly decrying Harvard’s treatment of her, such as when, in a speech to the American Sociological Society, she called Harvard “the most arrogant university in the Western World.”

LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

But Waters says there may be other reasons for Skocpol’s interest in Harvard’s current conflict. Despite Skocpol’s criticisms, she cares very deeply about the institution and her tendency to get caught up in its affairs is a reflection of her desire to help avoid tension and hostility like that which surrounded her tenure experience, Waters says.

“I think she’s very interested in great relationships with colleagues, in working things out,” says Waters. “With the whole Summers thing, she wants to keep communication open.”

And Skocpol—who has written eight books and edited eight volumes on comparative and American politics to date, participated in policy discussions with former President Clinton, and currently leads the Social Science History Association as president—has emphasized the importance of communication and compromise in her involvement in recent Faculty meetings.

In her remarks at the first meeting, she stressed that “we as a Faculty must talk among ourselves…and do much more to find solutions.”

Skocpol says that the purpose of the proposed three-person mediation committee “wasn’t so much mediation,” but “to familiarize ourselves with the concerns of the deans and faculty…which would certainly not get sorted out in those giant [Faculty] meetings.”

Although the committee—comprised of Skocpol, former Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, and Pforzheimer University Professor Sid Verba ’53—was rejected by the majority of the Faculty for being “undemocratic and prearranged,” Skocpol says professors did not listen to a full explanation.

“I think more people would have liked it if we had a chance to explain it,” she says. “We weren’t going to substitute for faculty council activities.”

Verba, on the other hand, now says that even he was unsure of the committee’s function.

“In retrospect, I think mistakenly, we thought we could play a moderating role between various factions, [but] we had no particular authority,” he says. “I’m glad we gave it a try but was relieved because I wasn’t 100 percent sure what we were going to do.”

While Knowles, as former dean of the Faculty, and Verba, as director of the University Library, have worked with Summers more closely, Skocpol says she has a good relationship with the president.

“My relationship with Larry Summers has always been mutually respectful and a relationship in which there is vigorous discussion back and forth,” Skocpol says.