Coming attractions

I’m following the story of Cool Hand Larry Summers and his Harvard faculty wardens through the work of Rick Richman of the Jewish Current Issues blog. Rick’s latest installment notes the pushback within Harvard to the efforts of the wardens: “Veritas in education, part III.” Rick emails: “I think this coming Tuesday [emergency meeting of the faculty] will be an important moment in academic history (even if it is only more speeches without an actual vote).”
Several Harvard students have stepped forward to lend some mature advice to the faculty. Thursday’s Harvard Crimson ran a triple-bylined column asking the gathering faculty mob to break up: “Staff dissent: Mobbing Summer.” Friday’s Harvard Crimson ran a similarly good student column by Stephen Stromberg: “Next stop, no confidence.”
What does Summers’s old Treasury boss Robert Rubin say? Bloomberg News reports that Rubin has chosen the path of the townmen in “High Noon” and hightailed it: “Summers Harvard faculty vote fails to get response from Rubin.” I apologize for mixing my movie metaphors, but I believe that makes next Tuesday the appointed hour when the man who was too proud to run will face down Frank Miller. Stay tuned.