Poll on Summers finds faculty mixed

A poll of professors in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, conducted by the student newspaper, found considerable dissatisfaction with President Lawrence H. Summers but little support for his resignation.

Fifty-two percent of the professors polled said they disapprove of Summers's leadership of the university, while 40 percent said they approved and 8 percent said they did not know.

But a lower percentage, 32 percent, said they thought Summers should resign, compared with 55 percent who said he should not, and 13 percent who said they did not know, according to the poll published in The Harvard Crimson today and posted on the newspaper's website last night.

The Crimson reported that the newspaper contacted all 683 faculty members listed in the online course catalogue for Arts and Sciences, the largest of Harvard's 10 schools, and 283 responded either via e-mail or over the phone. Other schools were not polled.

Professors were guaranteed anonymity, but the Crimson reported that some critics of Summers said they were reluctant to respond for fear of retribution.

Polling specialists told the Crimson that their poll was imperfect but not invalid, because the respondents were self-selecting.

Faculty members were asked, "if a confidence vote in Summers was held today, how would you vote?" Half of the respondents said they would vote "confidence," 38 percent said they would vote "no confidence," and 12 percent said they did not know.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting this afternoon. A vote of no confidence is not expected.

At Yale, more than 100 female scientists have signed a petition criticizing the university's president, Richard C. Levin, for not commenting publicly on Summers's remarks on women in science, the Associated Press reported. Summers said women might not have the same "intrinsic aptitude" as men in science and math.