Harvard Pres. Lawrence Summers isn’t quite off the hook yet; his faculty confronted him yesterday in a no-holds-barred meeting where they expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with his leadership.

Though the concerns voiced went beyond the recent controversy surrounding Summers’ comments on women and science, many still felt that his lack of transparency concerning his remarks was disconcerting:

Several, including Barbara J. Grosz, chairwoman of a new task force on women in science and engineering, called on Dr. Summers to release a transcript of his remarks about science and women. Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology, said, "President Summers appears to be apologizing profusely, yet he refuses to release for honest discussion his actual remarks." The result was that commentators have cast his critics as "unreasonable opponents of academic inquiry and openness," with Harvard "ridiculed as a center of close-minded political correctness."

As Katha Pollitt pointed out recently, “while much was made of MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins walking out of his talk…we heard little about how Summers, who says he only wanted to spark a discussion, has refused to release his remarks. The bold challenger of campus orthodoxy apparently doesn't want the world to know what he actually said.”

In a related story, the presidents of MIT, Princeton University, and Stanford wrote a critical essay on Summers’ remarks, noting that have “speculation that 'innate differences' may be a significant cause of underrepresentation by women in science and engineering may rejuvenate old myths and reinforce negative stereotypes and biases,” and that “the question we must ask as a society is not 'Can women excel in math, science, and engineering?' -- Marie Curie exploded that myth a century ago -- but 'How can we encourage more women with exceptional abilities to pursue careers in these fields?’”