Steve Trachtenberg's comments on Drew Faust Gilpin's appointment and Harvard's recent announcement re: additional financial assistance to middle income families are hilarious (ironically -- and perhaps, although probably not, intentionally so).....First, the suggestion that Harvard should restrain its charitable (and enlightened competitive) impulses -- or first consult with other institutions -- so as not to discomfit those institutions is ridiculous....Just what one would expect from an individual and an industry which value personal and institutional entrenchment over innovation, demonstrable accomplishment and equal access to learning.....Second, in commenting on Gilpin's appointment, Trachtenberg must be reflecting on his own leadership debut at the University of Hartford. While the institution made zero progress during King Stephen's reign in advancing its academic portfolio, Trachtenberg led the institution into a series of disastrous real estate investments which left the institution -- when he elected to get out of Dodge -- on the brink of financial collapse, saddled with several seriously sub-standard buildings and a grievously underpaid faculty.....That he has so successfully reinvented himself suggests that in recent years he must have gotten something right.....But it's a shame than anyone would consider Trachtenberg -- in fact, an arrogant, pompous gasbag with a checkered performance history -- as a credible commentator on standards for new college presidents.
When the Ivies last got together to discuss pricing and financial aid packages, they got in trouble on anti-trust grounds. It's unlikely that they, or any other institution, will do that again.
By the way, the president of Harvard's name is Drew Gilpin Faust, not Drew Faust Gilpin.
