Sunday, September 16, 2007

Silencing Summers   [Stanley Kurtz]

Here’s the latest on the Lawrence Summers UC Davis outrage:

"(UC Regents) Chairman Richard Blum and Dr. Summers talked last Thursday and agreed that the regents would have a different speaker," Trey Davis, director of special projects for the UC system, said today.

Davis was unable to say whether a protest letter signed by more than 300 people from the university system had any effect on the decision to find a different speaker for the regents' dinner in Sacramento Wednesday. He referred those questions to Blum, who is out of the country....

The decision to dump Summers as the speaker at the dinner was abrupt. His name was on the dinner invitation that went out Aug. 31, along with other information about the three-day meeting at UC Davis, Davis said.

"The dinner is an informal, social occasion, with more of a conversation with the speaker than a formal talk," he added. Blum, who is the husband of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, made the original decision to invite Summers.

Susan Kennedy, chief of staff for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will replace Summers as speaker at the dinner.

While delighted that the regents have decided to replace Summers, [Maureen] Stanton [leader of the petition drive to disinvite Summers] now hopes the dispute will be quickly forgotten.

"Frankly, we'd like to see the story just die at this point," she said.

I’ve got news for you, Maureen Stanton. This story will not just die.

09/16 07:19 AMShare