A Study On The Conflict Of Summers' Governance In Harvard University

The contradiction and conflict between the administrative power and academic power in colleges and universities have existed since the producing of the two kinds of power.The contradiction and conflict between the two kinds of power are also a common topic.As a kind of flexible power,the content of academic power is clear but its boundary is blurry,and it usually produces friction and conflict with the administrative power in actual operation.Both of them are looking for a balance in the dynamic constantly.In the current academic research on this issue,we mainly focus on the method level of speculative research and comparative research,which is mainly focused on speculative research among them.It lacks of the real cases as the carrier although it is profound.So it is difficult to find out the mechanism of contradiction and conflict in the course of the actual operation of the two powers.And it is also difficult to explore the causes of deep conflict.Therefore,this paper chooses Harvard University's 27 th president,Summers,as a case,and analyzes the mechanism of contradiction and conflict between the two kinds of power in the actual operation and the deep reason.Case analysis is more specific,clear and it can explore a lot of details and special phenomena which the pure theoretical discerning literature ignored.This paper is divided into four parts,as follows:The first part analyzes the power structure of internal governance in Harvard University,which including administrative power,academic power and their operation mechanism.The second part analyzes the contradiction and conflict between administrative power and individual academic power.Representatives of such conflicts are "Black Professor West Event" and "Anti-Semitic Speech".The focus of the conflict includes the limits of the assessment of the course performance,the limits of the free choice of research content and the presentation of the findings,and the principals' public statements on social issues.The third part analyzes the contradiction and conflict between administrative power and organizational academic power.The representatives of this type of conflicts are "principals cut down the rights of grassroots institutions","principals recruit politicians into the Harvard management system","principals conduct a strong curriculum reform." The focus of the conflict consists of the decentralization of the principal and the bureaucratic style of the principal.The fourth part analyzes the conflict mechanism between administrative power,individual academic power and organizational academic power in colleges and universities.The focus of the conflict lies mainly in the necessity of academic power,the necessity of academic freedom,the limits of academic freedom and administrative power,and the role of university presidents.Factors that affect conflict include culture,personality,interests,external opinion,politics,social expectations and so on.