Dershowitz defends Summers

[ckramer]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Some high-profile professors are rallying to the defense of Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who is under pressure to soften his leadership style.
Law professor Alan Dershowitz, in a statement released late Wednesday, backed Summers' presidency, which has come under fire since Summers suggested innate differences may explain why more men than women excel in math and science.
Dershowitz credited Summers as being more ``open to debate, disagreement, and dialogue'' than any other president in his 41 years at Harvard. He said he disagrees with Summers' recent comments, but defended the right to raise the question.
``This is truly a time of crisis for Harvard,'' he wrote in his statement, reported in the Boston Globe. ``The crisis is over whether a politically correct straightjacket will be placed over the thinking of everybody in this institution by one segment of the faculty.''

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