Harvard historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, appears headed to the center of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Science's challenge to President Lawrence Summers. Its elected governing body asked her to take the lead in developing a process for choosing a new dean to succeed William C. Kirby. Last year, the FAS voted no confidence in Summers and it has scheduled an additional no confidence vote for 28 February. But in a move that could be more threatening than the votes of no confidence, the FAS governing body recommends that the search committee consider excluding Summers from participating in the search or halting the search so long as Summers remains in office. Meanwhile, in an interview with the Boston Globe, the former dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Peter T. Ellison, said that"he would not recommend to any colleague that they consider serving as a dean under Summers."
NB: A note from Harvard suggests that Crimson headlines may be misleading.

The AHA has sent letters of protest to the departments of State and Homeland Security to protest the delays of a visa to Waskar Ari, a Georgetown University Ph.D. who is a member of the Aymara people of Bolivia. He taught recently at Western Michigan and published well, but his inability to get a visa has made it impossible for him to take up an appointment at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. AHA officials reject the security claims that have prevented the issuance of his visa.

Emory's historian of the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt, has agreed to be a judge in Israeli cartoonist Amatai Sandy's contest for the best anti-Semitic cartoon by a Jewish cartoonist. Thanks to Daniel Drezner, who's also volunteered to be a judge, for the tip.

"Denny's Comment-Card Archive Offers Glimpse at Decades of Poor, Fair, and Excellent Service," The Onion, 15 February, mocks our foibles. Can you imagine that? Who? Us? Foibles? Fetishes? You gotta be kidding. Thanks to Rebecca Goetz for the tip.

Jonathan Dresner - 2/17/2006

I love Onion stuff, but they can't count to save their lives. 270K comment cards? That's gotta be an order of magnitude off at this point. That said, wouldn't you love to have your hands on that source? I don't know what you'd do with it, exactly, but it'd still be fun.