‘¡Viva el Presidente Summers!’

In other news, a debate between two professors organized to address Larry Summers’ January “flap” about “innate differences” took place on Friday, April 22. Johnstone Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker and Professor of Psychology Elizabeth Spelke engaged in “a showdown of the sexes” to analyze “the data behind University President Lawrence H. Summers’ controversial January comments on women in science.” While The Crimson reports that several audience members thought Spelke “won” the debate with her arguments that discrimination more likely accounts for the under-representation of women in science than does innate gender differences, note that a student “sported a Che-Summers shirt for the event.” The shirts, which say “¡Viva el Presidente Summers!,” are worn by students to declare confidence in their president in response to the “lack of confidence” vote against him last March.