Harvard Governing Board Backs University President
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Embattled Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers received a written statement of support from the school's highest governing board, the sole body with the authority to remove him from office.
The endorsement from the Harvard Corporation followed a Tuesday meeting of the faculty of arts and sciences, which passed motions expressing a lack of confidence in his leadership and criticizing his leadership style and recent remarks about women in science.
"The members of the Corporation fully support President Summers in his ongoing efforts to listen thoughtfully to the range of views being expressed by members of the university's faculties and to work collegially and constructively with them to address the important academic matters facing Harvard," wrote James Houghton, senior member of the seven-member board.
Jet Not on Right Frequency In November Crash in Texas
The flight crew of the Gulfstream jet that crashed near Houston Hobby Airport en route to pick up former president George H.W. Bush last November did not have the aircraft set to the correct frequency to line up with the runway, according to documents released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
A cockpit voice recorder transcript reveals the pilot and co-pilot at first boasting about the tough landings they had made in poor weather in the past. But as the plane approached the airport on Nov. 22 in dense fog and moderate turbulence, it was too far left and 500 feet to 1,000 feet below where it should have been to land, investigators found. The pilots believed they had switched to an airport frequency that would help guide the plane to the runway, and did not realize their mistake until it was too late.
The NTSB is not expected to rule until next year on a probable cause of the crash, which killed both pilots and a flight attendant, a spokeswoman said.
• A Boston dermatologist who studies and treats rare skin diseases was indicted on charges of defrauding Medicare of $5.4 million. Abdul Razzaque Ahmed, owner and operator of the Center for Blistering Diseases in Boston, mixed diagnostic blood samples to make it appear that patients had two diseases instead of one so he could falsely claim higher reimbursements from the government, the Boston U.S. attorney's office said in the indictment.
• FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Army Capt. Shawn L. Martin, accused of terrorizing an Iraqi town under his supervision, was convicted of assaulting Iraqis but acquitted of charges stemming from an alleged assault on one of his own soldiers.
• SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Sharron Nicole Redmond, who admitted shooting her two-timing boyfriend, Kevin Shorter, in 2003, was acquitted of murder after saying she acted in self-defense. Shorter was unarmed. Redmond, 23, had been crowned Miss Savannah four months before the killing.
-- From Staff Reports and News Services
