THE president of Harvard University is under attack from his academic colleagues that could force him from his job after he suggested that women may be not as good as men at mathematics and science.

Lawrence Summers, who was Treasury Secretary to President Clinton, was buffeted by complaints about his leadership at an angry faculty meeting on Tuesday and could face a confidence vote next week.

Many professors at the Ivy League school were outraged by Dr Summers’s suggestion, at an academic seminar last month, that “innate differences” may be the reason why fewer women than men teach mathematics and science there.

More than 250 professors crowded University Hall on Tuesday for what old hands described as the most heated staff meeting since the Vietnam War. It was closed to the press except for The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, and professors recounted their remarks to reporters outside.

“Many of your faculty are dismayed and alienated and demoralised. There is a legitimation crisis concerning your leadership and style of governance,” Arthur Kleinman, chairman of the anthropology department, told Dr Summers.

“I have heard several outstanding colleagues say it is time to leave Harvard. I don’t believe that, but I fear others do,” Professor Kleinman said. “I ask you then to think hard about how who you are as president has taken us to this dangerous moment.”

Dr Summers, a former World Bank economist known for his blunt manner, has said that the comments were made “in the spirit of academic inquiry” to underscore the need for further research.

According to the Crimson, he began the meeting by reiterating that he regretted his remarks. “I deserve much of the criticism that has come my way,” he said. “If I could turn back the clock, I would have said and done things very differently.” He cited his creation of two task forces on hiring female professors as proof of his commitment to improving the status of women at Harvard.

But several faculty members won applause when they attacked Dr Summers’s record since he become Harvard president in 2001.

Some professors called on their boss to release a full transcript of his controversial remarks at the National Bureau for Economic Research seminar on January 14, and alluded to unconfirmed rumours that Dr Summers also raised questions about differences among the races.

“I do not want to believe this allegation is true,” Professor Kleinman said. “But you need to release the full transcript of your talk so we can understand just what you think and how broad your biases are.”

The attack widened to include criticism of what was described as Dr Summers’s autocratic management style, accusing him of intimidating colleagues, tarnishing the Harvard name, and abusing his power.

Even before his recent remarks, many faculty were angered by the university president’s public clash with the African-American Studies professor Cornel West, who defected to Princeton in 2002 after Dr Summers criticised him for recording a rap CD and joining a political campaign for the black activist Rev Al Sharpton.

Some staff were unhappy with Dr Summers’s attitude to hiring women and had met him to discuss a sharp fall in offers of tenure to female academics since he became president.

Everett Mendelsohn, the history of science professor who proposed that a special faculty meeting be held next Tuesday, said that staff could hold a vote of confidence in Dr Summers at that time or demand that he change his approach.

FOOT IN MOUTH

August 2004: angered colleagues when he said that he viewed calls to raise Harvard’s faculty retirement age “with terror”

Times recommends

• Oxford moves towards going private
• Poorer pupils to get elite university places
• University black hole as applicants surge