Harvard likes to think of itself as the best university in the world. People who didn't go there may beg to differ, but this week Harvard proved that it is undoubtedly a world-beater in one discipline: academic back-stabbing. On February 21st Harvard's president, Larry Summers, announced that he is stepping down after just five years in his job, making him the shortest-serving president since Cornelius Felton, who died after two years in office in 1862. Derek Bok, who ran the university in 1971-91, will serve as interim president until a replacement can be found. Mr Summers's abrupt retirement not only raises questions about Harvard's commitment to free speech, given the long-standing jihad against him; it also throws the university's ambitious reform programme into disarray.
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