Games and Fun at Harvard

Harvard president Lawrence Summers was only trying to be logical when he observed during a January 14th speech that the reason so few women hold senior academic positions in math and science could be that they value family over long hours. But his suggestion that innate brain differences might also explain the career gap was enough to send feministas over the edge.

MIT professor Nancy Hopkins told the Boston Globe that she actually had to leave the Summers lecture or she would have “blacked out or thrown up.”

Summers’s comments, labeled an “intellectual tsunami” in politically correct circles, caused such a ruckus that the prez eventually had to do a “mea culpa” before a group of female professors.

Missing from the outraged reactions were some inconvenient facts. John Ray of Political Correctness Watch noted that after two decades of feminism, women are not only staying away from fields like math, engineering and science, but many are openly admitting their dissatisfaction with juggling career and family – and opting to be stay-at-home moms.

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Have the “powers that be” at Harvard decided that the school needed an image makeover? Or were they just sold a bill of goods?

Whatever the reason, Harvard recently deemed it necessary to help stressed out students unwind by hiring its first-ever “fun czar” – and the newbie appears to be well qualified for the post.

His name is Zac Corker, and he is described by his alma mater as a “creative schemer,” who protected students’ “rights to party” during his undergrad years from his website at www.hahvahdparties.com.

While some at Harvard claim that overworked students need help that Corker will provide to navigate the bureaucracy and set up social events, others question the need for such frivolity at a campus where two dozen fans at a recent Harvard-Yale football game were hospitalized for taking part in what the school paper called a “Bacchanalia.”

The Boston Herald reported Corker’s new job as follows: “Bluto hired by Harvard: Boozing bozo gets university ‘Fun Czar’ gig.” Herald reporters noted that as an undergrad, Corker “put together a suds-soaked party that was busted by police…and that his website is loaded with partying and hangover tips.”

When asked about the new appointment, a Yale spokeswoman said that such a position does not exist at Yale, because “students here already know how to have fun.”

Naysayers, take note: Corker’s current stint comes to a screeching halt in the next several months, when he’s slated to join the Peace Corps.