From Cornel West to Remarks About Women in Science, a Look at Larry Summers’ Past Controversies

By Victoria McGrane Globe Staff

November 18, 2025, 3:02 p.m.

Former Harvard president Larry Summers is under fire over his email correspondence with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with at least one US Senator calling for Harvard to cut ties with him and Summers himself pledging to step back from his public commitments in the wake of emails between the late financier and his associates recently released by Congress.

While Summers’ relationship with Epstein, who was convicted in Florida in 2008 of solicitation and died in custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges, is dominating headlines now, Summers has found himself embroiled in other controversies over his career.

Here is a brief history of other controversies surrounding Summers:

Cornel West

In 2002, celebrity scholar and progressive political activist Cornel West left Harvard for Princeton University. West pointed to an October 2001 meeting with Summers, just months into his tenure as Harvard president, as the cause. In the meeting, according to West, Summers castigated West on some of the professor’s recent activities, including describing West’s rap CD as an embarrassment.

As a 2006 Globe story described, “Summers’s dispute with West in 2001 produced the first major controversy of his presidency, giving him a reputation among campus critics as a bully whose approach to leadership favored attack over persuasion.” It also dealt a blow to African American studies at Harvard, as other faculty followed West out the door.

Comments about women in science

In 2005, Summers sparked outrage with comments he made at an academic conference in which he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers apologized, though also said his comments were misunderstood. In March of 2005, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a vote of no confidence against Summers. He ultimately resigned as president in February 2006.

Federal Reserve chairman bid

In 2013, Summers was considered the front-runner to be then President Obama’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve. Yet a Summers pick faced significant opposition within the Democratic Party, including from those who bristled at the economist’s “sometimes brusque demeanor and his role in deregulating markets,” the Globe reported at the time.

Among the Democrats expected to oppose his nomination on a key Senate committee was Elizabeth Warren, who already had a history with Summers stretching back to her push to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 financial crisis. It was moderate Democrat Jon Tester of Montana, however, who dealt the killing blow when he publicly declared his opposition. Summers withdrew his name from consideration and Obama went on to nominate Janet Yellen to be the first woman to serve as Fed chair, and whom Warren and many other Democrats had initially urged him to choose.

Israel-Hamas war

Summers, who is Jewish, was among the first to publicly attack Harvard for its silence after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. “In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” he posted on X.

The flood of criticism Summers participated in prompted Harvard’s first Black president, Claudine Gay, to resign in January 2024.

Read more about Summers role in the antisemitism at Harvard debate here.

Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.

Victoria McGrane can be reached at victoria.mcgrane@globe.com. Follow her @vgmac.