14 Harvard University You might have heard that its president, Lawrence Summers, gave a speech last month at a conference on women and science. Mister Summers is an economist. He discussed possible reasons for the small number of women in top jobs in science and mathematics. He suggested that biological differences between men and women might play a part that should be studied further. He meant his comments to incite debate. It worked. Critics pointed to the history of unfair treatment of women in science and at top schools like Harvard. In the past, Harvard students were all white males. There is some dispute over what he said exactly; no recordings have been released. But Moister Summers has made apologies. In one message, he said: “I do not believe that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science.” Last week Harvard created the Task Force on women faculty. Another is called the Task Force on women in Science and engineering. The university says both new committees will develop proposals to reduce barriers to success. Ideas are expected by May, so steps can begin in the next school year. Harvard also plans to appoint a top administrator who will try for more female professors. In the beginning, in sixteen thirty-six, Harvard had one teacher and nine students. The area around Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, was an English colony then. The school is named for a Puritan religious leader, John Harvard. He gave the college all his books and half his property when he died. Today Harvard has almost twenty thousand undergraduate and graduate students. More than three thousand are from outside the United States, mostly Asia and Europe. Foreign students also can receive financial aid. One year at Harvard costs more than thirty-seven thousand dollars. (309 words) 哈佛大学 你可能听过哈佛校长劳伦斯．萨默斯上个月在一个关于女性和科学的会议上的演讲。萨默斯校长是一位经济学家。他论述了在科学和数学领域的高端职位中女性数量很少的几种可能的原因。他讲到，男女在生理上的差异可能起着重要的作用，这一点有待深入研究。 他说他的意见会引起争论。事实的确如此。 批评家指出，在历史上，科学界和像哈佛这样的一流名校对待女性一直就不公平。过去，哈佛的学生都是白人男性。 对于他的具体说辞人们还有一些争论，也没有什么音像资料可以佐证。但是萨默斯先生已经道歉了。在一则消息中，他说：“我不认为女性在智力上比男性差，或者女性没有能力在科学的最高层次上取得成功。” 上周，哈佛专门成立了一个女教师特别工作组。还有一个工作组叫科学和工程领域的女性特别工作组。学校称，这两个新委员会将提出一些建议，来减少女性在走向成功过程中的障碍。预计5月之前会有一些结果，这样就能在下一个学年里有所行动了。哈佛还计划任命一名高级管理人员，来尝试招聘更多的女教授。 起初，在1636年，哈佛只有一个老师和九个学生。校址在马萨诸塞州波士顿附近的剑桥，当时那里是英国的殖民地。这所学校是以一个清教徒领袖约翰．哈佛的名字命名的。他去世时将自己所有的书和一半的财产都捐给了这个学校。 今天，哈佛大约有两万名本科生和研究生。其中有三千多名学生来自国外，大多数来自亚洲和欧洲。留学生也能得到经济资助。在哈佛学习一年大约需要三万七千美元。 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/8493754edeccda38376baf1ffc4ffe473368fd8e.html