zlacker

The faculty got him out because he riled them, e.g. by insisting they ought to actually put effort into teaching undergrads. They looked for a pretext, and they found it.

Just like in that Oppenheimer movie. A sanctimonious witch hunt serving as pretext for a personal vendetta.

(Note that Summers is, I'm told, on a personal level, a dick. The popular depiction is not that wrong on that point. But he's the right pick for this job -- see my other comments in this thread.)