Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Two undergrads walk into the office of the president of an Ivy League school. They’re wearing suits and ties and want to complain about another student.
The president takes a look at the pair and goes, “these guys look like a couple of assholes.”
Not a joke but still pretty funny. Apparently former Harvard University President Larry Summers felt that way about Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss when the two twins that tried to take down Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly screwing them over on the development of Facebook marched into his office back in 2004.
Speaking during an interview at the Brainstorm Tech conference earlier this week, Summers said that “One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities.”
“One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview,” said Summers. “The other is that they are an asshole. This was the latter case.”
Summers took a poke at the Facebook fellows and now they are giving him the thumbs down, claiming that his remark was not limited to just them, “but extends to any undergraduate who chooses a particular form of attire.”
Geez, they even sound the way they dress.
In a letter directed towards current Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust, the Winklevoss brothers voice their complaint against the ex-Pres, apparently, because, uh, they’re sad or something?
“It is deeply disturbing that a professor of this university openly admits to making character judgments of students based on their appearance,” write the twins.
Shame on you, Summers. Everyone knows that is the job for the students in college to do, not the teachers.
“Ironically, our choice of attire that day was made out of respect and deference to the office of the President,” they continue. “As the current President, we respectfully ask for you to address this unprecedented betrayal of the unique relationship between teacher and student.”
Unprecedented betrayal! That’s some Facebook drama that surpasses anything your ex-girlfriend ever published to your wall post-break-up, for sure. Remarking seven years later that a couple of nerds looked like assholes. Geez. What is the private education system coming to when you spend $40,000 a year of daddy’s money to bulk up the résumé and entwine yourself in a pop-culture controversy that you just can’t seem to win.
And speaking of not winning, here is another epic Facebook fail for the Winklevoss kids. Reuters reports today that their second lawsuit against the social network was dismissed by a US District Judge in Boston. The brothers were trying to increase the $65 million settlement that they were awarded for their role in the development of Facebook.
Tyler and Cameron are currently training in hopes to make it to the London 2012 Olympic Games as professional rowers.
If only Summers knew, it’s worth betting that he would have had something to say about the whole “college rower” thing, too.