Word: bok
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Outside the Harvard gates and the sheltered ivy-covered buildings, lies Reality, in the shape of "Questionable" donors and unethical corporations, inflation and money worries. And heroically balancing all three, taking the heat from the id, the guilt trip from the superego, the pressure and threats of reality, are Bok and his assistant wise-men, valiantly trying to do the best they can for the interests of the University...
...dangerous and unacceptable. University administrators are supposed to take the day-to-day tasks off the hands of the faculty and students, who will then have time to pursue their intellectual endeavors; the administration is to rule only by the consent of those it is supposed to serve. Instead, Bok's logic--clearly evinced by his refusal to respond to the stock divestiture issue--gives the administration and Corporation a free hand to rule in what they decide is in the general interest, even if many concerned members of the University disagree. Bok answers...
...which gifts will be rejected. The most obvious condition, he states, is when a donor "improperly restricts" academic freedom by insisting on choosing who shall be appointed to his endowed chair, or what sorts of doctrines his money shall be used to support. Harvard rejects donations of that sort, Bok says. If a donor wished to "promote the value of the free market," for instance, the money would be turned down. Curiously enough, the University's proposal for the ARCO Forum said something like it was for "the encouragement of the free energy, free enterprise system...
...next category considered is titled, rather ominously, "Controversial Donors." These are people "who are said to have earned then money by immoral means or to have acted in ways that conflict with strongly held values in the community." Bok notes that Harvard has historically taken such money and looked the other way, which presumably is an argument for Harvard continuing to do so. Besides, if Harvard were to refuse one such gift, he implies, it would have to consider doing the same to all unsavory gifts, and if it took one and not another, it would commit the great...
...What Bok calls "tainted money" can do a lot of good, admittedly, and it would be hard to argue that the University shouldn't take money from anyone of lesser moral standards than Harvard itself. Bok draws the line at accepting stolen goods, however. The only thing Bok overlooks is that there are plenty of legal ways to steal a fortune...