Word: bok
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...alum who attended Harvard in the 1970s, I must confess to have gotten a chuckle from some of the descriptions of Derek Bok I’ve read over the past week. Ever since it was announced that Bok would return as interim president, he’s been heralded as a beloved and “universally trusted” figure, to cite one Crimson pullquote. Yet what I remember is that, in our day, we undergrads viewed him as a quintessential “suit”—a remote, conflict-averse administrator who many students...
Looking back at Bok three decades later, however, I see him very differently. In the first news accounts of his return to Mass. Hall, I was amazed to read that he’s only 75 years old. It was a reminder of how young he was—just 41—when he became president in 1971. If you think Harvard is in “crisis” now, it was nothing compared to the mess Bok inherited: a university divided, bitter and exhausted by battles over the Vietnam war, including the infamous decision by his predecessor...
...speeches on Harvard’s official website. But more often it seemed to be unconscious, like the people we all know who keep getting into embarrassing scrapes until you eventually realize that it’s their way of making themselves the center of attention. With Bok, by contrast, you always knew that the institution came first. People may have thought of him as dull, but my guess is that he never minded that as long as Harvard seemed exciting. I don’t think it’s any accident, for instance, that when he retired...
...that should be the case. From what I can tell (mostly from reading The Crimson and talking to my old professors and current undergrads), there’s more consensus around what needs to be done than all the headlines about Harvard In Turmoil would suggest. If Bok can capitalize on his reservoir of personal good will with the faculty and deep knowledge of academic governance to make everyone feel consulted, I think he can take the best of what Summers started—curriculum reform, wider financial aid, more support for international study, and expansion to Allston?...
...involve students or faculty in any official capacity. The committee that selected Summers in 2001 was made up of only nine members, six members of the Harvard Corporation and three members of the Board of Overseers. In 1991, when University President Rudenstine took over the reigns from President Bok, the Corporation had promised that they would make time to consult the Undergraduate Council, the Law School Council, and interested student groups, but this promise never panned out in a substantive...