Bok Turns Down Invitation

President Bok may have further antagonized the Cambridge community this week by rejecting a city council request that he testify on Harvard's expansion policies.

Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci responded to Bok's reply with a fiery threat to have the president subpoenaed by the council. "If he does not appear in response to the subpoena, he can be held in contempt and go to jail," Vellucci warned.

Five of the nine councilors, however, have already indicated that they will vote against Vellucci's subpoena motion, and will instead accept Bok's offer to meet informally with the council.

In his reply, Bok rejected the council's request that he not send Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for community affairs, to respond to the motion. Moulton is "fully prepared and qualified" to explain the University's expansion policies, Bok said.

"That man Bok has to be made to testify," councilor Saundra Graham said last week. "He can't just send his honchos like Moulton and avoid answering embarrassing questions about what Harvard wants to do with its land."

The council voted two weeks ago to ask Bok to come before the council after Moulton told the council that Harvard was opposed to the rezoning of the Agassiz neighborhood to exclude high-rise construction.

Moulton's one-sentence testimony prompted boos and hisses from the 100 Agassiz residents who attended the meeting.

When pressed by several councilors for an explanation, Moulton said the University favored a community "design review" approach rather than inflexible zoning regulations.

The final vote on the rezoning proposal is scheduled for this Monday.

At the last city council meeting, Vellucci publicly bet Crimson reporters $4 that Bok would not appear before the council. Harvard this week put the odds slightly more in his favor.