Bok Calls Education His Greatest Concern

President Bok told the Faculty of Arts and Sciences yesterday that he hopes his early emphasis on administrative reform will allow him to dedicate his principal efforts in the future to "the process of education in the fullest sense."

After explaining briefly his new administrative system, Bok spent most of the speech revealing his "elementary convictions" about undergraduate and graduate education, and faculty research. He concluded that "the ends of education are among the most attractive in a flawed and highly ambiguous world" and that the University is a place "where the opportunities to be fully challenged and to do more good than harm are so much brighter than elsewhere."

More than 500 Faculty members arrived at Sanders Theatre for the first Faculty meeting of the year. Bok's speech was the only major item on the agenda.

Cracked Concrete

Though the speech was far from a sppcific platform for educational reform, a few hints of concrete suggestions and presidential prejudices were sprinkled among the generalities. Most of these had to do with education in the College, which Bok called his greatest concern.

Bok said he favors increased autonomy of the Houses in the educational process, "especially in the field of independent study, tutorials, and House seminars." He also suggested that "perhaps our Houses have grown too uniform" and that they might be allowed to decide for themselves questions of resource allocation and "whether they wish to attract particular types of students and faculty interested in particular types of things."

Bok promised to try to set up a fund for "modest grants" to help defray the start-up costs of experimental courses.

The president twice made reference to the need for teaching fellows better trained in the skills of teaching itself. Bok said over 90 per cent of TF's at Harvard receive no formal training for or evaluation of their teaching chores. He suggested that departments should offer basic courses in teaching skills to their graduate students, and that senior Faculty members should meet weekly with their course staffs. Later he reminded department chairman that the Faculty rules for appointments require "qualifications for both teaching and research."

Bok said he also hopes to increase educational opportunities for alumni. "There is much to be done with our alumni besides dunning them for gifts. New technology will also allow us to bring education to many more alumni than we could accomodate if we were forced to house them all in Cambridge."

The president hinted that he might temper Harvard's traditional caution toward undergraduate education in the arts, especially the performing arts. "The prospect of more leisure time suggests a need to re-examine how the College can best cultivate a talent for the arts, both as participant and observer," Bok said.

At several points in his speech, Bok also tempered the impression that there isn't anything he doesn't like.

In rejecting the idea of a "grand commission" to study undergraduate education, Bok said, "Large new ideas do not often come from committees."

Bok took a pot-shot at the Cambridge-Washington circuit, saying that the University's contribution to society will come through socially relevant research and "not through trying to exert political pressure or writing speeches for candidates or advising men in important public positions."

The president revealed a skepticism toward quick and easy educational reform. "The world of higher education is alive with huckstered experiments of the most dubious kind--tinseled efforts to convince students, faculty, and foundation heads that the institution is alive and relevant," he said. "We must not fall prey to delusions of this sort."

In attempting to improve undergraduate education, Bok said, Harvard must remain receptive to new ideas, including those from other institutions, and consider structural reform to implement them. The University also must increase its efforts, he said, in "advising students about their educational programs."

In the area of graduate education, Bok said his main concern--beyond that of teaching scholars to teach--was to reduce the drop-out rate among grad students. Excess attrition, he said, "wastes fellowship money that we can no longer afford and, much more important, it squanders years of people's lives."

Cherished Prerogatives

Bok was careful in his speech not to trample on any cherished Faculty prerogatives. Before discussing his educational ideas, he assured his audience that he didn't "mean to slight the value of research or underestimate its importance." He assured them that "Harvard students overwhelmingly refer to books as their primary source of education."

In discussing his enlarged staff, his reform ideas, and his educational philosophy, the President reminded the Faculty, as if reminder was necessary, that the ultimate power lay with them.

Though the Faculty reception to his presence and his speech was warm, Bok was clearly nervous in presiding over his first meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Presenting plaques for the Harvard University Press Faculty Prizes to Simon Kuznets, Baker Professor of Economics, and Wilbur K. Jordan, Williams Professor of History and Political Science, Bok got the two gentlemen confused. The Professors each exchanged handshakes with the President, then sat down and exchanged plaques with each other