News Office Cancels, Then Later Reinstates Monthly News Conferences With President Bok

The News Office this week cancelled President Bok's monthly conferences with University news media, then reinstated them yesterday following a complaint from The Crimson.

Notification of the cancellation came in a letter dated Tuesday from Deane W. Lord, director of the News Office. The letter told publications to "cancel the dates of December 11, January 15, and February 19 for the previously scheduled press conferences with President Bok," but gave no explanation for the move.

Lord said yesterday the News Office has been "thinking for about half a year about finding a better format for the meetings." The conferences now include members of most University publications, and are held on a scheduled, monthly basis.

The cancellation was precipitated partially by The Crimson's failure to appear at Bok's November conference. The Crimson usually asks the majority of the questions at the conference, Lord said. The queries at the November meeting were "pretty diffuse," she added.

Lord said the News Office notified all University publications earlier this fall of the dates for the conferences. But Daniel A. Swanson '74, president of The Crimson, said yesterday that he had not received a printed schedule, and that the only notification of the November meeting had been a telephone call 30 minutes before the conference's scheduled start.

"These conferences take a lot of the president's time," Lord said. "And for the time being we decided to cancel them unless we could work out a better arrangement."

Charles U. Daly, vice president for government and community affairs, said yesterday he had attended the November conference and found it "very boring." He attributed this "probably" to The Crimson's failure to appear.

In the midst of a conversation with The Crimson, Daly asked: "Do you want a conference this afternoon?" Told that The Crimson would like time to prepare, Daly asked, "Okay. How about Monday, 10 a.m.?"

The meeting was moved, later in the afternoon, to Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.--the time of the original conference.

Daly, who oversees the operation of the News Office, said discussion of changing the conferences has centered around whether to "have President Bok [meet with reporters] when he has something important to announce, or continue to do it on a scheduled basis."

He said that opening the meetings to Cambridge and Boston print media also has been considered, but that no decision has been made.

Daly said he feels it is "important that President Bok be available and available on the record."

"We are not trying to shelter him," Daly continued. "He tries to be available within reasonable limits of his time."