Council Okays Bok Offer Of Informal Discussion

The Cambridge City Council voted last night to accept President Bok's offer of an informal meeting on Harvard's expansion policies, rejecting a move to compel Bok to testify in public.

The council voted 6-2 in the closing minutes of a three-and-a-half hour meeting to have City Manager James L. Sullivan arrange the meeting between Bok and the councilors. It did not make a final decision on whether to invite the press.

The council also postponed for two weeks a vote on down-zoning a section of the Agassiz neighborhood in which Harvard plans someday to construct dormitories for married students and faculty.

Bok sent a letter to the council last week suggesting an informal meeting after the councilors voted two weeks ago to request him to appear at their next regular meeting.

In voting to accept the offer of an informal meeting, the council rejected the last-minute pleas of Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci that Bok appear in public rather than be treated "like some kind of prince."

Avoid Publicity

Vellucci charged that Bok offered an informal meeting with the councilors only to avoid the unfavorable publicity of a subpoena.

"At 5 p.m. after the story that I would subpoena him appeared," Vellucci said, "a special messenger appeared at my door with the letter from the president."

"Only that shock treatment got the Harvard administrators off their corporate fannies," he said.

Councilor Barbara Ackermann, who introduced a motion to accept Bok's offer, said a subpoena would be an unnecessarily "hostile gesture."

"I would rather meet with President Bok in a friendly and constructive setting," Councilor David A. Wylie said in support of Ackermann's motion. "Let's meet him half way," he added.

Vellucci responded that Bok's refusal to meet in public indicated he had something to hide, and he asked the council to keep the threat of subpoena over Bok to assure a more fruitful informal meeting.

After the council session, three councilors--Wylie, Ackermann and Francis H. Duehay '55--agreed that the press should be invited to the meeting with Bok, but added that the city manager would work out the details with Bok.

The council postponed action on rezoning a section of Agassiz north of the Law School because the city clerk had not asked for opinions from the city solicitor on the legality of the move.

After Vellucci--the crucial sixth vote needed to pass the proposal--indicated he could not vote without the city solitor's opinion, Duehay moved to postpone the vote.

Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for community affairs, sent a letter to the council stating the University's opposition to the proposed down-zoning, but added that Harvard would agree to a less severe rezoning.

Until the postponement, nearly 100 residents on the Agassiz neighborhood waited in the meeting hall while the councilors held a two-hour hearing on the need for increased police protection in Cambridge.

The police captain on duty testified that 13 foot patrolmen and ten police cars were protecting the 100,000 residents of Cambridge last night