Student Input? No Thanks

President Bok this week dashed the hopes of Law School students who had asked for a formal role in the selection of their new dean, leaving them with the only option they've had all along--writing letters.

At a private meeting with student leaders last Wednesday, Bok rejected requests for student input, including the Board of Student Advisers' for a student committee that would nominate and interview candidates for the post.

Bok yesterday explained that the board's proposal--or any other which gave students a say in the final selection of a successor to Dean Albert M. Sacks--was unacceptable because some good candidates would refuse to be considered if they had to undergo student interviews. "I am unwilling to lose someone simply because I had to say, 'We want you, but you have to be interviewed by students first,' " Bok said.

Bok also said he is "distrustful of interviews" because some people don't perform well in them and added, "I know [the candidates] so much better than anyone would get to know in an interview."

Ted Howard, board director, said this week that if Bok is "serious about having student input, he must recognize that the student body has as much interest as anyone in who the next dean is."

But when, at last week's meeting, Bok reiterated his month-old invitation to students to write him with their opinions on possible candidates, the students said they didn't know who the candidates were. Bok suggestively countered that "as a matter of common sense, it should be pretty easy to deduce who on the faculty would be the logical candidates."

Although Bok insists he has not ruled out outside candidates, he noted at the meeting the tradition of picking Law School insiders for the job--intimating that there's little chance the next dean will not come from the ranks of the present faculty.

Students should know whom to write about--the group of "logical" or "obvious" choices includes James Vorenberg, associate dean; Frank 1. Michelman, head of the year-old committee on curriculum reform; Charles R. Nesson, associate dean; Abram J. Chayes, head of the placement committee; and Jerome A. Cohen, associate dean.

With Bok's decision, law students will have to return to writing letters, and hope Bok pays attention to them. As Marjorie president of the Law School Council, said after the meeting, "We are not going to get the input we wanted. Basically, the decision will be left to Bok." But students are not completely left out of the decision; as another student said, "I doubt Bok will choose a person he has gotten bad letters about."

Bok yesterday explained that the board's proposal--or any other which gave students a say in the final selection of a successor to Dean Albert M. Sacks--was unacceptable because some good candidates would refuse to be considered if they had to undergo student interviews. "I am unwilling to lose someone simply because I had to say, 'We want you, but you have to be interviewed by students first,' " Bok said.

Bok also said he is "distrustful of interviews" because some people don't perform well in them and added, "I know [the candidates] so much better than anyone would get to know in an interview."

Ted Howard, board director, said this week that if Bok is "serious about having student input, he must recognize that the student body has as much interest as anyone in who the next dean is."

But when, at last week's meeting, Bok reiterated his month-old invitation to students to write him with their opinions on possible candidates, the students said they didn't know who the candidates were. Bok suggestively countered that "as a matter of common sense, it should be pretty easy to deduce who on the faculty would be the logical candidates."

Although Bok insists he has not ruled out outside candidates, he noted at the meeting the tradition of picking Law School insiders for the job--intimating that there's little chance the next dean will not come from the ranks of the present faculty.

Students should know whom to write about--the group of "logical" or "obvious" choices includes James Vorenberg, associate dean; Frank 1. Michelman, head of the year-old committee on curriculum reform; Charles R. Nesson, associate dean; Abram J. Chayes, head of the placement committee; and Jerome A. Cohen, associate dean.

With Bok's decision, law students will have to return to writing letters, and hope Bok pays attention to them. As Marjorie president of the Law School Council, said after the meeting, "We are not going to get the input we wanted. Basically, the decision will be left to Bok." But students are not completely left out of the decision; as another student said, "I doubt Bok will choose a person he has gotten bad letters about."