Bok Defends Tenure Policy During Junior Parent Weekend

The University may soon have trouble attracting scholars because of its complicated procedure for granting tenure, President Bok said Saturday in a Junior Parents Weekend speech.

"Our greatest concern is whether we can continue this system and still get outside scholars," Bok said, adding that Harvard's tenure process often takes up to two years.

Opponents of the University's tenure policy have criticized Harvard for not granting tenure to more junior faculty members in the Social Sciences and Humanities, but Bok defended the current system.

"We try to find the best available teacher-scholar throughout the world" to fill a tenured post, Bok said, adding that the University and students view the hiring policy from different perspectives.

Students are interested in a professor's teaching ability over a short time, but the University looks into the distant future, Bok said.

Young professors who do not show a deep interest in scholarship tend to "burn out" as they get older, Bok said, adding that faculty are not hired merely to teach undergraduates, but also to teach graduate students and do research.

All candidates for tenure must receive the approval of the individual department, the dean of the Faculty, the president and an ad hoc committee of outside scholars and administration officials before they are appointed.

The latricate tenure process is necessary, Bok said, because a candidate's peers will evaluate him critically only if faced with a major decision.

In addition to the tenure system, increasing salaries and stronger local ties pose the greatest obstacles to recruiting outside scholars, Bok said.

Bok's address began a long day of lectures and discussions by the Faculty for the more than 300 families of juniors attending the third Harvard-Radcliffe Junior Parents Weekend.

Thomas E. Crooks '49, director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Parents Association, said the event was held to give the parents a view of the College not involving grades and term bills.

Otto Eckstein, Warburg Professor of Economics, told the parents that the economy will improve during the next four years whether or not President Reagan has any economic policy. The chances are slim that OPEC will raise oil prices as drastically as it has in the last four years, Eckstein said.

Eckstein called Reagan's economic program the most dramatic change in American economic policy since 1933. He said the Reagan administration is "counting on a miracle" to make its policies work, and predicted that Congress will not allow as many tax cuts as the President has requested