Good Idea--Now Do It

WHEN IT COMES to speaking out, President Bok usually picks his shots carefully. Bok likes to work quietly within the system, aiming to influence national policy, rather than state bold positions on issues of the day. However, in his Annual Report to the Board of Overseers released last week. Bok takes one of those rare shots--in this case against the American legal system and its methods of legal education.

It is difficult to disagree with the thrust of Bok's indictment of the U.S. legal system. He argues correctly that the way this country does its justice is too expensive and too complicated, making the system unjust for those who cannot afford to take advantage of it. Bok's point is not new--in fact, it has been tossed about for more than 15 years--but a public restatement of the argument by the president of Harvard University and former Dean of its Law School, even though somewhat overdue, could reignite the issue with constructive results. It is also encouraging to see Bok, who has kept such a low public profile during his tenure in Massachusetts Hall, speak out publicly any national issue at all--a role he may be starting to play more often, as implied by the report and his speech Wednesday night on the state of the U.S. public school system.

Bok's report calls on American law schools, which have been a major part of the problem, to become a major part of the solution. He decries the fact that too many of the nation's brightest minds go first to law school and places much blame on the schools for not acquainting their charges "with the larger problems that have aroused so much concern within society." Bok correctly suggests that law schools should work more with communities in helping aid low and middle-income citizens and institute programs which would work towards reducing some of the bureaucratic aspects of the law.

But in urging these changes Bok seems to downplay the extent to which Harvard's own Law School must reform and lead the way for others. In praising progressive steps the Law School has already taken, he seems to let Harvard off the hook: its programs are a start, but there is far to go.

Bok's indictments are right on target, but it remains to be seen whether the president will do anything further to prevent them from becoming what one Law professor characterizes as "pious homilies." In an Annual Report four years ago, Bok took a similar philosophic stand on educational issues, urging the Business School to pay more attention to ethics in the curriculum. But while the B-School has made some course' changes since then, Bok's and Harvard's actions in the real world--for instance, regarding the University's holdings in South Africa--have not given watchers any indication that such business ethics are at all important. Bok, it seems, sometimes operates on a "Do as I say, not as I do" principle, and we can only hope his latest proposals will not suffer the same forgotten fate.