Behind the Scenes, Bok Readies for His Role as Interim President

Derek C. Bok has kept a low profile since the Harvard Corporation appointed him in February to take the reins of the University after Lawrence H. Summers steps down next month. But Harvard’s once and future president is busy familiarizing himself with the job that he left 15 years ago.

“I don’t have the feeling I’m part time,” Bok said in an interview Monday night.

In the past three months, Bok has met with top Harvard officials, deans, and faculty members in an effort to reacquaint himself with the University, which he led from 1971 to 1991.

As Bok prepares to move into the President’s Office, he suggested Monday that curricular reform may be a high priority during his tenure.

Bok, 76, said that “the odds are very high” that he will serve as interim president for just one year, meaning that a new president could be moving into Massachusetts Hall on July 1, 2007.

“I don’t want to cross any bridges before I reach them, but at my age I think anything more than a year would be really quite exceptional,” he said.

Bok also said that the Corporation—the University’s top governing body, whose members are charged with electing the president—may name the University’s new chief as early as January or as late as April.

“The Corporation has always been able to decide on the appropriate person well before the year is up,” he added. “I don’t have any inside information, but, based on what’s gone on in the past, it’s not unlikely that a new president will be identified and the name made public by February of next year.”

And although he did not mention many specific goals for the year ahead, Bok did say that he aims to push the Faculty to reform Harvard’s undergraduate curriculum, continuing the review launched three-and-a-half years ago.

“I’d like to make sure that we get a process going over the summer on the curricular review so that, when the fall comes, the Faculty will be ready with some thoughtful proposals, and they will begin to consider with an eye to passing judgment on them in the course of the academic year,” he said.

KNOWING KNOWLES

Bok said that the search for Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby’s replacement—which ended Monday when Bok named Jeremy R. Knowles interim dean—has been “perhaps the most time-consuming thing I’ve been involved in” since February.

According to Bok, he held six meetings, each lasting at least two hours, with a 10-member faculty advisory committee over the past month and a half.

“They were very helpful because they were able to greatly expand the range of contacts and suggestions that I had,” Bok said of the professors on the committee. “We talked frankly about candidates.”

The committee’s members have kept their discussions with Bok private. All 10 either declined to comment or did not return requests for comment yesterday.

“I was delighted that the confidentiality of its work was maintained until the decision was announced,” Coolidge Professor of History David Blackbourn said of the committee, “and I think it’s best that it remain that way.”

Bok said that he talked to the Corporation and Summers “at the end” of the search process.

Summers said in an interview yesterday that he “was not consulted” in Bok’s deliberations. In an April 12 interview, he told The Crimson that he had been “in frequent touch” with Bok, but said only that they had “discussed a whole range of issues at the University.”

He would not comment on Knowles’ appointment.

Bok said that he consulted a “large number of individual faculty members” before making his decision. The student advisory committees, he added, played a relatively small role in identifying candidates for the deanship, but helped him understand which issues are currently on students’ minds.

MAKING THE TRANSITION

Now that Bok has completed the dean search, he intends to focus his energies on preparing for his upcoming term, set to begin July 1.

“There’s a lot that I still need to learn about Harvard. There’s a lot of people I still need to talk to,” he said.

Bok has met with many—but not all—of Harvard’s top administrators.

Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 wrote in an e-mail this month that he and Bok “speak frequently about curricular and College issues.” Kirby, who is slated to step down at the end of June, said last week that “it’s quite natural that I will have regular conversations with him.”

Some top deans of Harvard’s other schools, including Business School Dean Jay O. Light and Medical School Dean Joseph B. Martin, have met with Bok in the past few months. But Law School Dean Elena Kagan, for example, said last week that while she had spoken with Bok, the two had not met since his appointment.

Bok has also taken care to sit down with officials in Harvard’s financial and almuni development offices, including President and CEO of Harvard Management Company Mohamed A. El-Erian as well as Donella M. Rapier, Harvard’s vice president for alumni affairs and development.

Bok also chatted over lunch with David Rockefeller ’36 at a reception with the longtime Harvard benefactor earlier this month.

Christopher M. Gordon, chief operating officer for Harvard’s Allston development, said he had also met with Bok recently.

On Monday, Bok stressed the importance of using the months before he takes office, as well as the summertime, to set priorities for the year ahead.

“The summer is always a wonderful time to plan for the ensuing year,” Bok explained. If you don’t plan then, you tend to be a captive of the problems that other people give you.”

In late March, Bok moved into an office in Loeb House, the building that houses the Office of Governing Boards. He will move into the President’s Office in Massachusetts Hall after Summers’ term ends on June 30.

Bok said he does not yet know what he will do first when he begins his term.

“I’m going to sit down behind the desk. After that, I’m not quite sure,” he said.

—Paras D. Bhayani, Nicholas M. Ciarelli, Javier C. Hernandez, Evan H. Jacobs, Natalie I. Sherman, Anton S. Troianovski, and Ying Wang contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.