On Technology Transfer

...many forms of technology transfer not only benefit the economy but offer opportunities to the university for new sources of income... The dangers of technology transfer to the quality of academic science are equally clear. They are four in number. First of all, the prosepect of reaping financial rewards may subtly influence professors in choosing which problems they wish to investigate... The second concern is that professors may be diverted from any form of research (and teaching) in order to perform other tasks involved in the process of technological development... The third danger is the risk of introducing secrecy into the process of scientific research... The fourth and final danger is a threat to the quality of leadership and ultimately to the state of morale within the scientific enterprise. As we have already noted, the traditional ideal of science was based on a disinterested search for knowledge without ulterior motives of any kind. --Annual Report for 1979-80, April 1981 On "The Federal Government and the University"

Because higher education has become so centra' to our culture, government is more and more inclined to intervene in order to make certain that our colleges and universities serve the public well. Yet we know that government can easily clasp education in a deadly embrace that stifles its creativity and vigor...   --Public Interest, Winter 1980

Affirmative Action in Admissions of Undergraduates:

The opportunities for minority students to contribute to the understanding of their fellow students and to the welfare of society as a whole seem sufficiently important to us to justify an effort to enroll a significant number of applicants from these racial groups. This policy leads us to admit some minority students with prior grades and test socres somewhat below those of other applicants whome we must run aside... This does not mean that we should admit persons who are not well qualified to meet our academic standards, nor does it mean that we should fix some predetermined goal or quota for minority students or for any other category or group. All applicants must be evaluated as individuals, and attention must be paid in each case to all of the characteristics and qualities that relate to our educational goals. In making these assessments, however, we cannot rely exclusively on prior grades and test scores, since these criteria clearly fail to provide a sufficiently reliable or comprehensive means of helping us to achieve our objectives.   --Open letter, February 27, 1981

On "Reverse Discrimination":

Question:

If you pick out a student and give him preference because he is a member of a racial minority, would you be willing to call that reverse discrimination?

Bok: You can attach any label you want. I think it is designed to enhance the educational process and to chance the contributions wich graduates of the institution will make. I do not apologize for it. I defend it. We can attack anything by attaching labels. But I don't think labels really get at the subtler process of how we admit students in ways that will enhance our contribution and the educational experience those students undergo.   --Meet the Press, November 28, 1976

On THE CIA on Campus

In our guidelines we do ask our faculty and staff members, because of professional obligations and their voluntary relationship with other members of the academic community, to forego rights that they otherwise have as citizens (i.e. "the gathering of intelligence nd other covert activities on behalf of the CIA"). We made this request because we concluded that the practices in question are inconsistent with the nature of a university community and the obligations of a member of the academic profession. Covert recruiting by university personnel and its attendant practices bring a new and disturbing element into the relationships among members of the academic community, represent a serious intrusion of the government into our campus classrooms, and violate the privacy of individuals within the community. The use of a professor for operational purposes while he is abroad for academic purposes, suchj as attending a conference in his field, is simply a use of the academic profession as a cover and consequently compromises the integrity of the profession and casts doubts on the true purposes of the activities of all academics.   --Letter to CIA Director Adm. Stansfield Turner December 5. 1977

On Third World Center Proposals:

My reaction to such proposals is much influenced by the form that such a project might take. One could conceive of the Center as a physical facility serving some sort of cultural and recreational resource, nominally open to all students but effectively used almost exclusively by minorities. I would not want to forbid this type of facility any more than I would wish to deny the right of any group of students with similar interests or backgrounds to gather together informally in pursuit of common interests. On the other hand, I do not advocate investing Harvard's resources in such a project. Why any group is free to gather and socialize as it chooses. Harvard's aim is to encourage interchange among all types of students. As a result. I would not attach a high priority to any project that might serve, at least symbolically, to emphasize a separation between different races...

On the other hand, one can conceive of another type of organization with the primary mission of improving racial understanding at Harvard and supporting activities and programs that bring the the entire community a greater appreciation of other cultural perspectives and traditions. It is this model that has recently been proposed by the committee chaired by Peter Gomes which recommends 'that Harvard University establish a foundation devoted to the improvement of relations among racial and ethnic groups within the University.'

If there is genuine interest in this project, I will advocate support for the enterprise--modestly at the beginning but more substantially over time if the effort attracts sustained commitment and achieves constructive results.   --Open letter, February 27, 1981