Bok Calls for More Corporate Funding

President Bok called for greater corporate funding of graduate research and criticized the Federal government for its lack of concern for graduate education at a meeting of the Committee for Corporate Support of American Universities held yesterday in New York.

The meeting was held to dramatize the need for continued corporate support of private universities. This need is especially pressing due to Federal cutbacks in this area, Bok said.

In his brief address to the Committee, Bok attempted to point out the direct relation between the amount of scientific research done in the nation's universities and the state of technology in the national economy. He told the corporate leaders that research in the fields of engineering, business, physics, chemistry and mathematics has a direct bearing on scientific advances made in the business world. Corporations "definitely have a stake" in graduate research, Bok said.

Bok also said that the need for corporate support of the universities is a result of an unwillingness on the part of the Federal government to continue funding for research. He said the level of Federal funding dropped slightly in 1967 and has remained at that level ever since.

Federal Funding Decline

In terms of current dollars, Federal funding for graduate research has declined 10 per cent nationwide over the last five years. Federally funded fellowship programs have dropped 40 per cent in the same period, Bok added.

Bok described corporate donations as a "fairly stable, but not growing" source of support and said that corporate donations influence Harvard's fiscal planning "fairly substantially." As a result of Federal cutbacks and inflation, Harvard" is really hurting in the areas of graduate work and research," he added.

Although the majority of corporate donations are for restricted uses, the money does allow Harvard to use other funds for undergraduate education and improve its financial situation. Through this meeting, Bok said, the Committee hopes to make business leaders more aware of the great need for donations. He cited a lack of funds in the area of graduate education as a contributing factor in last year's graduate student strike.

Another result of insufficient funding of graduate research, Bok said, is a displacement of the best students out of private universities and into state universities which generally receive more adequate funding.

The meeting marked the Committee's fifteenth anniversary and was attended by representatives of the University of Chicago, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Harvard, as well as officials from several leading American corporations.