Bok Warns Against Regulation

In two separate speeches this week, President Bok made it clear that he wants his cake and plans to eat it too.

On Wednesday Bok spoke to the American Association for the Advancement of Science about communicating the financial needs of researchers to those in the government who hold the research fund purse strings.

Then on Friday Bok released his fourth annual report, warning against the danger of increasing government interference in higher education.

He wrote that the government should not impose rules on universities concerning hiring and curriculum unless significant problems exist which cannot be rectified by universities themselves or through less drastic intervention.

The report emphasized the importance of universities' remaining independent and the dangers that uniform federal regulation impose on colleges.

And to top all that off, a University spokesman announced this week that Harvard will join a new lobbying organization which will work to secure financial aid to alleviate the tuition gap between public and private universities.

Besides establishing himself as one of the leading spokesmen for theindependence of the university in the face of an encroaching government, Bok made it clear exactly why he believes the rising tide of intervention must soon be stemmed.

Although he wrote that the threat to the diversity and initiative by federal regulations is important, where Bok presented his most cogent arguments was in the field of skyrocketing university costs.

Because the costs of complying with the numerous federal laws are so high--about $4.6 to 8.3 million, the University must make further reductions in academic programs to meet the costs, Bok wrote.

And unlike large businesses, Bok wrote, the universities cannot easily add costs by raising prices.

Bok's speeches this week present a quizzical pattern--he emerges as a liberal who favors big government spending but demands less federal intervention. Whether that combination will hold much water in Washington, where politicians have no particular regard for educators, remains to be seen.