Bok to Appear Before Council

President Bok will make a first-ever appearance at the Undergraduate Council's weekly meeting tonight to discuss a wide range of issues, including communication between students and the administration.

Council chairman Richard S. Eisert '88, who last Friday discussed tonight's agenda with Bok, said the president will also answer questions concerning the recent council reports on tenure, the Core Curriculum, University investment policy and the establishment of a student center.

Eisert said Bok will "definitely discuss" the letter the council sent him last week, in which they asked him to improve communication between students and administrators by formalizing means of written and spoken communication with "as many students as possible."

The letter asked Bok to prepare and distribute annually a position paper on the state of undergraduates and hold an open forum where students could voice their concerns.

Eisert said that although Bok seemed "enthusiastic" about future meetings with the council, Bok doubted whether he was the most appropriate administrator to write the proposed position paper.

Either Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 or Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence might be better qualified because their duties tie them more closely to the everyday workings of the College, Eisert said.

Bok could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Jewett said that he would "be happy" to prepare an annual statement if students wanted him to and if the material discussed fell under his jurisdiction.

But Douglas C. Rossinow '88, who sponsored the communication letter, said, "I don't think [Bok] is so hopelessly ignorant about undergraduate affairs that he can't discuss them intelligently" in a position paper.

The advantage to having Bok write such an annual report is that he is "symbolically very closely associated with the College," Rossinow said.

"I would certainly hope that Bok would be informed on the state of the college," Rossinow said. Bok "might bring up issues he thinks are important to the College," Rossinow added.

Bok may also address questions on the possibility of Harvard's establishing a student center, a suggestion proposed by the council five months ago, but which has received little administrative backing so far.

Because Bok "in some sense" has lent support to the creation of a student center for graduate students, the council wants to know how he feels about supporting creating a similar establishment for undergraduates, Eisert said.

Although it will not be a priority, the forummay also touch on the council's recent CoreCurriculum report, which calls for the abolitionof the Quantitative Reasoning Requirement, anincrease in courses offered in the Core, and theaddition of a mathematics and computer Science Cselection to allow students to bypass Science A orB.

Questions on the report will likely focus on"the attitude of the University towards the Coretoday," said Andreas Beroutsos '88, a member ofthe council's Academics Committee, which wrote thereport