Bok Gives His Reply: 'No'

The steps of University Hall were crowded yesterday with administrators squinting through the bright sunlight at the United Committee of Third World Organizations's Mem Church rally. "Oh come on," said one, reading over the committee's leaflet. "Nobody ever thought they'd get that center."

He was talking about the proposed $200,000 Third World Cultural Center, which President Bok rejected this week, a month after the Third World committee proposed it.

It was a bold proposal that never stood much chance of getting Bok's approval--$130,000 a year in operating expenses, three full-time co-coordinators, a full-time secretary and a building, all to be paid for by the University. Harvard now gives money to some extracurricular activities, but the funding is more in hundreds of dollars than thousands.

Besides the monetary factor, there was another, more ideological issue behind Bok's decision. In his letter to the Third World committee rejecting the proposal for the center, Bok wrote that Harvard "has normally declined" to give money to extracurricular programs for "particular ethnic, national or religious groups."

In an emergency meeting Wednesday night, about 30 members of the Third World committee hammered out a statement blasting Bok's letter, saying: "We categorically reject the president's arguments in that they are not valid objections."

The committee said Harvard already has enough money to pay for the center, and that the center is not for particular ethnic, national or religious groups but instead would exist "for the benefit of all Harvard University students."

The committee also complained about the lack of negotiation on the proposed center's budget; the only time Bok and representatives of the committee met to discuss the proposal was at a Faculty Council meeting last month at which, committee members said, Bok remained silent throughout.

In his letter, Bok said the Faculty Council and the Council of Deans share his views on the cultural center, and that Dean Epps will help Third World students "in securing reasonable access to the facilities."

Bok's decision leaves the present Harvard-Radcliffe Afro-American Cultural Center, which is now on extremely shaky financial ground, would have become a part of the Third World center under the committee's proposal--and now that the Third World center is apparently doomed, the Afro center is in trouble.

The Afro Center has yet to hear from the administration on its request for an $83,000 loan to keep it afloat--but if the loan doesn't come through, Imani Kazana, director of the center, said this week, it may have to close May 30.

The Third World committee has not, however, given up the ghost. Committee members say they intend to keep pushing for the Third World center, and the committee's statement asked Bok to meet with committee representatives for further discussion.