Alumni Listen to Symposia

President Bok said yesterday at an alumni symposium that Harvard is not likely to change its investment strategy in the wake of calls last week by the Rev. Leon Sullivan for total divestment.

Responding to a question from a 1962 graduate, Bok said that while he had not yet read Sullivan's statement, he did not think the outspoken opponent of apartheid should dictate the University's investment policies.

"I don't think the University has ever acted [on its South Africa related stocks] because it was putting its faith in Mr. Sullivan's judgement. I don't think that per se is likely to move us," Bok told the audience in Sanders Theater.

Sullivan is the architect of a widely used set of standards that rate how well American firms in South Africa treat their Black employees. Harvard follows a policy of selective divestment, using the Sullivan principles to help determine which South Africa-related companies are permissible in the University's portfolio.

Sullivan, a Philadelphia minister, drew widespread attention on Wednesday when he issued a long-anticipated call for institutional stockholders to divest all of their holdings. In the past, Sullivan had supported partial divestment.

Bok drew applause after he told alumni that a responsible investment policy should not be allowed to jeopardize its educational mission.

"I find I've been under a good deal of pressure for 10 to 12 years to make the University a rather militant arm of various causes, many of which I'm sympathetic to personally," he said, adding, however, that supporting such causes would "seriously compromise" theUniversity.

Bok's remarks on Sullivan followed a briefaddress in which he told alumni that one ofHarvard's top priorities is to enhance the morallife of students.

"I'm not talking about dress codes andparietals, if we had them--or lots of pettythings," Bok said. "I'm talking about basicprinciples of conduct."

Harvard's president acknowledged that while theCollege has taken certain steps toward teachingethics--citing the moral reasoning requirement--itdoes not adequately infuse students with a desireto use their knowledge in the real world. Suchrequirements, "don't do a great deal to developthe character of will to put ethical principlesinto practice," Bok said.

The comments on ethical education are thelatest in an ongoing discussion on the quality ofhigher education that has most recently taken theform of a dialogue with Secretary of EducationWilliam Bennett. Two weeks ago, Bok and StanfordPresident Donald F. Kennedy '52 defended theteaching of ethics at their schools in response toBennett's criticisms.

In his lone reference to the cabinet officialyesterday, Bok said, "The Reagan era is certainlymarked...a certain amount of official criticism ofhigher education voiced by my former student [atthe Law School], the Secretary of Education, whomsome people accuse me of not teaching wellenough."

Several alumni also asked questions about theUniversity's willingness to tenure faculty memberswho are good educators.

Bok told the alumni that faculty must be goodat teaching and research. "I think it's veryimportant that we don't at Harvard attempt to tryto give tenure...to people who are simply goodteachers and not good researchers," he said.

Good researchers, not merely good teachers,should be relied upon to educate the nation's nextgeneration of faculty, he added.

He also said that the quality of future workwas a critical consideration. "There are lots ofpeople who are very caring, empathetic, andcharismatic teachers when the tenure decision hasto be made, [but] who don't do much research andburn out.