Bok Attends Straus Hall Gathering

When Jason T. Winmill '93 and his roommate met President Derek C. Bok at the Orientation Week tea in September, the president told them that he wished he had more time to chat. But unlike most first-year students, the Straus residents took Bok at his word.

So this week, Winmill and roommate Gregory M. Weinhoff '93 hosted Bok at a small gathering in their room.

And Bok, as courteous as at their first meeting, even refused a chair in favor of a seat on the floor.

Although much of the talk centered around how the students and their dormmates liked their lives at Harvard, Bok and company also discussed the possiblity of the University's divestment from South Africa, the controversy over Harvard's shares in the strike-involved Pittson Steel Company, the presence of ROTC on campus and changes in the house assignment lottery.

"Basically he's an administrator, not someone making moral judgements," Winmill said of Bok.

But Scott Y. Yoo '93, who attended the event, said he was displeased by the manner in which students behaved around Bok.

"A lot of people were acting really affected," Yoo said. "It was really childish and I was really surprised. I don't know what they were trying to prove."