Word: institutionalized
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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THE staff position both misconstrues the job of a university president and naively overestimates the difference a politician will make in an institution so ingrained in tradition as Harvard is.
True to expectation, Bok leaves Harvard a stronger and wealthier institution than when he came to it. Bok restored stability to a campus ripped apart by the '60s, overseeing unprecedented expansion of facilities and programs such as the creation of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 20 years...
Bok also presided over the implementation of the Core Curriculum, which superceded the chaotic General Education requirements. Under Bok's tenure--but not necessarily because of Bok--the diversity of the student body also increased dramatically. Although the College's student body is still concentrated among the elite, it is...
Instead, Bok proceeded, year by year, to make Harvard a less open institution. Voices from the outside--especially students--still have no say in the governance of the University; the seven-member Corporation is still the ultra-secret governing board it was 20 years ago. Even when change was urged...
No doubt the job of presidency was demanding, and Bok felt a strong obligation to project unchanged the institution that had made him its leader. Nonetheless, Bok's choice of priorities reflect a real insensitivity--and maybe even neglect--of the values for which he said Harvard should stand.