Early in July, Derek Curtis Bok, age 41, will end his six-month tenure as Harvard's President-designate and embark on a course replete with pitfalls-a course subject to myriad pressures-as the 25th President of the University.

Of all the truisms applicable to Harvard, there is one-not so pleasing as others, perhaps-which can never be ignored: Harvard is probably the most complex university in the world on an administrative level. It is this Harvard, which ranks among the largest non-profit corporations in the United States today, which mothers nearly 25,000 students within the University proper, and which is endowed with a hypersensitive, relentlessly critical Faculty, that Derek Bok inherits.

Immediately Bok is faced with a covey of unresolved debates left over from the Pusey era. Foremost among the issues he must deal with are merger, curriculum reform, responsibility to the community, the sustenance of numerous experimental programs, and the question of equal admissions for women and increased Faculty representation.

But before he can act on these, or any other issues for that matter, Bok must decide for himself the figure he will carve as President of the University. From this figure will evolve an administration certain to depart from the stolid ways of the Pusey years; new faces, new attitudes will soon supplant the old.

Bok's ascension is less a passing of the torch than a changing of the guard and renovation of the guard-house. Pusey is the last of the four top administrators responsible for the April 1969 student strike to resign. Gone already are Fred L. Glimp '50, former dean of the College; Robert B. Watson '34, former dean of Students and now director of Athletics; and Franklin L. Ford, former dean of the Faculty.

Also fading rapidly from of power is Archibald Cox '34, Watson Professor of Law and University "troubleshooter" for the past two years.

The only man at Harvard to receive special instructions from the Corporation other than Pusey, Cox has become the central figure in the Administration since 1969. As one high University official put it recently, when the word "Administration" was used in conversation, "Hold on there a minute. Don't say Administration, say Archibald Cox. He's the only one who knows [what is going on at Harvard]."

L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-president of the University, is resigning along with Pusey; Sargent Kennedy '28, secretary of the governing boards, has requested and been granted early retirement effective August 31.

At the center, this leaves Bok and John T. Dunlop, dean of the Faculty since 1969. It is entirely conceivable that Dunlop-one of Bok's closest confidants and surely the most powerful man within the Faculty-will, within the year, become the first Provost of the University since the James Conant era.

Bok has the full backing of the Governing Boards, and three members of the Corporation-Francis H. Burr '35, the man who headed the search for Pusey's successor, Hugh Calkins '45, and John M. Blum '43-are close friends of his. At this point, the Corporation and Overseers are beaming with pride over their new President; only time will tell how they react to his administrative inclinations.

Surrounding Bok are three new vice-presidents, half the number recommended by the University Committee on Governance in March. It is through these men that Bok will delegate and distribute the power so closely guarded by Pusey throughout his 17 year tenure.

Once his administrative framework is established, Bok will begin the arduous task of defining the role of the University under his leadership. First on the agenda is putting the University's academic house in order after two static decades wrought by Pusey's glossy, service-oriented administration.

Bok revealed his priorities in a memorandum to the Faculty on May 28 in which he outlined ten areas of undergraduate education he feels are in need of reevaluation. Among the ten, the length of undergraduate education is listed first; indeed, Bok is vitally interested in exploring the feasibility of a three-year degree program.

Bok also solicits the Faculty's views on forms of education, incentives for innovation, and the role of graduate students in teaching. He poses questions about the purpose of concentration requirements, the role of courses outside field of concentration, and, of course, his longtime interest-the role of professional schools in the undergraduate curriculum.

No matter which issues Bok chooses to deal with, though, one thing is certain: he is all the while moving in the shadows of a rapidly increasing deficit which will surely rise when the new Science Center and Gund Hall, headquarters of the Design School, are completed.