Bok also differs from Giamatti in his low-key approach toward athletics. Although he is not as vocal as Giamatti, administrators and coaches say Bok actively participates in a wide variety of the issues. He works behind the scenes by style, explains athletic director John P. Reardon '60, "rather than making a lot of pontifical statements."

And of course some coaches still feel that Bok is not doing enough Men's squash coach Dave Fish for example, thinks the squash season is too short while swimming coach Joe Bernal says that Harvard doesn't allow its teams to test themselves enough against competition outside the Ivy League. Both coaches ideas conflict with Harvard and Ivy ideals of protecting players from too much scheduling pressure and keeping a team's emphasis on winning the Ivy championship (Giamatti supported both of these ideals in his speech).

But Bok says most coaches are naturally going to be concerned about winning as many contests as possible understandably diverging from some one who is trying to balance out all interests. He adds, "We're not talking about a group of people who are fundamentally alienated or out of sympathy with the needs of the institution."

Bok, himself, cites the three particular issues Harvard has concentrated on during his tenure building up women's sports, upgrading the recreational programs: and rebuilding the deteriorating physical sports plant. The addition of Blodgett pool, the renovation of Briggs Cage, the building of the Bright Hockey Rink, and all other improvements in the athletic facilities were badly needed. Bok says. He notes that "Sports Illustrated said that we had one of the two worst athletics plants in the country" when he became president, but that with all the improvements. Harvard facilities have been significantly improved.

Overall, Bok has tried to keep athletics at Harvard in a proper perspective. Aware of all the possible pitfalls in a pre-professionalism-type of athletic atmosphere. Bok, like Giamatti, supports a healthy, though not too competitive athletic program in which students play mainly for the enjoyment of the sport. "I do certainly have recollections of not only the great joy of athletics," Bok says, adding "but also of the problems and tensions that can be posed if athletics demand too much of people."

"The result of the disproportion is, in my opinion, that some students, and not a trivial number, spend far, far too much time, with the encouragement of the institutions, in athletic pursuits." --President Giamatti

"What we're trying to do is walk a middle path between the big athletic powers with all the abuses that entails..."   --President Bok