More characteristic of Bok's public style were the guidelines he drafted at the end of the March biotechnology conference in California. The conference was a one shot event, but Bok's role in it serves to illustrate his role as a respected education spokesman.
Participants in the conference commended Bok for his statement, proposing a set of basic guidelines--many already followed at Harvard and other schools--for working financial relation ships between universities and business. The statement didn't bind even the five schools who attended the conclave but afterwards many higher education officials confidently predicted it will become a model for other colleges confidently predicted it will become a model for other colleges. Says Bok "People in my position at the various universities especially those who have been in office for some time have a responsibility to speak as cogently and effectively as we can." But he adds with a chuckle "Whether anyone is listening we have no way of knowing."
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On the day he was formally named Harvard's 25th President. Bok said, "I don't think a President can do his job if he spends a great deal of his personal time raising money." But in the past 11 years, Bok has had to learn that raising money is as critical a part of his job as any. During the current five-year Harvard Campaign, he has sent himself out stumping for funds frequently, usually travelling several days a month. But he hasn't been out of town as much as Dartmouth president David McLaughlin who, according to his aides, his spent over half his time this year fundraising. Though he admits to not relishing fundraising, he is resigned to that part of running a university "which has no analog in business." He says. "There is no way we could preserve the essential elements of Harvard without raising capital!."
In fundraising appearances, Bok is polished and convincing. He arrives alone but mingles with the guests easily and after dinner sells Harvard for all it's worth. He usually draws his biggest laugh when he reminds the alumni that Harvard's endowment is second only to the University of Texas, but "while theirs rests on oil, ours rests on hard work.
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Few people around the University expect Bok to stay in Cambridge forever. The humor around Mass Hall is that he would like to be either a Supreme Court justice or an ambassador, but others speculate that he will enter some sort of business or law practice Bok, however, won't reveal what he'll be up to after he stops donning his many University has. "You'll wake up one day and I'll be gone."
'You don't make substantive judgements in your own mind as to whether you think someone's work in physics is as good as someone else's. You make the kind of judgement a judge makes.' President Bok