President Bok and Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky, addressing more than 600 members of the Class of '59 and their wives, gave themselves a pat on the back yesterday, stressing the positive results of the core curriculum and the growing role of minority and foreign students at Harvard.

Rosovsky, who received a standing ovation at the conclusion of the talk, also discussed several problems facing the University and higher education in general.

Students should be encouraged to pursue academic careers, he told the Science Center crowd, and academics should concentrate on grasping a better understanding of foreign cultures and lifestyles.

"We are building a disaster. The level of foreign understanding in our society is very poor," he said, adding that Harvard will place a higher priority on upgrading area studies in the next decade.

Hat Protest

During a question and answer period, an alumnus holding aloft his official white 25th reunion beach hat urged his classmates not to wear the hats because they are manufactured in Capetown, South Africa.

The resulting silence, however, was quickly broken by sustained laughter when an alumnus proposed "not to wear the hats for reasons of style."

Bok jokingly responded that he "did not make the decision on what type of hats were selected," but then address the divestiture question.

Reiterating his usual stance on the issue, Bok said he opposed divesting for both "philosophical and practical reasons."

"I am skeptical over whether universities should exert pressure on other institutions to use our judgments," he said, adding that selling a "vast portion of the University's portfolio will have no practical effect on the South African regime."

Bok's talk also focused on the changes in student life since the 1950s. "There are 700 foreign students here now, and not all of them are Canadian hockey players," he said, adding that foreign students "do a bit better academically than the native students".

Women and minority students appear to be more satisfied with their educations than the "embattled and diminishing white American male," he added.

He also pointed to Asian Americans as those "who take the hardest courses, do very well and are our best musical instrumentalists. But few of them hold their own on the interior line in football," he said.

Core

The Core Curriculum, Bok said, "is evidence of a modern education. Now there is a requirement at Harvard that all students be literate."