Not since President James Bryant Conant '13 made himself heard on Capitol Hill has Harvard's top administrator traveled to Washington as much as Bok. Lobbying legislators on diverse issues like federal budget cuts, sanctions against South Africa, and affirmative action has become routine. Some even say that Bok is waiting for a chance to move permanently to the nation's capital as a Supreme Court justice.

Outside Harvard Yard, Bok is considered to have extraordinary influence among America's power elite. Frequently cited as the number one educator in America, Bok was once ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the nation's 10th most influential private citizen.

Insiders have nicknamed the president Derek "I taught Washington" Bok and attribute his influence to the number of lawmakers who have passed through Harvard, particularly the Law School. At a recent Congressional hearing on sanctions against South Africa, for example, two U.S. senators reveled in pointing out that Bok taught them at Harvard. And following Bok's testimony, the former students questioned him in a less than grueling manner.

Like his wife, Sissela, a Brandeis philosopher, Bok tackles moral questions in lawyer-like debate. "He makes an effort to address ethical issues in a very public manner," Daniel Steiner '54, vice president and general counsel, says about his boss.

Despite Steiner's accolades, however, detractors note that the president has never debated students in a public forum about Harvard divestment.

"Bok has focused people on the fact that the College and University are intellectual places," says Francis H. Burr '35, a former senior fellow of the Corporation who was chairman of the committee that selected Bok in 1971. "I don't think a really intellectual institution should be run by somebody not intellectual," Burr says.

This management scenario has allowed Bok to concentrate on long term projects as well as staying involved in the more scholarly aspects of his job. While most large universities have a provost to guide a school's academics, as well as a president, Bok continues to be very involved in scholarship. Since becoming president, Bok has authored two books investigating a university's place in society. His most recent, "Higher Education," asks how well American colleges are performing.

His longer term, legalistic critiques of graduate schools have led to tangible changes. "Many of my most important long-term projects deal with problems specific to particular schools," Bok says. But Bok says rather than take over from faculties which have problems, he encourages "deans to articulate the problem and to take the long view."

At the Medical School, administrators introduced an interdisciplinary curriculum, called "New Pathways," as a direct response to Bok's concern that a medical education is not broad enough.

Though he takes part in few undergraduate issues, Bok has addressed students in several open letters on Harvard's $413 million in South Africa-related investments, and the University's role in world affairs.

The less confrontational approach to potentially violent protest is a notable departure from Pusey's twilight years. As Bok walked by University Hall during the 1969 takeover, someone asked him if he was glad that students hadn't occupied one of his buildings. The future president jokingly responded, "I think we'll all have our chance."

Bok got that chance in 1972 when Black students staged a sit-in at his Massachusetts Hall office to protest Harvard's investments in Gulf Oil. Even then he did not forcibly remove the students and fondly recalls reminiscing about the incident with one of the participants.

For Bok, expanding his central administration helped solve the divisive atmosphere that pervaded Harvard. "I think that what happened during the last few years of the previous administration was that the number of problems affecting the central administration multiplied enormously while at the same time the size of the central staff did not increase substantially," Bok said in 1971.

To combat his administration's headaches, Bok has used open-ended discussions to prolong debate, and mitigate dissent.

Activists today say that Bok's style makes protest especially frustrating because it muffles emotional student outcry and avoids confrontation. They cite his open letters as an effective means of exploring issues--and forestalling change.