At his Commencement address to alumni this June, President Derek C. Bok described a Faustian nightmare in which he sold off the University piece by piece to raise money for the endowment.

Fundraising: Billion-Dollar Stakes last in an occasional series.

On a more realistic level, Bok and other administrators say they are increasingly troubled by the University's reliance on fundraising, particularly as Harvard prepares to launch its largest capital drive ever.

"Fundraising is not exactly what drew me into academic life," Bok said in a recent interview. "Obviously, it would be better if you could just total up a bill and send it someplace."

But when Bok and administrators do total up Harvard's bill, more often than not the money comes from the checkbooks of the University's wealthier alumni.

And that poses a thorny set of problems for an academic institution committed to free intellectual discourse, even as it is continually dependent on the goodwill of an financial elite.

For while Harvard must continually cultivateits extensive network of alumni givers, it has tomake sure that academics and not economics aresetting the priorities.

So although the ties--formal andinformal--Harvard establishes with its wealthieralumni are never made explicit, those links are acrucial factor in the University's spectacularsuccess in raising money.

In fact, during the Faculty of Arts andSciences' 350th anniversary campaign, between 400and 500 donors gave about 70 percent of the totalmoney raised.

And Harvard has to try its best to givesomething back--from sponsoring an active HarvardClub in a donor's hometown to offering a big givera seat on an advisory committee.

A prime example of this is the process ofselecting nominees for the Board of Overseers,Harvard's alumni-elected governing body.

Last year, at least three of the University's10 official nominees were major donors.

Officials say that money alone is not enough ofa qualification for the Board, and that they tryto provide alumni with a diverse slate ofcandidates from which to chose. But insiders saypast generosity is always a plus.

In fact, some administrators cited the need forgetting overseers more involved with thefundraising process as justification for recentchanges that will give the University more controlover who is elected to the 30-member Board.

And it is the Board of Overseers which in turnhelps appoint the visiting committees that monitorall aspects of the University. Although thesevisiting committees consist largely of prominentacademics in the field they supervise, largedonors have been known to secure places on them.