The Dickinsons "were looking to buy prestige in Boston...Joanne [Dickinson] posed the interests [sic] bluntly, `Charles and I need an identity. We can not very well say we are philanthropists at cocktail parties. We want to be affiliated with Harvard, and we want to invest in something stimulating and established.'"

--from a 1988 memo to Kennedy School Dean GRAHAM T. ALLISON '62, discussing a proposed deal to offer Charles and Joanne Dickinson Officer of the University status in exchange for a $250,000 grant.

`I am against change in Harvard Square.'

--Cambridge Mayor ALFRED E. VELLUCCI in 1988.

'The only thing that remains constant about Harvard Square is that it is in a constant state of flux.'

--Former Associate Vice President for Government and Community Affairs JACQUELINE O'NEILL, the same year.

`I suppose one says `lady and gentlemen' instead of `gentlemen,' but [otherwise] I don't think it makes that much difference in today's world.'

--Former Corporation member ANDREW HEISKELL, commenting on Judith Richards Hope who in 1989 became the first woman to sit on the 339-year-old governing board.

Bok, Bennett & the Core

`There are too many intellectual and educational casualties among the student body at Harvard.'

--Secretary of Education WILLIAM J. BENNETT, 1987

`Instead of pursuing the questions in an informed and sober manner, he has followed his penchant for delivering highly publicized polemics against educational practices which he has not studied in detail and policies with which he happens to disagree.'

--President DEREK C. BOK, responding to Bennett's remarks at Commencement.