But Harvard's Co-Director of Community Relations Kevin A. McCluskey '76 counters that at "any university, regardless of where it's located, its neighbors are worried about institutional expansion."

"We have a good relationship with the city," McCluskey adds. "At present there aren't any bones of contention. There's no battle raging at present, but it's something that we're always worried about."

Bok Talk

Above and beyond the efforts of lobbyists, the support of President Derek C. Bok can be critical to garnering the votes needed for a bill to pass, the lobbyists say.

"He's probably one of the most active presidents on the federal level," Shattuck says.

While at Harvard, Bok has served as president of both the American Association of Universities and the American Council on Education. He has also served on the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

When Bok gets involved in an issue, he usually joins with some other college and university presidents from across the nation to meet with various senators and representatives, says Parker L. Coddington, a director of governmental relations at Harvard.

And at the local level, Shattuck says, Bok knows how to throw a good party. Each year, he wines and dines his favorite local politicians, including Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn and the Cambridge City Council.

"I think that when President Bok is involved, it is a big morale booster," Shattuck says. "It tends to signal that higher education is taking these issues very seriously."

Indeed, observers say today's smooth and easygoing lobbyists must roll up their shirt sleeves and take a hardline approach. Given increasingly scarce funding and intensified competition for those dollars, Bok and other university presidents, they say, will have no other choice.