For Pusey's successor, the timing of his appointment might easily have seemed less than "propitious."
According to The Crimson, the University's financial base was crumbling; it had committed to several new and costly projects; the Faculty was "divided and restless" and the students were "united and angry."
If Bok was not thrilled by his own selection, however, those in the media certainly were. The New York Times, Boston Globe and the Boston Herald all ran generally supportive editorials.
Students also were pleased that an administrator who seemed different from the old establishment--for the first time since the University Hall incident--was placed in Massachusetts Hall.
But Cambridge city officials were displeased with the level of input they had in the appointment.
Alfred E. Vellucci, the mayor at the time, said repairing relations between Harvard and the city should have been the number-one priority for the new administration and blasted Harvard officials for not considering Cambridge when selecting its new chief officer.
Vellucci flamboyantly criticized Bok's selection, saying that no one in Cambridge had even heard of him.
"I thought his name was 'Book,'" Vellucci said in a press conference two days after the appointment. "The only 'Bok' I know of is a beer."