Beyond the Ivory Tower Derek Bok BEYOND the IVORY TOWER Social Responsibilities of the Modern University Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England CopyrightC 1982bythePresident and FellowsofHarvardCollege All rights reserved Printedin the UnitedStatesofAmerica This bookhasbeendigitallyreprinted. Thecontentremainsidentical tothatofpreviousprintings. LibraryofCongress CataloginginPublicationData Bok, DerekCurtis. Beyondthe ivorytower. Includes index. 1. Education,Higher-UnitedStates-Aimsand objectives. 2. Academicfreedom-United States. I. Title. LB2331.72.B64 378'.01 '0973 81-20278 ISBN0-674-06899-8(cloth) AACR2 ISBN0-674-06898-X(paper) FOR MY MOTHER Contents Introduction 1 PARTI BASICACADEMICVALUES 1. Academic Freedom 17 2. Institutional Autonomy and the Demands ofthe State 37 3.The Purposes ofthe University and Its Responsibilities to Society 61 PART II ACADEMIC RESPONSESTOSOCIALPROBLEMS 4. Access to the University and the Problem ofRacial Inequality 91 5. The Moral Development ofStudents 116 6. Academic Science and the Quest for Technological Innovation 136 7. The Social Responsibilities ofResearch 169 8. Technical Assistance Abroad 195 PARTIII ADDRESSINGSOCIALPROBLEMS BYNONACADEMIC MEANS 9. The University and the Local Community 217 10.Taking Political Positions 243 11.Accepting Gifts 266 12. Boycotts and Other Efforts to Avoid Outside Relationships 280 Conclusion 299 Index 3// Acknowledgments MANY FRIENDS and colleagues have read and criticized different portions ofthis book. Rather than single out the specific contri butions made by each, let me simply express my appreciation for the help I have received from Harvey Brooks, Clarke Byse, Mal colm Gillis, Stanley Hoffmann, Robert Klitgaard, Helen Ladd, Herman Leonard, Robert Leone, Oliver Oldman, Edwin O. Reischauer, Michael Roemer, Walter Rosenblith, Henry Ro sovsky, Daniel Steiner, Michael Walzer, Donald Warwick, and Jerome Wiesner. I am also grateful to Frank Packer,Jay Rosen gard, and Scott Tonneslan, who helped me find material on the problems of academic science and technological innovation; to Susan Davis, who performed a similar service on the subject of technical assistance abroad; and especially to David Ogden, who assisted me with the research on several chapters. To Hilary Bok, Burton Dreben, Charles Fried, Gunnar and Alva Myrdal, and Uoyd Weinreb, lowe a particular debt for undertaking to read the entire manuscript. I am likewise grateful to the publishers for permission to use material from earlier versions ofChapters 2 and 5: "The Federal Government and the University," The Public Interest, 58 (Winter 1980), copyright by National Affairs, Inc., and "Can Ethics Be Taught?" Change, October 1976. Both have been substantially re vised for this book. I have also benefited beyond all reasonable expectation from the loyal assistance ofmy officecolleagues, Florence Gaylin, Eliz abeth Keul, Margaret Murphy, Coye Richards, Janet Sullivan, and Elizabeth Woodward, who have given meextraordinarysup port. Above all, I am grateful to my wife, Sissela, who has read each chapter more than once and has given me greater help and intellectual stimulation than I could possibly describe in words. Beyond the Ivory Tower