I don’t regard the fact that there’s a disparity in test scores nearly as importantly as I do the need for diversity, because I know from long experience that test scores, though useful, are a very limited measure of things that matter in choosing students. Derek Bok Read Quote
Colleges do not merely offer preparation for the future; they occupy four years of a student’s life, and an institution should do what it can to make these years absorbing and enjoyable. Derek Bok Read Quote
For some students, especially in the sciences, the knowledge gained in college may be directly relevant to graduate study. For almost all students, a liberal arts education works in subtle ways to create a web of knowledge that will illumine problems and enlighten judgment on innumerable occasions in later life. Derek Bok Read Quote
The vast majority of students probably emerge from college with an adequate grasp of no more than a single method of inquiry. Even this capacity may erode over time if it does not relate to experiences and problems that recur in the student’s later life. Derek Bok Read Quote
I believe that Harvard can have, and must have, a strong affirmative action program that reflects our commitment to equal opportunity while fully respecting the academic standards of the University. Derek Bok Read Quote
I suspect that no community will become humane and caring by restricting what its members can say. Derek Bok Read Quote
What college is all about is some kind of 4-year game about who is going to end up with the highest grades. And I don’t mean to say that academic achievement isn’t important. But it is, after all, a means to an end. Derek Bok Read Quote
I think the minority students that we admit to Harvard are every bit as meritorious as the white students that we admit. Derek Bok Read Quote
