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Walter Leonard, Pioneer Of Affirmative Action At Harvard, Dies At 86

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Walter Leonard changed the lives of generations of students. He played a major part in developing policies for diversity at Harvard University, which led to affirmative action plans around the country. Leonard died this month at age 86. To help remember him, we're joined now by Harvard University President Emeritus Derek Bok. Welcome to the program.

DEREK BOK: Thank you.

SHAPIRO: By 1971, you were Harvard president, and Dr. Leonard was special assistant to you. At that time, what was higher education like for people of color - racial minorities?

BOK: I think it was a precarious time. There were certainly affirmative action programs that brought more minority students into universities. But we were at a very early stage of making them feel entirely welcome and an even more primitive stage in bringing affirmative action throughout the university and its hiring policies of staff and faculty.

SHAPIRO: And how did Walter Leonard help change that?

BOK: Walter was a wonderful interpreter of the legitimate needs of minorities. He both understood the position and the difficulties that minorities faced at Harvard, but he also was a lover of universities and understood, in a very pragmatic way, the values and the limits that we had to respect in order to be true to the ideals of an academic institution.

SHAPIRO: Harvard's affirmative action plan became a national model, and now the Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to a very similar plan from the University of Texas. Do you know how Walter Leonard felt about this before his death?

BOK: Well, I think Walter was both pleased that the work that we had done, and the kind of plan that we and other universities introduced, had lasted that long and that so many minority students have benefited from it and the whole university had benefited from their presence. But he always felt that these policies were somewhat precarious.

SHAPIRO: Was he concerned about this threat to the system that he played some role in establishing?

BOK: Oh, I'm sure he was. We always worry at these challenges. They never seem to stop. But I think Walter would've been quite used to them at this point and would bear up very well under the latest strain.

SHAPIRO: When you were the president of Harvard and he was your special assistant, was there any moment that he gave you an insight into the experience of minority students at Harvard that without his presence you might not have been aware of?

BOK: Oh, I'm sure that's true. I think all of us in my position did not really understand both this generation of minority students that we faced at that time or the peculiarly difficult situation they faced. As one of them put it to me in a late-night conversation, you know, when I go home at vacation, I realize I'm not really accepted as fully part of the society I left. Then when I'm here at Harvard, I don't feel I truly belong to the culture and society of this university.

I think Walter helped me understand that because when we started, I think we thought it was very simple. We didn't realize that getting more of them to come to Harvard was only the beginning of a long series of challenges to try to bring diversity to the entire university and to make the university a place in which black students could feel that they were welcome and they belonged.

SHAPIRO: That's Harvard University President Emeritus Derek Bok remembering the late Walter Leonard. Thanks very much for joining us.

BOK: Well, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.