Council to vote on S. Africa divestment

University Council will vote today on whether to suggest repealing a 12-year-old ban on University investment in companies that do business in South Africa. While University Council cannot set policy, it can urge the University Board of Trustees to lift the sanctions, Faculty Senate Chairperson Gerald Porter said last night. "The rest of the world has stopped its boycott," he said. "It's appropriate at this time, since there is an existing University Council policy statement, to call on the Board of Trustees to repeal ban." In December 1981, Council passed a motion calling for the University to "divest of all stocks and firms with substantial investment?in South Africa." This policy was the same one that was approved by the Trustees and remains in effect today. Porter said because African National Congress President Nelson Mandela and President Clinton asked the international community to lift all sanctions against South Africa in September, it is now the time for the University to reverse its divestment policy. Stephen Heyman, chairperson of the Trustees' Committee on University Responsibility – the committee which handles the University's divestment policy – said yesterday he would fully support a University Council's decision to rescind the 1981 motion. Heyman said he asked the Board of Trustees to reconsider the validity of the University's divestment policy during last month's Trustees meetings. "I have suggested that we look into [the divestment policy] and make a decision within the next two or three Trustees meetings to drop all restrictions," he said. "We're about the only school left in the country that has a true 100 percent divestment policy still in effect." Heyman said most schools, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities, revoked their divestment policies in June and September. He said one reason for the Trustees delay in addressing the policy is the lack of a permanent president. "We're in a transition period, between one president and another," he said. "We thought perhaps it would be best that the incoming president have a say in the issue." Heyman said, however, that he thinks it is "just a matter of time" before the Trustees end the divestment policy. "There are many companies that we are precluded from investing in [right now]," he said. "It's like tying one hand behind our backs. [Lifting the restrictions] would benefit everyone." Heyman said since 1987, when the Trustees reaffirmed their decision to divest – concluding that South Africa had not made enough progress toward abolishing apartheid – the University has had the most stringent policy in the Ivy League. "The other Ivies' restrictions are not as strong as ours," he said. "It's a matter of the [former] administration wanting strong restrictions and the [large amount of] student activism for strict sanctions."