[Dear Fellow Alumni/ae: We write this letter to inform our fellow alumni/ae of an escrow fund, the Endowment for Divestiture, established at Harvard by the Undergraduate Council …]
[Dear Fellow Alumni/ae: We write this letter to inform our fellow alumni/ae of an escrow fund, the Endowment for Divestiture, established at Harvard by the Undergraduate Council …]
The mailing urges alumni/ae to donate to Harvard through the Endowment for Divestiture as a way to show support for Harvard while also demonstrating our disapproval of its investment policies in South Africa. All donations to the Endowment will be placed in an interest-bearing escrow account, administered by the Undergraduate Council, until Harvard divests from companies doing business in South Africa, or until the United Nations signals an end to apartheid by lifting its 1976 ban on investments in South Africa. Part of the interest from the fund will be used to establish a lecture series, coordinated by a committee of Harvard faculty and students, to provide speakers and other educational...
The mailing urges alumni/ae to donate to Harvard through the Endowment for Divestiture as a way to show support for Harvard while also demonstrating our disapproval of its investment policies in South Africa. All donations to the Endowment will be placed in an interest-bearing escrow account, administered by the Undergraduate Council, until Harvard divests from companies doing business in South Africa, or until the United Nations signals an end to apartheid by lifting its 1976 ban on investments in South Africa. Part of the interest from the fund will be used to establish a lecture series, coordinated by a committee of Harvard faculty and students, to provide speakers and other educational activities about South African moral, political, economic, and social affairs. If neither of the conditions for releasing the Endowment funds to Harvard is met after 20 years, the money will be used to establish a foundation to give grants to non-profit charitable organizations within the Harvard community. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and Grand Rapids have already voted to eliminate from their pension funds the stock of companies operating in South Africa. In response to student concern, Hampshire College, the University of Wisconsin, and Michigan State have divested. Despite continued student and faculty protest, and the recommendation of half of the members of the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility to divest, the Harvard Corporation still holds over $400 million in companies doing business in South Africa. Members of the Class of 1983 instituted the Endowment for Divestiture. Signers the letter, from the Harvard classes of 1931 to 1982, include: Romolo Dedleo, William McKibben, Marlin Carroll, Susan Faludi, Scott Rosenberg, Willa Silverman, Elizabeth Bernstein, John Callahan, Susan Chira, Andrew Muller, Charles Robinson, Payne Templeton, Ruben Perlmutter, Mark Whittaker, Leslie Choquette, David Jernigan, Andrew Lynn, Mark Roosevelt, Stephen Rayport, Rozanne Sisamanidis, Andrew H. Delbanco, Nicholas Humez, Emily Dehuff, Greg Studen, Morris Baller, Clifford Truesdell, Hon. Scott Harshbarger, Joseph Alper, Mary-Eugenia Myer, Ronald Cohen, Judith Grummon Nelson, John Beckwith, Congressman Sander Levin, Hon. Francis P. Duehay, Congressman Anthony Beilenson, Richard Barnett, Hon. Royal Bolling Sr., Paul Sweezy, Hon. David Sullivan, Mark Green, Hon. Jack Bachman, Hon. Gerard D'Amico, and Judith Rosenblith.
