African Activist Archive

Leaflet issued as part of a campaign to get Harvard University to divest from companies doing business in South Africa. It is a reprint of "Board May Vote on Divestment," an article by Mark M. Colodny from the December 10, 1977 issue of The Harvard Crimson. Overseers President Samuel C. Butler '51 said the Board of Overseers may try to reach a consensus on the issue at its next meeting in February. Colodny writes that such a vote would mark the first time in recent memory that the Board has presented the seven-man Harvard Corporation with unsolicited advice on any issue. It is unclear whether the Board would support full divestment. Three of its members ran for the Board on a pro-divestment platform, but only three others have publicly stated their support for such a policy. Colodny writes that, at the Board's last meeting, overseers debated a divestment proposal made by Peter Wood '64, one of the alumni who ran on a pro-divestment platform. Colodny writes that Board members he contacted refused to comment on what happened at the divestment meeting, citing a "gag rule" placed on discussions of the subject. The article mentions President Bok, Robert Shenton, Gay W. Seidman, Frances Fitz-Gerald, and Andrew Heiskell.

African Activist Archive

Board May Vote on Divestment

Overseers Move Would Set Precedent in Relations with Corp.

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