Trustees clarify South Africa policy

The Board of Trustees voted at its June meeting to clarify its policy on investment in American companies doing business in South Africa and at the same time to facilitate the policy's implementation. They decided that within one year, any U.S. firm doing business in South Africa will have to be a signatory of the Sullivan Principles in order to qualify for inclusion in the College's investment portfolio.

"The Trustees believe," said President McLaughlin, "that the presence of American corporations in South Africa has been a constructive force in bringing pressure on the South African government to end the abhorrent social system of apartheid." The College's policy has been to include in its portfolio companies that had either signed the Sullivan Principles or were in compliance with them though not signatories. The Sullivan Principles are a set of guidelines for doing business in South Africa, relating to integration in the workplace and the corporate community. The intent to require companies to actually be signatories in the future is a response to concerns voiced by the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility about the adequacy of procedures for evaluating non-signatories' performance. McLaughlin said the position taken in June, requiring companies to be signatories, "is consistent with our previously stated policy, but this change in emphasis does help in making our position on these investments clear." He noted further that because the rate of change in South Africa has been "agonizingly slow," the Trustees may, in the future, further restrict the College's investment policy.

President McLaughlin later in the summer called on the Tucker Foundation "to help the Dartmouth College community deepen its understanding" of the issues surrounding divestiture. Under the Tucker Foundation's sponsorship, five days of speeches, discussions, and reflection were held on the events and issues connected with South Africa. A centerpiece of the program was a series of Congressional-style hearings, in which witnesses representative of differing positions testified before a panel "to develop and clarify" the issues of divestiture.

Two of the guests of honor at dedication ceremonies for the Hood Museum of Art on the 27 th of Septemberwill be Barbara Hood, widow of Harvey P. Hood '18, and her son, Charles Hood '51. Behind them isone facade of the impressive new art museum that bears their name.