"Shanty-town" built on the Green

On the weekend of November 15, the Trustees appeared in Hanover for their fall meeting and some new construction appeared on the Green.

One item on the Trustees' agenda was continuing examination of the College's South African investment policies. Divestment of Dartmouth's South African investments was the agenda for those involved with the Green construction.

At Dartmouth as at other colleges, including Cornell and Princeton students have built symbolic "shantytowns," representative of the scrap woodand-sheet metal shacks in which many South African blacks live, in support of divestment.

Last June, the Trustees strengthened the College's investment policy by stating that any company with operations in South Africa that had not signed the Sullivan Principles a set of guidelines for doing business in South Africa would not remain in the Dartmouth portfolio after July 1,1986. The Board, while feeling that total divestment is not the most positive way to bring about change in South Africa, endorsed a $2 million partial divestment last April, selling stock in two companies not conforming to the College's policy. As of last June, about a quarter of the College's $434 million endowment was in companies that do business in South Africa.

The fall's activity on the issue began early in the week the Trustees came to town; a forum was held November 12 to debate divestment. On November 15, as two shanties took shape on the Green, 120 people attended a rally there. Several members of a group called the Dartmouth Community for Divestment met with the Trustees during the weekend.

Then, on November 17, Dean Edward Shanahan, in President McLaughlin's absence, issued a statement saying that unless the shanties were removed from the Green they would be torn down by the College. On November 18, the DCD added another shanty and held another rally that attracted over 300 people. A faculty petition in support of the shanties garnered 45 signatures. Upon President McLaughlin's return to town at the end of that week, he held a news conference to announce that the College would not, after all, order the shanties torn down; he was quoted as saying that the shanties could remain "as long as they are serving an educational purpose."

Among the educational activities that followed were a faculty-sponsored "teach-in" and a visit to campus by Mpho Tutu, daughter of Nobel Peace laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu. She spoke to a crowd of about 300 at a rally on the Green on November 24. On November 26, about 20 DCD members met with President McLaughlin, at his invitation; he proposed a further meeting between students and several Trustees. That meeting, held December 4, appeared to go well.

Then, on December 9, the Trustees issued a statement further refining their investment policy, saying that by the end of 1986, companies in the College portfolio must not only be Sullivan signatories but must also demonstrate progress in the implementation of the Sullivan Principles. In a letter to the Dartmouth community announcing that measure, President McLaughlin sad, "It is important to realize that the strategy one selects for the College as an agent of change in South Africa is a means to achieving an end and not an end in itself." He later said, "The Dartmouth Community for Divestment activities on the College Green have contributed to increased awareness within the Upper Valley region to the intolerable political and social conditions that exist in South Africa... While the Trustees... have elected other ways to express our institutional position, it is important to respect the freedom of expression for all parties as long as that right is exercised in a responsible manner." An intensive weekend of debates and workshops On divestment was planned for early in winter term.

Several hundred people have attended variousrallies at the shanties on the Green.