SHOULD DARTMOUTH DIVEST?

The faculty gets impatient about the College's portfolio.

Pressure is increasing on the Board of Trustees to divest from companies that do business in South Africa. Last May, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted unanimously to register "dismay and displeasure" that the Board of Trustees had not yet decided to divest even though they were asked to do so by the faculty three years earlier. The issue has evolved into an ethical debate: how should the Trustees resolve any conflicts between public ethics and their fiduciary responsibility to the College?

Clearly, the Trustees have tried to follow both courses of ethical behavior and sound investments. Ten years have passed since they decided to base Dartmouth's policy on investment in companies with ties to South Africa on the Sullivan Principles a set of criteria established to encourage companies there to improve conditions for blacks and other non-whites. The College has not strayed from this policy.

But a majority of the faculty argues that the policy does not go far enough. In 1985 the professors went beyond the Sullivan Principles and urged the Trustees to divest of all companies that do business in South Africa regardless of their behavior toward non-whites. Since then, the architect of those guidelines, the Reverend Leon Sullivan, has disassociated himself from the Sullivan Principles and called for sterner measures against apartheid.

Robert E. Field' 43, vice president and treasurer of the College, says that the former Sullivan Principles are now known as the "Statement of Principles for South Africa." "The principles themselves still exist independent of Reverend Sullivan," Field says, "and corporations are still being monitored in accordance with them."

Dartmouth is not alone in taking this stance. Of the eight schools in the Ivy League, only Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania have fully divested from companies doing business in South Africa. The remaining Ivy schools still follow the former Sullivan Principles in selectively divesting from companies.

Agreement between the faculty and the Board on the divestment issue seems unlikely in the near future. Field argues that the Trustees' fiduciary duties come first. "If you want to boil it down to one line," says Field, "their responsibility is to act in the best interests of Dartmouth College. That principle governs all their decision-making as Trustees. They are not concerned with what is good for me, for the alumni, for the students, for the faculty. They are not charged with considering what is good for South Africa. Only this: what is good for Dartmouth College?"

Nonetheless, the question remains: given the financial risks, is divestment the best thing for Dartmouth College? Proponents of divestment suggest that by deploying a new investment strategy known as the "small capitalization effect," buying into relatively small, vigorous companies, the College could earn at least as much money as from an unrestricted portfolio. But many, including Field, are skeptical. "You limit your options by eliminating from the investment universe the large multinationals, including the major oil, chemical, and computer companies," he argues.

Both Field and Professor of Government Nelson Kasfir, an advocate of divestment, agree that there is more than just money involved. "The Trustees are obliged to protect the financial investment," says Kasfir, who believes divestment will pressure our government into applying tougher sanctions against South Africa. "But they're also obliged to maintain a social responsibility. This is a standard that they adopted fothemselves in 1972 when they stated that investment policies should 'reflect the broad societal goals for which the institution as a whole stands,' not just optimization of return."

Field counters that the Trustees have not acted because they do not see the same connection between divestment and social reform that Kasfir does. "If it could be demonstrated with a high degree of certainty that our selling stock in companies doing business in South Africa would eliminate apartheid, I am convinced the Trustees would do it," says Field.

What will happen next? The faculty is waiting to hear from the Trustees. A number of professors, including Kasfir, Government Professor Richard F. Winters, and Assistant Professor of Education (and Stanford University trustee) Theodore R. Mitchell, discussed the matter with the Board in August. Field, who also participated, says that the faculty motion "was, along with other materials, reviewed by the Trustees and a statement on the issue will be forthcoming."

Kasfir predicts that if the Trustees issue a statement that is "exceptionally superficial, or if developments in South Africa trigger protests in the United States, then it might invite a response. Some faculty might say: 'Look, the only thing that works with the Trustees is direct pressure by virtue of demonstrations.' "

Timothy J. Burger '88

Review Preview

A "60 Minutes" story on the Dartmouth Review is tentatively scheduled to run on CBS this month. Reporter Morley Safer has interviewed President Freedman, former Review editor Christopher Baldwin '89, Professors Jere Daniell '55 and Jeff Hart '51, and Music Professor William Cole. The story is an outgrowth of the confrontation between Baldwin and three other Review staffers with Cole in his classroom last February.

When a CBS "Nightwatch" producer called the College seeking a story on the Review, John Scanlon, a New York public relations consultant retained by the Review, was noted as the source of the story idea. Past Scanlon clients include CBS, the Boston Globe and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

And in the legal arena, investigation of a complaint filed by the Review with the National Endowment for the Humanities and later passed to the Dep artment of Education was put on hold pending a decision on the federal lawsuits filed by the Review.

Kemeny's Last Class

"I love teaching," explains Professor John Kemeny; "but there just comes a time when too much is too much." The College's former president is leading his last course at Dartmouth this term a computer-enhanced numbers theory class for sophomores and juniors. "It's the first time in 39 years I've gotten to choose what I will teach, except, of course, when I was chair of the department, partment," he says.

Kemeny, 61, came to Dartmouth in 1954 and served as president from 1970 to 1981. He will continue to work halftime for his company, True BASIC, Inc., and will spend one day a week in his Baker Library office. Future plans? "I'll probably do some writing; I may do some research. But, in a way, I need uninterrupted time to think through what I want to do .... I would just really like to disangage for a year."

In Brief

What allowances should the law make for the influence of brain chemistry on criminal activities? A two-day colloquium at the College this month will bring together legal scholars, scientists and criminologists to discuss that issue, focusing on the neurotransmitter serotonin which has been linked with various forms of deviance. The workshop is sponsored by the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences and the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research in Portola Valley, California.

Holly Sateia, a senior admissions officer, has been named to fill a new position: director of student life. Working for the dean of the College, she oversees student clubs and programs at the Collis Student Center.

Alvin J. Richard is the College's new director of affirmative action. The former associate dean of the College and dean of upperclass students also assumes the title of special assistant to the president. Richard came to Dartmouth in 1976 from Xavier University in Louisiana.

International Environmental Affairs is a new quarterly journal edited by Konrad von Moltke, a senior fellow of the Conservation Foundation and an adjunct professor of environmental studies at the College. The journal, published for the College by the University Press of New England, maintains that global environmental policy is as important as international security and economic policy.

Principles now disavowed by the Reverend Leon Sullivan are the basis for the College's divestment policy.