The Student ACSR Changes Emphasis, Adds Local Issues

The student Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility decided last night to broaden its interests to include community as well as shareholder issues.

To reflect the shift to community issues, the committee changed its name to the student Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and Community Affairs.

The committee also discussed the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) report on Arkansas Power and Light's proposed coal-burning power plant near Pine Bluff, Ark., but did not vote on a specific position on what action Harvard should take in the controversy over the plant.

The student-faculty-alumni ACSR will meet today to discuss the IRRC report, but will probably defer any decision on the plant until January.

The student ACSR, a 30-member undergraduate committee, elects each year from its membership two representatives to the ACSR and two to the Advisory Committee on Community Affairs, which advises Charles U. Daly, vice president for government and community affairs.

Last fall the student ACSR decided not to take an active role in community affairs, but only to elect representatives to advise Daly. It concentrated all last year on shareholder issues.

However, now the student ACSR feels "a need for greater student input in community affairs," Andres Rodrigues '74, an ACSR member, said last night.

Supports ACORN

The student ACSR voted in October to support the requests of an Arkansas community group that asked Harvard to help it fight the 2800-megawatt plant.

The Arkansas Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) asked Harvard to use its shareholder influence to ensure that Arkansas Power and Light install extra pollution controls on the plant and offer to compensate farmers for damage the plant's sulfur dioxide emissions might cause to their crops.

Although the student ACSR did not vote last night, Rodrigues said it has not rescinded its support of ACORN's requests.

Harvard owns 559,000 shares of stock, worth $9 million, in Middle South Utilities Inc., a holding company that owns AP&L and four other southern utilities.