Harvard Votes for Disclosure

Harvard cast its first proxy ballot of the year against management yesterday, supporting a shareholder resolution to force the Caterpillar Tractor Company to disclose detailed information on its operations in South Africa.

Results of the balloting were not available yesterday, but the resolution presumably failed by an overwhelming margin.

The Corporation's committee on shareholder responsibility voted three to one to cast its $10 million worth of shares in favor of the United Methodist Church-sponsored resolution, which the student-faculty-alumni Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) endorsed last week.

There was no official word on the identity of the Corporation's sole dissenter, but George F. Bennett '33, the University's acting treasurer and a committee member, has been hostile to similar shareholder resolutions in the past. Bennett could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The Corporation committee's reasoning was "substantially" the same as the ACSR's, according to Stephen B. Farber '63, special assistant to President Bok and the Administration's liaison with both groups.

The ACSR condemned South African racism in uncompromising terms last week and questioned Caterpillar Tractor's "sensitivity and concern."

Hugh Calkins '45, the chairman of the Corporation committee, wrote to Caterpillar's board chairman Monday to tell him Harvard's decision.

In the letter, Calkins explained that Harvard would vote for the shareholder resolution, although it disagreed with some of its provisions. Specifically, Calkins said Harvard opposed "the full extent of the requested disclosure" and requiring the company to send every stockholder the information.

The requested disclosures concern Caterpillar's support--through taxes, charities and sales--of the South African government, the company's treatment of its nonwhite workers, and its plans for investment in the Bantustans, the largely undeveloped areas where South Africa says it will permit African self-rule.

Besides Bennett and Calkins, the Corporation committee includes Albert L. Nickerson '33 and Charles P. Slichter '45, both Corporation Fellows.

The Corporation committee will have to make its next decision by April 24, when the Eastman Kodak and Phillips Petroleum Companies hold their shareholder meetings. These companies--which the ACSR will discuss today--also have holdings in southern Africa.