Undergraduates Choose ACSR Student Member

About 20 undergraduate representatives from the Houses and the Freshman Class met Friday and chose the new student representative to the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR).

Julie E. Fouquet '80, of Dunster House who was chosen Friday by the group as the new undergraduate representative, said she agrees with the position of the Southern African Solidarity Committee (SASC).

The SASC has called for Harvard to divest itself of stock in banks operating in South Africa and to support or initiate shareholder resolutions in all other corporations doing business in South Africa urging them to withdraw.

The ACSR is composed of four Faculty, four alumni, and four student members, one of whom is an undergraduate.

"I felt I had to run to represent the three demands on the SASC petition, and I wasn't sure any of the other candidates would do so," she added.

After the students nominated Fouquet to the ACSR, they decided to continue meeting as a group to help keep her in contact with student opinion, Victor L. Lee'79, the chairman of the group, said yesterday.

Lee, who had also run for the position of ACSR student representative to "provide a minority perspective" said the group may do research on the upcoming ACSR issues and help Fouquet decide on the student position on those issues.

House committees and the Freshman Council selected students for the nominating committee in December, but so few students showed up at the first meeting of the group that Dean Epps sent a letter to House Committees asking for more representatives.

Espionage

The SASC learned of the selections and many SASC members asked to be delegates in their Houses, Peter W. Sacks'80, a member of the SASC steering committee, said yesterday. About half of the 20 delegates at last week's meeting were SASC members, he said.

Fouquet's position, expressed in a position paper that all student candidates for the ACSR had to write, seemed closest to the SASC demands, Sacks added. Fouquet received about two-thirds of the votes cast at the meeting.

In per position paper, Fouquet called on the ACSR to open its meeting to the public, to include more student representatives and to better represent viewpoints other than those of the financial and academic worlds.

Fouquet who takes office in February said she wasn't sure her "one voice out of 12" would have much effect on ACSR decisions, but that in her one-year term she will "at least bring another viewpoint to the committee."