Anti-Apartheid Group Pickets at MIT

Thirty-six MIT-affiliated students picketed an MIT Corporation luncheon yesterday, calling for university divestiture of its stock holdings in companies operating in South Africa.

The MIT Corporation had earlier yesterday approved the annual report of the president and chancellor, thus effectively reaffirming its support for the use of guidelines for corporate investments known as the Sullivan principles.

The Sullivan principles, developed by the Rev. Leon Sullivan, a director of General Motors Corporation, are a set of guidelines for companies operating in South Africa designed to ensure fair racial employment practices. Over 60 major companies have voluntarily adopted these principles for their South African activities.

The picketers, organized by the cooperative efforts of the MIT Black Student Union and the MIT-Wellesley Coalition Against Apartheid, do not believe that the endorsement of the Sullivan principles by the Institute is an effective step against the South African government's practice of racial discrimination, Paco Leon, a spokesman for the demonstrators, said yesterday.

"We're after full divestiture," he said.

Robert M. Byers, director of the MIT News Office, said yesterday MIT is opposed to full divestiture on the grounds that the Institute's continued investment in corporations adopting the Sullivan principles would be a positive influence on the racial situation in South Africa.

Byers said banks in which MIT owns stock would be discouraged by the university from investing funds in corporations not operating under the Sullivan rules.

The student coalition feels the Institute's policy has been formed with little or no regard for the wishes of the students, Leon said.