An ACSR of One's Own

Better late than never.

After saying last fall that it would do so, the Radcliffe Board of Trustees last Monday established a committee to advise its members and President Horner on matters of sharcholder responsibility.

Like Harvard's Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, the Radcliffe group will examine and recommend vote on proxy statements the college receives from corporations in its $20 million common stock investment portfolio.

And like the ACSR, the new advisory committee has generated controversy. Julie E. Fouquet '80, chairman of the Undergraduate Committee on Harvard Shareholder Responsibility, said earlier in the week the membership of the group does not represent the Radcliffe community.

But Susan S. Lyman, chairman of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees, called the committee a "fairly chosen, representative advisory body."

President Horner chose the nine members of the committee--three students three alumnae and three parents--from interviews and individual statements of purpose.

Although the committee has not yet scheduled a meeting, one of the first issues it faces may be Radcliffe's sale of a half-million dollars worth of stock in Bank of America.

The Board of Trustees promised six months ago to sell its 20,000 shares of the bank's stock if the price reached $30 a share. It then sold at $25 a share, where it remains today.

Fouquet said the women selected will reflect the views "of the people who pick" them.

Although the price has not risen. Radcliffe may sell the stock anyway unless Bank of America comes up with a more acceptable policy regarding its loans to businesses operating in South Africa, Robert H. Gardiner '37, treasurer of Radcliffe, said last Tuesday.

Bank of America will make loans to countries "provided that our lending is based on economic factors." Ray Toman, director of the bank's news bureau, said yesterday. "Political elements only enter in the decision if they impinge on the country's ability to repay loans," he added.

The bank holds its annual stockholder's meeting next Tuesday. An alumna representing Radcliffe will vote then in favor of a resolution calling for the bank to refrain from making new loans to South Africa and renewing old ones. A similar resolution last year garnered only about 5 per cent of the vote. Toman said.

The resolution's probable failure and the bank's reluctance to change its stance on South African loans would create a moral issue, Gardiner said, adding that he did not give a damn whether we make or lose money" selling the stock.

Gardiner said he may refer the Bank of America decision either to the new advisory committee or to a financial committee of the Board of Trustees.

That could happen as soon as the middle of next week.