A Great Leap Backward

THE CORPORATION SUBCOMMITTEE that votes on shareholder resolutions last week took a decisive step backwards. In a discussion with the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR), which advises the Corporation on investment ethics, the subcommittee stated that Harvard need not consider a company's moral standing before deciding to invest in a company--not even to the point of checking whether the company has signed minimum-labor guidelines. A stock only takes on moral dimensions, the committee would have us believe, after it has been bought--just in time to set in motion the lengthy bureaucratic struggles the ACSR must go through to recommend selling it again.

The ACSR, whose existence as a screening body would be rendered entirely useless by this principle, has sensibly drafted a statement to tonight's Corporation meeting, urging Harvard to consult screening guidelines before buying a stock. We urge the Corporation to pay attention to this commonsense recommendation. Any other course would undercut the whole concept of shareholder responsibility and compromise morality for sophistry.