ASCR Passes Nuke Weapons Criteria

The Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) voted last night to encourage three companies to develop ethical criteria for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

The vote marked the first substantial application of the committee's policy on nuclear weapons, which was formulated after extensive debate last spring.

The ACSR is a committee of students, faculty, and alumni that makes non-binding recommendations to Harvard's governing Corporation on ethical questions related to the management of the University's $2.2 billion endowment.

The Corporation Committee on Corporate Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the Corporation, makes final decisions on all ACSR recommendations.

Two of the three nuclear weapons resolutions, sponsored by a coalition of national religious groups, were directed at McDonnell Douglass and General Electric.

Both resolutions included a list of suggested criteria in attached supporting documents, which are not technically part of the resolutions.

The third resolution on nuclear weapons, however, included 10 suggested criteria with-in the body of the resolution. This resolution, aimed at General Telephone and Electric (GTE), prompted extensive debate before wishing a six-to-nothing approval. Two abstentions on the wording of that particular resolution," said ACSR spokesmen Nancy E. Kossan.

The ACSR abstained on a similar resolution to Emerson Electric earlier this year which had required adoption of specific criteria by the company, Kossan said.

In addition, the ACSR last night rejected two resolutions aimed at increasing corporate accountability for dealings in the nuclear power industry.

A resolution to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) demanded that the company provide detailert information on any "abnormal" situation at its nuclear power plant in Diablo Canyon, Calif.

The plant has been a target of anti-nuclear activity for several years because it lies withing three miles of a seismic fault line.

The ACSR unanimously voted against the resolution, arguing that PG&E is already required to report all such situations to the Nuclear Energy Commission under federal regulations.

Similarly, the committee voted unanimously against a resolution that would force General Electric to detail all potential exposure of employees to nuclear radiation and define corporate liability for any job-site nuclear accidents.

The motion would expose General Electric unreasonably to employee lawsuits, the committee decided.

"GE was already in compliance with disclosure regulations, and the committee felt it would be an unfair liability," Kossan said.

Finally, the ACSR last night reaffirmed two decisions on the University's policy toward cooperation with South African operations. The committee voted unanimously to recommend, as it did last year, that the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation sign the Sullivan Principles, a minimum set of ethical labor practices for American corporations that do business in South Africa.

In another repeat of a vote last year, the committee supported a resolution opposing the sale of electronic eqipment by Motorola to South African military or police.