Brandeis Students Build Shanty

Brandeis University students yesterday erected a shantytown and said they would live in the plywood shacks until the Waltham school agrees to divest of its South Africa linked investments.

According to students participating in the protest, Brandeis President Evelyn E. Handler has agreed to discuss Brandeis' investments with protest leaders within the next several days. Handler and other Brandeis officials could not be reached for comment last night.

More than 200 students helped construct the spray-painted structure, which was completed within two hours, coalition members said.

The shantytown is meant to be "symbolic of the way Black South Africans live," said Hilary Bluestein, a freshman participating in the protest.

The protesters are demanding that the university dispose of all its South Africa-linked holdings, which students estimate total $2.2 million.

A Brandeis official declined to put a dollar figure on the protested holdings, but he said the school currently has about 2 percent of its endowment invested in companies doing business in the apartheid state.

One protester said a leaflet signed by the Committee for a Better Brandeis and threatening to "axe the shantytown tomorrow" was delivered to a campus newspaper hours after the shantytown was completed.

Sullivan Principles

Brandeis last fall adopted a policy of only investing in companies adhering to the Sullivan principles, a set of ethical standards for South Africa-linked companies.

Protesters said yesterday that the restrictions on university investments are not adequate and called for Brandeis' complete divestment.

"The Sullivan principles are defunct. They really no longer apply," said Howard Creed, a senior taking part in the protest.

A coalition of student groups known as the Coalition for a Just World erected the plywood, sheet metal, tree branches, and string structures.

The dramatic move was necessary because attempts to negotiate with the university had failed, said sophomore Sheri B. Sochrin, a member of the coalition.

"There's been plenty of time. It's not like this shantytown just popped up," Creed said. He said a recent student attempt to raise the divestment issue at a meeting of university trustees was "rebuffed."

The erection of the structure outside the university's sociology department offices has created some dissension among campus activists who feel the action may seriously damage the divestment movement's image at the university, Creed said.

The recent destruction of a similar shantytown at Dartmouth was a partial catalystfor the decision to build one at Brandeis,coalition members said.

Amy N. Ripich contributed to thisarticle.