Students Say Yes to Divestment, Support Council Action on Issue

Two out of three students think the University should sell its stock in companies with ties to South Africa according to the results of an Undergraduate Council referendum.

Almost as many students said they want the council to help put pressure on the University to divest.

Almost 3000 students voted in the referendum, held in dining halls over the last three days. They voted on whether they approved of the following statements:

."Harvard University ought to divest completely from any institution that does business in the Republic of South Africa."

."The Undergraduate Council shall support and encourage the majority view on the preceding proposition through appropriate means."

Responding to the first statement, 1840 students, or 65.4 percent of those voting, supported divestment, while while 974, or 34.6 percent, voted no, said Steven B. Smith '87, council vice chairman.

Responding in favor of a council stand on divestment were 1717 students, or 61.8 percent of the voting student body. An additional 162 students, or 38.2 percent of those voting, were opposed to the second question, Smith said.

The overall turnout was 2897 students, which is only about 44.7 percent of the student body. Although 51 percent of upperclassmen voted on the propositions, a mere 24.3 percent of the Class of 1989 voted.

Some students turned in ballots without voting while others also turned in ballots responding to the second statement but not the first, said council member Steven A. Nussbaum '86.

Almost 900 fewer students voted for the second question than the first.

Some council members said they thought there might have been some confusion about the relationship between the two questions, with voters thinking they had to answer yes to the first question to go on to the second.

But Steven A. Colarossi '86 said many people did not vote on the second question because they thought "what if divestment looses, I don't want the council to take a stand against divestment."

Council Action?

The results of the binding referendum mean that the council must now take steps to encourage divestment. Representatives say that the council's Committee for Investment Responsibility will soon begin investigating possible council actions.

But council Chairman Brian C. Offutt '87 said that although a majority of students favored a council support for divestment, he does not believe that the outcome of the referendum means a general student mandatefor the council to become politically involved.

The students "said they want the council topromote divestiture in any way that they can,"Offutt said, "I would shy away from [a moregeneral interpretation]".

The student vote in favor of the referendum'ssecond question "says something about whatstudents think the role of the council should bein the community," said council member Melissa S.Lane '88

However, because only 45 percent of the studentbody voted council member Steven A. Colarossi '86said that the results would probably have noimpact on the University stand on divestment.

Representative Andrew J. Sussman '88 said thathe is "infuriated" that both referendum questionspassed. "I think the referendum undermines thecredibility of the council in the long term," hesaid, "It adds to the feeling of the students thatthe Undergraduate Council doesn't do anything."

A Political Question

Whether the council should support divestmentbecame a heated issue in the council earlier thisyear when council chairman Offutt advocated anon-political stance toward the issue.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, members of theEndowment for Divestiture, an alternative to theclass gift fund held in escrow until theUniversity divests, threatened to oust Offut fromthe endowment presidency. Offutt, endowmenttrustees said, was not being energetic enough insoliciting funds.

Some council members charged that Offutt wasapolitical, and the referendum might be used toresolve the intra-council rift between"apolitical" and "political" representatives byasking students to decide whether the councilshould take political stands.

Several council members, including Lane, acandidate for the chairmanship of the council,collected more than 700 signatures last month in apetition calling for the referendum.

Representative Steven A. Nussbaum '86, who saidthat he was "overjoyed" at the result of thereferendum, said that he did not believe that theresults of the referendum would have an immediateor linear impact on tomorrow's election forcouncil officers. "I don't think that the electionresults [will] necessarily correlate one-to-one toreferendum results," he said.

General Elections

Council members finished counting ballots ofanother kind last night as they tabulated theresults of general elections for nine councilseats vacant after the fall semester.

Twenty-five students ran for the nine seats.

Michael J. La Cascia '86, Andrew W. Mclntyre'85-'86, and Amanda L. Scanlan '87 were elected asrepresentatives from Dudley House. Six studentsvied for the three seats that were left open afterDudley representatives Andrew J. Sussman '87 andMark D. Nielson '86 moved to River Houses. Thethird representative, Brian P. Golden '87,resigned to run for Massachusetts StateRepresentative.

Dinah S. Leventhal '88 and Brian W. McCarthy'88 were elected from North House. The duo waschosen from among the four contestants for the twoseats vacated following the resignation ofChristopher E. Roy '86 and Austin W. Moore '87.

Defeating three other candidates, Jill I. Brown'87 became a Cabot House representative. SuzanneD. Howell '87 vacated the seat when she took asemester off.

Guy B. Wallace '88 won the Leverett House seat,vacated by Patrick A. Rivelli Jr. '85-'86, who wasexpelled from the council for non-attendance. Fourstudents vied for the position.

Winning the Mather House seat was RobertWeissman '88. Only two candidates ran for the seatleft empty when representative Kira R. Diaz '86resigned.

Siddhartha Mitter '89 was elected to theSoutheast Yard seat from which Theodore J. F.Lubke '89 resigned. Five freshmen vied for thecouncil position.

Representatives are usually elected in the fallfor one-year council terms, but every yearelections are held at the beginning of the secondsemester when a few council members announce thatthey will not serve a second term