Protesters Build Shantytown at MIT Calling on Governing Body to Divest

Following the example of protesters at Dartmouth, Brandeis, and elsewhere, divestment activists at MIT have constructed a shantytown to urge the Institute to sell its holdings in companies that do business in South Africa.

Ninety students, professors, and MIT staff members Sunday built five one-room shanties on the lawn in front of the MIT Student Center in anticipation of Friday's meeting of the MIT Corporation, the body that controls MIT's investments.

The MIT Coalition Against Apartheid, a group of 20 undergraduates, graduates, and faculty members who organized the shantytown, is demanding a public forum with the 100-member governing body and the right to speak at Friday's Corporation meeting, where divestment is slated for discussion.

The MIT faculty and administration have taken no action against the protest.

"So far as I know, there was no opposition on the part of the administration to the construction of the shantytown," said MIT spokesman Robert DiOrrio.

"The administration thinks that it's a nice shantytown," said Associate Dean of Students Robert Randolph.

MIT has an endowment of approximately $850 million, $150 million of which is invested in companies doing business with South Africa, according to Corporation spokesman Walter L. Milne.

Approximately 75 percent of the MIT faculty voted in December that the university should divest.

The Coalition Against Apartheid sought and wasdenied permission to construct shanties on thelawn near the heart of the East Cambridge campus,but proceeded anyway.

Stephen D. Immerman, the MIT official whosupervises student use of MIT facilities, saidpermission was denied because the activist groupwould not agree to meet MIT's safety standards.The standards would prohibit the protesters fromsleeping in the shanties and require them to set adefinite date for the shanties' destruction,Immerman said.

However, Immerman said that he has no immediateplans to destroy the shanties, and MIT PoliceChief James Oliveri said he would not take anyspecial security measures.

Students interviewed yesterday expressed variedopinions about the shanties, which are constructedof discarded wood and spray painted withanti-apartheid slogans.

"I think the shanties are ugly. I'm kind ofdisappointed," said senior Joe K. Lo.

"The divestiture movement here seems to involvea small amount of dedicated people. I think it'sgood that there are people altruistic enough tosleep outside for divestiture," said freshman RenaS. Miller