Divestment Phone Bank Raises $1200 in Pledges

Divestment activists on campus are attempting to appeal to a broader portion of the Harvard community by using a phone bank to solicit support for divestment-related activities from alumni, according to organizers.

Students protesting Harvard's $416 million worth of investments in companies doing business with the apartheid regime have solicited alumni to contribute money for the campus cause, to sign a petition to President Derek C. Bok, or to vote for three alumni candidates up for election this year to Harvard's Board of Overseers.

Members of the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee and other students in favor of divestment have asked alumni to give money to the Endowment for Divestiture (E4D). The E4D, an alternative to the Senior Class Gift, is a fund started by the Class of 1983 for those students and alumni wishing to donate money to Harvard but objecting to its investment policies.

"If we can get people used to giving to E4D instead of to Harvard, they'll hopefully never give to Harvard," said Sarah L. Szanton '88, who coordinated the phone bank last November. She said the E4D is a step toward "eroding Harvard's fundraising base."

Currently, the fund holds about $20,000 in escrow. Harvard will not get the money until it divests or until significant changes occur in South Africa. If this doesn't happen by 2003, local community groups will get the money.

Some alumni who wouldn't have given to Harvard because of the investment policies will give to E4D, said Tina E. Smith '83, one of E4D's organizers.

"It's a great way of giving to Harvard because it's a way of conveying a message to Harvard and also enables alumni who are uncomfortable about [Harvard's] policies to give to Harvard" Szanton said.

The phone bank is located in a Mass. Ave. office with eight phone lines, loaned to the undergraduate callers for three hours every Wednesday and Sunday by Robert P. Bentley '38.

Roughly 200 people have been contacted, donating a total of between $1200 to $1500 to E4D, Smith said.

Besides soliciting funds for E4D, the phone bank is a "good way for us to get people verbal for divestiture," Szanton said. The phone bank sends petitions to interested alumni which "basically say `I'm an alumnus, and I think you should divest,"' Szanton said. The petitions are sent to Bok.

Callers also campaign for support for the three pro-divestment alumni running for Harvard's 30-member Board of Overseers, which is secondary to the seven-man governing Corporation in managing the University. "If they could come out for divestiture, it would be great," Szanton said.

Elections for the board will be held later this spring.