Member Says Corp. Won't Meet Students

A member of the seven-man Harvard Corporation said yesterday that the University's chief governing body will not meet with several student and alumni groups that have requested an open meeting in late November.

"If the Corporation is going to meet with anybody who wants to meet with them, then it's no longer going to function," said Corporation member Andrew Heiskell, who heads Time Incorporated.

President Derek C. Bok, who is a member of the Corporation and its primary spokesman, would not answer a question submitted in writing by The Crimson that asked whether he would consider opening a meeting of the board.

The newest Corporation member, Geyser University Professor Henry Rosovsky, said he had no comment on the request. Other members of the Corporation could not be reached this week.

"We've heard from various people on this issue in a variety of ways and we have heard loudly, including preventing a dinner from talking place," Heiskell said.

Heiskell, who attended the Business School, was referring to an incident in September during the 350th anniversary celebration when 68 students, alumni and union members blockaded Memorial Hall and prevented about 600 guests from attending a black tie dinner. In the face of this blockade, Bok decided to cancel the dinner.

Several undergraduate groups, including the Undergraduate Council and the student divestment group, the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC), have sent letters to Bok requesting a chance to discuss divestmentwith the seven men who set the financial policiesof the University.

The Corporation has held that total divestmentof Harvard's $520 million of South Africa-relatedinvestments would be counterproductive, arguinginstead that the University should continue towork to improve the operations of companies thatdo business in the country. Harvard says itdivests of stock and bonds in companies thatrefuse to take steps against apartheid.

No Formal Response

"We're not going to take anything as a formalresponse unless we get a direct response from theCorporation," said Kimberly B. Ladin '87-'88, aSASC member and one of the organizers of theletter drive. "I hope the Corporation considersour request more carefully and with more weight,instead of dismissing us as just anybody," Ladinadded.

"The issue of divestment is an important oneand requires real communication between members ofthe Harvard community and its administrators,"reads the letter.

"Meeting with people is not what the businessof the Corporation is," responded Heiskell, whosaid that the business of the board is to runHarvard.

The Corporation is a self-perpetuating bodythat shares the responsibility for governance ofthe Univesity with the less-powerful 30-memberBoard of Overseers. The Corporation meets everyother Tuesday.

The letters from the student groups said thatthis fall was an opportune time to hold an openmeeting. They said that they were encouraged bycomments Corporation member Roderick M. MacDougall'51 made after Harvard divested of more than $160million of South Africa-linked investments.

"It is very clear that the policy we have inplace was shaped by students," MacDougall, theUniversity's treasurer said at press conferenceearlier this month. Harvard does not considerdivestment of South Africa-linked investments asthe goal of its policy. It will keep such holdingsas long as the companies meet certain standards inthe treatment of Black workers and if they don'tsell strategic goods to the Pretoria government.

The request for a meeting sent by SASC saidthat "real communication" was necessary betweenstudents and the Corporation. "However, too oftenhave we been forced to communicate with theCorporation through protests, petitions andnewspaper headlines."

Six undergraduate groups and two alumniorganizations have endorsed the letter. They are:the Undergraduate Council, SASC, the RadcliffeUnion of Students, the Committee on CentralAmerica, the Democratic Socialists of America,Currier House Committee, Alumni Against Apartheidand the Endowment for Divestiture