Making a Point

The "new mood on campus" was nowhere in sight Wednesday, as about 30 students braved Arctic temperatures to picket the Faculty Club, where the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) was discussing Harvard's investments in banks operating in South Africa.

While the ACSR was warm and toasty inside the building, the protesters marched around outside, chanting slogans and carrying signs denouncing apartheid and Harvard's role in that racist system.

The Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC), which organized the demonstration, plans to picket the ACSR's meetings every week to keep ACSR members aware that students are watching them with great interest, a spokesman for the group said this week.

The ACSR is working, under an unofficial mid-March deadline, to come up with an overall policy on University investments in firms operating in South Africa; the SASC will probably step up its activities as the time for decision-making winds down.

There is no indication that the protest affected the ACSR meeting at all, but the weather may have Only seven of the 12 ACSR members showed up for the discussion.