Word: acsr
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Whether or not the ACSR will actually expand its role as some have wished is extremely uncertain. But one thing is clear: as long as there is both the advisory committee and the Corporation, there are going to be some disagreements. And these disagreements have often been interpreted to mean that the Corporation is not taking the committee's advice seriously...
...first proxy votes against the management of a company in its portfolio. Much to the dismay of Bennet, the Corporation voted to back proposals asking both GM and Ford to disclose information about their business practices. And in the fall, Bok created the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) and the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), which have guided the the University's ethical investment policy ever since...
...ACSR--originally a 15 member panel of students, faculty and alumni but later reduced to 12--was similar to committees established at other universities to examine ethical questions of shareholder responsibility. The ACSR has no actual power, it can only consider the dozens of resolutions facing the university each year and make recommendations to the CCSR which has total responsibility for casting Harvard's proxy votes...
...Harvard's lack of initiative remains an issue: some of the current ACSR members have indicate a desire to have the committee recommend that Harvard divest from companies not South Africa. One of these students. Patrick A Flaherty, who is also a member of the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee, says that shareholder resolutions are limited in impact because there is a natural "community of interests" between the University and the assorted resolutions, and also because while shareholder resolutions do help focus attention on an issue, unless they pass, they will not bring actual change...
Despite its limitations, many people associated with Harvard's shareholder process feel that its potential symbolic weight counter-balances the disadvantages. Resolutions may bring to a company's attention issues it has not considered before. Richard M. Valley, a government graduate student and former ACSR member, echoes the feelings of others in saying, "When Harvard casts its vote, corporate officials tend to feel bad or good, depending on the [outcome...