Word: acsr
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...somewhere along the way, the ACSR began to stray from this original task of making recommendations on proxy votes on a case-by-case basis. Discussing specific examples has logically drawn the ACSR into attempts to form broader policy statements that would help set out consistent ground rules the University would use to guide its votes. In large part, these guidelines represent the ACSR's attempt to keep its recommendations consistent from year to year...
This consistency has proven to be particularly difficult to achieve because of the rapid turnover in membership on the ACSR. The Committee consists of 12 members: four alumni, four Faculty, and four students. Each serves for a two-year term, and many members insist that it takes a full year just to learn how the Harvard portfolio operates. This year, for example, seven of the 14 members will be leaving. Noel McGinn, a lecturer at the Graduate School of Education who is one of the outgoing members, says that this constant turnover prevents the ACSR from passing on a coherent...
...issues that come up before the ACSR, the question of how to handle Harvard's stock in companies having business in South Africa has particularly led the ACSR to make sweeping policy recommendations. The Committee made its first statement on the subject in 1978. This was a relatively specific recommendation that Harvard check that the companies it invests in abide by the Sullivan Principles, which set forth suggested minimum wage and labor standards for U.S. companies operating in South Africa. President Bok issued a policy statement that year agreeing with the ACSR recommendation, and stating that the University would divest...
...debate over the Sullivan Principles raged again this year when members of the ACSR learned that the Corporation had invested in companies without checking if they had signed the Sullivan Principles. Concern over the University's commitment to its previously expressed policy was compounded soon thereafter by a public statement by Hugh Calkins '45, chairman of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. Calkins said that it simply was not financially feasible for the Corporation to investigate a company's practices until after Harvard had already invested in the company...
Confronted with this statement, members of the ACSR attempted to formulate new resolutions that would somehow ensure that the University did not end up purchasing stock in companies that do not meet minimum standards of conduct in their South African operations. Committee members unanimously supported a recommendation advising the Corporation to prescreen all companies. The ACSR also recommended that the University use the Sullivan Principles as the bare minimum requirement for investing in a company, and that it sell its stock in any company that fails to meet these minimum standards. This term's actions culminated with the unprecedented...