Word: divested
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...second example of a Harvard failure I read in today paper (Phila, Inquirer October 2, 1984) President Bok of Harvard, while deploring apartheid, supported Harvard's action of refusing to divest itself to investments in South Africa...
...summary, divestment can have a constructive effect on South Africa only if we can answer all four of the preceding questions affirmatively. In reality, it is far from clear that one can give a positive answer to any of these questions. The likelihood that all four can be answered affirmatively is vanishingly small. Hence, I find no basis for concluding that universities will help defeat apartheid in South Africa by agreeing to divest. As a matter of principle, therefore, I see no reason for departing from the basic norms that define the role of the University in any society. Even...
Despite these conclusions, some critics contend that Harvard should divest rather than continue its practice of voting on shareholder resolutions and communicating with corporate managements because the present practice has failed to overcome apartheid or to close the gap in wages and working conditions between Black and white workers. This argument misconceives the current policy. The University did not adopt this policy because it felt that its actions-or any action that universities could take-would have a substantial effect on apartheid Harvard decided on this course of action in the conviction that it should vote shares as conscientiously...
Other, critics take a very different tack and argue that we should divest, whether or not it will have any practical effect, because it is simply immoral to hold stock in any firm that does business in South Africans. This argument would have more force if Harvard owned stock in companies doing all or most of their business in South Africans. But that is not the case. The companies form which we are asked to divest typically do less than one percent of their business in South Africans. We do not invest in these concerns because of their South Africans...
Finally, some have argued that Harvard should divest because divestment is a particularly dramatic, affirmative way of expressing the University's opposition to apartheid as a system at war with our ideals of freedom and justice. Such people often stress the pervasive influence of Harvard on the society and argue that the effects of our divestment on world opinion could be substantial. My experience leads me to doubt this view. Harvard may command great respect for what it has accomplished in pursuit of its central mission of research and education; it does not have much influence, even with...