SCHOOLS RESCIND SOUTH AFRICAN POLICIES

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation and the University of Missouri have rescinded policies barring investment in corporations doing business in South Africa.

The board of directors of the foundation, the fund-raising arm of Southeast, voted unanimously on Dec. 3 to change its policy, which had only been in effect for a year.

The Board of Curators for the University of Missouri system voted 9-0 last Friday to rescind its 6-year-old divestment policy.

Officials of the two schools said Monday that dismantling of apartheid and the promise of a multiparty, multiracial election in April to create a new government for South Africa prompted the change in investment policies.

"I think with the end of apartheid and the recommendation on the part of all parties in South Africa that full investment be resumed, the (foundation) board felt it was time to rescind that policy," said Robert Foster, executive director of the university foundation.

Jackson attorney John Lichtenegger, president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, said the school's divestment policy has been scrapped because "it was an outmoded policy that needed to be swept off the books."

Nationally, many universities over the years have refused to invest in the stock of companies doing business in South Africa because of apartheid.

On Dec. 7, 1992, Southeast's foundation board adopted a policy against investment in companies doing business in South Africa.

"What we were doing was establishing an investment policy, and one of the provisions in establishing that policy was to go South Africa-free," said Foster.

The decision lacked controversy, he said. The action followed a recommendation from the foundation's finance and audit committee.

"There was not a great deal of discussion. I think the expression on the committee was that it was the proper thing to do," said Foster.

The minutes of the meeting don't record any vote totals. Foster said votes are only recorded if board members request it. Generally, he said, decisions are made by consensus and there is no dissension.

Foster said he doesn't recall any board member actually voting against the policy move.

But he said: "I think it's fair to say that the foundation board is made up of people of diverse points of view. I don't think there is much question that this was not seen as something totally desirable by all members of the board."

Now a year later, the foundation board has rescinded its divestment policy.

"The whole attitude (nationwide) toward South Africa has changed dramatically because of the dismantling of apartheid," said Foster.

When the divestment policy was approved, the board projected that it would have little impact on the foundation's finances one way or another. It turned out, however, that the policy actually proved beneficial for the foundation. "For that one year period it helped us a little bit instead of hurting us," said Foster.

That's because the policy resulted in the foundation not investing in certain companies, such as those in the health care field. Such business stocks didn't fare as well over the past year as did Africa-free stocks, he explained.

Unlike the foundation board, whose decisions on investment policy were made in secret, the University of Missouri's investment policies have been an open book.

The University of Missouri has no universitywide foundation like that of Southeast. Instead, its investments are governed by the university system's Board of Curators, whose policy decisions are made in open meetings.

The University of Missouri has about $1.2 billion in its retirement and endowment funds.

The school's divestment policy was established by the curators in December 1987. It called for the system to divest about $75 million over a five-year period. The divestment was completed on schedule in December 1992.

Lichtenegger said, "The basic reason that the board voted to divest back in '87 was because of the conditions in South Africa, primarily the fact that not all citizens in South Africa were allowed to vote."

Lichtenegger, who was a board member at the time, voted against divestment. "I looked at it in the larger context."

He noted that American companies were doing business in other countries where there was political repression and no divestment was being recommended in those cases.

"It was a hotly debated issue at the time," said Lichtenegger, recalling there were numerous protests on the Columbia campus over the issue.

"I was glad to see us rescind that (divestment) policy," Lichtenegger said. "When you are divested in terms of the investment world, you are not playing with a full deck."

Nationally, the move toward reinvestment followed African National Congress President Nelson Mandela's call in September for the end of international economic sanctions against South Africa.

Lichtenegger and ex-curator Tom Smith, along with two University of Missouri administrators, visited the University of Western Cape near Capetown, South Africa, early last month. Lichtenegger and Smith paid their own way.

The University of Western Cape, which is open to all races, has about 12,000 students. The school and the University of Missouri have had a faculty exchange program since 1987, and are preparing to start a student exchange.

During the weeklong visit, the delegation met with business executives, representatives of U.S. agencies there, as well as students and faculty of the University of Western Cape. Lichtenegger said they talked with many students and faculty members.

"It was really an exposure to the beginnings of democracy. Some of the people we met with had literally spent time in prison for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time."

There was unanimous agreement among all parties that the U.S. should reinvest in South Africa, he said.