Reinvestment in S. Africa yields unclear results
By Anne Renna | November 23, 1994One year after the Board of Trustees decided to lift its ban on investing in South Africa, College financial officers say it is virtually impossible to determine what effect this decision has had on the College's earnings. The officers attribute this to the nature of the College's investments, which have only involved investments in companies conducting businesses in South Africa and not direct investment in the country itself. Last November, the Board voted to rescind a 1989 ban on investment in South Africa, closing the final chapter in a decade-long controversy that sparked some of the largest student protests in the College's history and contributed to the resignation of former College President David McLaughlin. The ban was instituted to protest the South African government's apartheid policies. But College Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton said the decision has had little impact on the College's investment strategies except to increase the number of investment opportunities. "From an investment point of view, it increased the number of companies we could look at; it gave us more options," Hutton said. Director of Investments Jon King said the decision to divest was more important symbolically than economically. "From a political and social point of view, the decision to divest was an important one," King said.