Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 26, 1990 TAG: 9005260184
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The board voted 13-2 to follow a finance committee's recommendation to sell the stock in companies with substantial interest in the racially segregated country.
UVa is the second state school to divest South African-linked holdings after Gov. Douglas Wilder told state agencies and institutions to adopt such a policy. The Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors voted a week ago to sell all stocks tied to South Africa, going beyond Wilder's order.
UVa board members said their vote had no relationship to Wilder's order.
The two dissenters were Leigh B. Middleditch Jr. and Jesse B. Wilson III. Wilson said he favors the previous school policy of selective divestment of South African-linked stocks. Middleditch said divestment is "essentially a political issue" that should not be decided by the board.
The board's decision affects about 3 percent of the school's $457 million endowment.
Earlier Friday, Wilder met at the state Capitol in Richmond with six black South African law students who praised his divestment policy.
"The pressure needs to be kept on South Africa," said Vasu Gounden, a spokesman for the students, who are seeking master of laws degrees at Georgetown University in Washington.
"Those of us in this country, as limited as we are in what we can do, will be doing all that we can," Wilder told the students.
He defended his divestiture policy against critics who have said it could jeopardize the financial health of the state employees' retirement fund, which has up to $700 million invested in South African-linked firms.
"I usually say to those people, `Let's use your solution,' " Wilder said. "Theirs is nothing."
Wilder announced his divestiture policy May 12 after news reports that members of his administration had been lobbying UVa board members to approve divestment.
The Charlottesville school has been the site of protests in recent years by students opposed to the South African-linked holdings. Thirty-one students were arrested last month for trespassing during a sit-in at the Rotunda after a meeting with the finance committee.
by CNB