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Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1980
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1978] UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 37 T h e three coalition members indicated that they could not speak for the coalition and that they would respond to my twofold Suggestion that they (1) appear before the Finance Committee and (2) indicate to me (in keeping with board policy) "the nature of the subject matter to be presented." There was also some discusjion of location for such a presentation with the coalition members expressing the hope that the hearing be on the Urbana-Champaign campus — a hope which I find understandable. O n September 6 the enclosed letter from the coalition arrived in my office in Urbana while I was in Chicago. Subsequently, I talked with Steven Nadel, a member of the coalition, by phone and indicated that I found the letter not to reflect the tenor of the August 31 meeting —• a meeting which Mr. Nadel had not attended. I suggested that I assumed that the coalition wished a hearing before the board rather than vice versa. I did indicate that I would simply forward the letter from the coalition to the board and that the board could then respond as it saw fit. Following this telephone conversation, it was agreed that Mr. Nadel and two other members of the coalition would meet with me on September 11 to review this "request for an appearance" before the Finance Committee. I asked Earl Porter to join this meeting. I again stressed the points that it was the coalition rather than the board which wanted a hearing; that board policy provides that it is the board which establishes conditions for board hearings; and that a hearing is not a debate. I also made some gratuitous comments about my personal reaction to the words "demand" and "must." It was agreed that I would place before the board this request from the coalition for a hearing and indicate that the members of the coalition with whom I have spoken seek a change in our investment policy to provide that the University divest its portfolio of all stocks in corporations doing business in South Africa. The coalition will want to demonstrate the inadequacies of the present policy and of any adjustments in that policy short of a divestiture policy. T h e coalition would hope that the hearing would be held on the Urbana-Champaign campus and after learning of the conditions and procedures which the board adopts for such a hearing, the coalition would decide if it wished to participate. If it is the conclusion of the board that a hearing is appropriate, I would suggest that it not be held in conjunction with a board meeting, that sufficient lead time be provided so that representatives of various views could be alerted to the hearing, that fairly rigorous time limits for presentations be established and followed, and that debates or discussions among those testifying not be a feature of the hearing. T o the extent that the views of those wishing to be heard can be determined in advance, presentations might be scheduled to permit differing views to be alternated. I have stated several times that I did not view a hearing as a debate between the board and members of the audience, and I assume that I am not misrepresenting you in that statement. I have indicated to the members of the coalition that I would forward to them some response from the board following the September 20 meeting of the board. For your information, I am attaching copies of present board policy concerning appearances before the board and of the policy adopted last year concerning the exercise of proxies at annual meetings of corporations doing business in South Africa. C-U Coalition against Apartheid Room 284 Illini Union Dear President Corbally: T h e C-UCAA wishes to inform you of our acceptance of a hearing before the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees, concerning divestment of University holdings in corporations doing business in South Africa. Our acceptance is contingent upon the following conditions:
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