Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1988 [PAGE 66]

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56

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[September 11

ingly, I offer for your consideration a resolution for refinements in the University of Illinois investment policy that attempt to take into account the considerations and trends I have outlined. The resolution is as follows: Whereas, the Board of Trustees has for many years expressed its abhorrence of the system of apartheid in the Republic of South Africa — a system which disenfranchises the majority population of black Africans and coloreds of their human, political, and economic rights; and Whereas, the board has pursued its fiduciary responsibility as well as its responsibility to invest University funds' in a socially responsible manner by incorporating the principles enunciated by the Reverend Leon Sullivan in its investment policy; and Whereas, following extensive study, on June 20, 1985, the board strengthened its policy by limiting its investments in U.S. corporations doing business in South Africa to those that have attained the top two performance categories of the Sullivan Principles and required that its primary banks conform with certain criteria prohibiting loans to the government of South Africa and the sale of Krugerrands; and Whereas, the board took action on July 10, 1986, to direct that communications be sent to U.S. corporations doing business in South Africa and representatives of the governments of the United States and the Republic of South Africa, again expressing abhorrence of apartheid and outlining University policy on investment in corporations doing business in South Africa; and Whereas, the intransigence of the government of South Africa to abolish apartheid and recognize the fundamental human, political, and economic rights of all of its citizens is causing Congress and the president of the United States to reconsider U.S. policy toward South Africa; and Whereas, the business risks related to continued operation in South Africa are increasing as social unrest in that country escalates; and Whereas, the recognition of these risks has prompted increasing numbers of U.S. corporations to cease or diminish business activities in South Africa; and Whereas, the ability to diversify the investment of University funds in corporations and industries that do not have business ties to South Africa is enhanced by such an exodus; and Whereas, the ability of U.S. corporations which continue to have business activity in South Africa to attract new capital will be diminished as major institutional investors eliminate such corporations from their portfolios, such investors today include 39 cities, 15 states, and 11 AAU institutions (as many as 100 schools have adopted either partial or total divestiture policies since 1981); and Whereas, a high standard of fiscal prudence is required when invest-