Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1986 [PAGE 302]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1985]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

291

We have voted to hold stock only in companies that meet the top two standards of performance of the Sullivan Principles or have fewer than 25 employees in South Africa. We will not deal with banks that sell South African Krugerrands, that engage in new loans in South Africa, or that have outstanding loans in South Africa. We will not do business with a company that has a major portion of its business in South Africa — defined as 10 percent of its gross sales in that country. We will support all shareholder resolutions to provide information regarding corporate activities in South Africa and which call for the termination or prevention of sales to the South African military or police. We believe these new steps meet many of the concerns of groups that spoke to these issues yesterday and that these steps are also consistent with our financial duties under Illinois law and our ethical concerns as individuals elected by the people of Illinois. As president of the Board of Trustees, I respect the views and opinions of every trustee. As president, I also speak for the entire board when I say that our outrage at apartheid is not diminished simply because the majority did not vote to dispose of all investments in South Africa. There may be those who will look no further than the vote count to dismiss the seriousness with which the trustees agonized over the South African investment issues. That would be an unfortunate and shortsighted view. Although the board did not unanimously agree on the course of action to take, all of us have conducted our business as trustees openly and forthrightly and have confronted a highly controversial issue with concern and responsibility. We listened to and considered opposing views, and we let the majority opinion guide us based on the belief that, overall, we are acting in a way that best serves the University of Illinois, its faculty and its students, and the citizens of this State, and serves to promote steps toward racial justice in South Africa. Since 1979, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees has been in the forefront of institutions practicing selective investment, and our position is one only now being reached by some other educational institutions around the country. We note, too, that the policies followed for years by the University's trustees are philosophically consistent with recent actions on investments in South Africa taken by the U.S. House of Representatives.

A scheduled meeting of the board as a Committee of the Whole, to receive a presentation on the capital budget request for Fiscal Year 1987, was deferred because of insufficient time. The presentation will be made at a subsequent meeting, probably in July.

MINUTES APPROVED

The secretary presented for approval the press proofs of the minutes of the Board of Trustees meeting of March 21, 1985, copies of which had previously been sent to the board. On motion of Mr. Howard, these minutes were approved.

INTRODUCTION OF NEWLY ELECTED STUDENT TRUSTEE

President Shepherd introduced Mr. Scott Becker, who was elected the student trustee from the Urbana-Champaign campus, succeeding Mr. Pittman. (Mr. Kevin Lamm, Chicago campus, was reelected to serve an additional term.) Mr. Becker was attending the meeting as an observer.