A new chief
of staff
Exumbra due out, preview of new drama production, spring
break satire and more...
Tyronza Richmond chosen new chancellor the inside
story on page 2
The Campus Echo
NUMBER FIVE
MARCH 5, me
FUN AND GAMES: As Tonya Pumas hams it Wallace (top row l-r) appear totally consumed
up for the camera, female basketball players in the action on the court.
Barbara Cannon, Glenda King, and Anita
Duke rally demands
divestment in Africa
By S.J. Mercer
About 200 students, faculty members and
children gathered at a demonstration Friday,
Feb. 21, to protest Duke University’s in
vestments in business’s associated with South
Africa.
The Duke South Africa Coalition, sponsor of
the demonstration, was hoping that Duke’s ad
ministration and Board of Trustees would em
brace the ideal of freedom for all South
Africans, regardless of race, and act decicively
to break Duke’s economic ties with South
Africa, as one step toward the political and
economic isolation of Apartheid.
The rally, held on Duke’s west campus quad,
featured such native South African speakers—
Desire Volkwijn, member of the Diuham Com-
mitee for Peace with Justice in South Africa;
Rev. Kay-Robert Volkwijn, a worker with
Orange Presbytery; Rev. Motlalepula
Chabaku, former director of the Women’s
League of the African National Congress and
founding member of the now banned Christian
Institute of South Africa; Kenneth Fassie, a
student activist in the Soweto uprisings in 1976,
now a North Carolina Central University music
major.
According to the Durham Morning Herald,
the university has divested $32.4 million of its
holdings in South Africa since July 1985.
Duke’s holdings are now confined to stocks in
seven major American companies that have
agreed to comply with the Sullivan Principles,
which sets guidelines on equality in salaries, hir
ing and a number of working conditions.
This however, was not enough for the
students or the speakers participating in the ral
ly.
Fassie referred to constructive engagement as
“de-structive engagement,” referring to in
vestments in South Africa.
Chabaku asked students to continue their in
fluence by writng a letter to the president of
Duke University urging divestment. Challeng
ing students, she said, ‘‘What are you going to
do?! If you’re serious yourself, find out where
your tuition is going!”
She then warned, ‘‘When the revolution is
over, we will remember,” a reminder of the
U.S. dependency for minerals found in South
Africa.
Chabaku, living in exile in North Carolina,
also expressed her respect for students,
crediting them with revolutionizing the chur
ches, postponing nuclear war, and implemen
ting social change through protest and unity.
During the rally there was entertainment pro
vided by Paul Jeffries, renowned jazz musician
and Director of Jazz Studies at Duke Universi
ty, accompanied by four of his students; Cindy
Jones, a Trinity senior and representative of the
Modern Black Mass Choir, Duke University.
The crowd held hands for a moment of silent
prayer before the question and answer period,
which concluded the rally.
NCCU Trustees
adopt foreign
divestment policy
By Rhonda McLaurin
with additional reports
hy the Durham Morning Herald
N.C. Central University’s Board of Trustees has adopted a
resolution calling for the divestiture of foreign assets in com
panies doing business in South Africa.
The resolution, adopted on Dec. 2,1985, prompted the sale of
250 shares in American Home Products Corp., despite the com
pany’s adherence to the Sullivan principles. The Sullivan prin
ciples require subscribers to provide equal pay and job oppor
tunities without regard to race.
‘‘To the best of my knowledge, American Home Products is
the only company we had holdings in that did business in South
Africa,” said George Thorne, vice chancellor for Financial Af
fairs.
NCCU’s failure to respond to a legislative survey of state
universities’ policies on South African investments prompted
this investigation. Both Thorne and Robert Poole, director of
development and executive director of the NCCU Endowment
Foundation, said they did not receive the legislative survey.
Of the state universities that responded to the survey. East
Carolina, Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, N.C. A&T and the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte said that they do not
invest in companies that do business in South Africa.
A&T Vice Chancellor Charles McIntyre said his school’s
policy notes its historical commitment to human justice and
dignity and condemns apartheid.
N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro and Western
Carolina said they invest only in companies that adhere to the
Sullivan principles.
‘‘While the State Legislature may wish to address the issue for
funds invested by the State, our leading colleges and universities
have already addressed the issue and have established policies
governing those funds for which they are primarily responsi
ble,” said Farris Womack, vice chancellor at UNC-C^apel Hill.
Appalachian State and UNC-Wilmington said their in
vestments are strictly business, obtaining the highest yield with
the lowest risk without regard for social principles.
The N.C. School of the Arts and UNC-Asheville said they are
evaluating their investments, could not answer and hoped to
reach a policy on South African investments in the future.
In addition to NCCU, Pembroke and Winston-Salem State
University did not respond to the survey.
Central hosts preservation group
By Clarence Jones
N.C. Central University will host the National Association of
College Deans, Registrars, and Admission Officers March 9-12
at the Sheraton University Center. NACDRAO is one of the few
widely known organizations devoted to the preservation and im-
See GROUP, p. 2