It almost seems like a resurrection of the past. A hot topic of discussion among members of the Oberlin community throughout the late 1970's and '80's resurfaced, updated for the '90's, at Student Senate's first meeting of the semester Sunday.
Senior Matt Borus, a representative of the Oberlin Committee on Shareholding Responsibility, attended Senate's Sunday meeting with a request that hasn't been heard much in Oberlin since the end of the Apartheid era: divestment from College-owned stock.
The College owns stock in many large corporations, which at times can include manufacturers of cigarette filters and cigarette distributors, according to College Director of Investment Bernie Gordon. Currently, however, the only tobacco manufacturing corporation the College has invested in is Phillip Morris. The Phillip Morris foundation recently gave Oberlin a $200,000 grant for the new Environmental Studies Center.
"There's a lot of speculation on the Committee about whether students have any real say in the economics of the College," Borus said. "It's sort of a matter for the Trustees, but it shouldn't necessarily be."
Borus asked student senators to support the Committee in its efforts to host a Spring symposium at which people would discuss the possibility of the College divesting from its tobacco stock.
The symposium, which would take place in early April, would include speakers arguing both the pros and cons of tobacco divestment.
"The vague framework of the idea was also to have somebody talk about Oberlin's investments, where they come from, where the profits go and what offices control them," Borus said.
The symposium would be the first major effort of the Committee since students successfully lobbied President of the College Nancy Dye and College Secretary Bob Haslun for its resurrection in the Fall of '96.
Members speculate that the Committee has been defunct since shortly after the end of Apartheid. The Committee was quite active during the anti-Apartheid demonstrations of the past few decades, when students, alumni, faculty and staff members lobbied the Board of Trustees to divest from all the College's South Africa-related stocks so that Oberlin would not contribute to the injustice of Apartheid government policies.
Borus credited Professor of Mathematics Jeffrey Witmer with proposing the action to divest from tobacco stock.
"It's a complicated process to go through, and the Committee has to consider how to go through it and even whether it's the right thing to do; should we hold the tobacco stock and keep voting on shareholder resolutions or divest completely? Right now there are mixed opinions among Committee members," Witmer said.
"Some people on the Committee think that Oberlin working alone won't affect anything; if we drop the stocks someone else will pick them up immediately. But there's been an effort among schools recently to divest from tobacco stocks, which makes a more powerful statement than just an isolated individual shareholder divesting for moral reasons," Borus said.
Schools setting the precedent for tobacco stock divestment include Harvard, Haverford, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Smith and Tufts, according to Gordon.
Gordon declined to discuss his personal views on divestment at such a preliminary stage of discussion, as did Emeritus Professor of Sociology Albert McQueen, another Committee member.
"It's all very indefinite right now. We're meeting Monday for the first time this semester and I hope we'll have a good long discussion of the pros and cons of this issue," McQueen said.
At its meeting the Committee will discuss whether or not to draft a resolution to divest.
If members do draft a resolution, it must be passed by a majority of the 12-member Committee and by a small committee of Trustees before divestment can be considered by the entire Board of Trustees, according to Witmer.
Witmer said discussion will continue to take place at upcoming Committee meetings before any further action is taken.
Several student senators expressed concern about holding such a symposium specifically on the tobacco industry.
"Do we really want to give the administration the authority to make those kinds of moral judgments?" asked senator senior Chapin Benninghoff. "How can we as students come to form true opinions if our learning environment is not a neutral one?"
"It would be much more difficult to get anything started without a specific jumping-off point. Action tends to happen around specific issues, not around abstraction," Borus said. "The symposium would not be on the merits or evils of smoking, but on specific tobacco industry practices."
Borus said such protestable practices include targeting children for cigarette ad campaigns and concealing the health risks of cigarettes from the public for a period of many years.
"There's also evidence that suggests that at least some tobacco corporations were actively manipulating the contents of cigarettes to make them more addictive," Borus said.
Senator junior Meagan Willits said she would like Senate to support the Committee's endeavors. "I think this is a great idea. This wouldn't necessarily be Oberlin casting a moral judgment on tobacco, but a way of saying to the tobacco companies, 'We do not agree with X policy and this is our way of letting you know,'" she said. "I was proud that Oberlin divested in Apartheid and took that initiative."
Senator senior Dan Persky proposed that Senate support a general symposium on social responsibility not specific to the tobacco industry, while Benninghoff suggested senators vote to support only the general idea of a symposium on shareholding policy.
Eight of the 12 senators voted in favor of Benninghoff's proposal.
"I see Senate's action as being a good thing for issues of shareholding responsibility and divestment policy in general," Borus said. "Since they didn't do much for the specific issue of tobacco divestment, it makes me wonder about the future of the issue. But at the very least, this is a start and there will hopefully be some momentum."
Borus added that although his committee is currently preoccupied with tobacco divestment, other groups on campus are also interested in shareholding responsibility.
"We're definitely not the only committee interested in divestment. Various efforts have gone on outside the Committee to divest and they deserve a lot of attention as well," Borus said.
Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 14, February 13, 1998
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