UC Regents to Debate Divestiture Plan Today

Security was tight Thursday as University of California regents opened a two-day session at the UC Extension Center where they will finally debate today what students, professors, legislators and newspaper columnists long have been debating for them--university investments in American firms that do business in South Africa.

Twenty-six anti-apartheid demonstrators were arrested early in the day, but the turnout both for the morning and for a march to Union Square later were smaller than anticipated.

Two Plans to Be Offered

As of Thursday, most regents said they had yet to see a single written proposal. But in private conversations, most said today’s debate will center on two plans:

- Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco, an ex-officio regent, will seek a five-year, phased divestiture of the university’s $2.4 billion in stocks in 33 American firms that operate in South Africa.

- UC President David Gardner will propose a case-by-case review of the 33 companies to single out those that have not worked to bring about equality for blacks in South Africa.

Although Brown’s plan has more passionate support, Gardner’s evidently has more votes.

Regent Sheldon Andelson of Los Angeles said he and others want to approve “some divestment position” today. Gardner’s proposal, he added, was fashioned “to garner majority support.”

Action Closely Watched

The UC action has been closely watched because full divestiture would be by far the largest action of an American institution to move away from South Africa’s minority white government, which denies political rights to the nation’s black majority.

The Brown and Gardner proposals epitomize “the two competing strategies on the best way to influence what’s happening in South Africa,” said Bill Honig, a regent and the state superintendent of public instruction.

Gardner’s approach “would try to use our leverage with the American companies there and see to it that they are good corporate citizens,” Honig said. “The other would have us withdraw, not have anything to do with that country.”

Expecting up to 5,000 protesters, San Francisco police used 75 officers to cordon off a three-square-block area surrounding the center Thursday morning. UC police officers from eight campuses patrolled inside the building.

100 Demonstrators Show Up

However, less than 100 chanting demonstrators gathered on Market Street outside police lines near the center. The number quickly dwindled when 26 were arrested for blocking morning commuter traffic on Market Street for about 10 minutes.

Protest leaders said the low turnout was inevitable because classes ended several weeks ago at UC Berkeley, the center of the UC divestiture movement. On Thursday, protesters suspended black effigies from trees on Market Street, painting on them, “Apartheid kills. Sponsored by UC Regents.” Demonstrators also strung up mock dollar bills with “blood money” written on them.

Only a few hundred noisy protesters marched from the center to Union Square on Powell Street in downtown San Francisco late in the afternoon. Escorted by police, the marchers carried signs and chanted.