Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1986)
( O I. L 1 C, K I. I F t (Continued from page 11) Africa. But as Knight sees matters, IBM's record is beside the point. "The problem is not education or how a company treats its workers in a system,” Knight argues. The problem, he insists, is the system itself. That view may be shared to some extent by many U.S. execu tives themselves. It is difficult for any American to spend much time in South Africa without developing an intense repugnance for its racial and economic injustice—a feeling from which no civilized person can be immune. Some, likeGM’s White, are urging that the system be changed to avert real tragedy Even "a 5 percent growth rate won’t be sufficient to provide the required housing, educational institutions and jobs,” he warned recently. "Foreign investment is crucial to economic growth, but apartheid makes it increasingly difficult for foreign companies to continue operations in South Africa.” By contrast, some radical students believe the resulting economic chaos is devoutly to be wished, since it might increase repression to the flashpoint, and ignite a full scale revolt. Perhaps fortunately for all South Africans, campus activism by itself is unlikely to have such impact To date, only 42 colleges have fully divested or vowed to fully divest their South African portfo lios (pa^e 18). Another 42 have opted for partial divestiture, gener ally of companies that do not comply with the Sullivan principles (During 1985, 28 US. companies pulled out of South Africa entirely.) In some instances, trustees have resisted the protesters in the sincere belief that American business really can be a beneficial force. Others resent the notion of students intruding into what they regard as very much a business matter—purticularly since, according to Robert B Zevin, economist und senior vice president at U S. Trust Co., "The companies whose securities are being divested are more often than not the companies which huve supplied people to sit on the university's board of trustees " Still other trustees fear the impact that divestiture may have on future corporate gifts. 'Tm terrified ubout divesting from Eli Lilly,” a trustee of Indiana University told the Indiana Duily Student last fall. “They’ve given us close to 150 million in the lust 10 years ... If I were a corporate executive in one of these South Africa’s Defiant Campus Apartheid is ignored at Cape Town The university is silhouet ted against the imposing slope of Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Below the sports fields stretch the neat lawns of a suburb reserved for whites. Off in the distance it’s often pos sible to see smoke curling up from a Colored (mixed-race) township on the flatlands, where residents regularly pro test apartheid by setting cars and buildings aflame But all seems tranquil back on the steps of Jameson Hall, the cen tral meeting place at the Uni versity of Cape Town where black, white, Colored and Indi an students gather between classes. They observe no racial barriers while they soak up the sun, swap lecture notes and talk politics, just as UCT stu dents have since 1959. In that infamous year, when the Afri kaner government forcibly seg regated South African univer sities, UCT began its defiant tradition: apartheid would not be obeyed, and the doors would remain open to all races. Today, despite the iron fist of Pretoria, UCT is South Afri ca’s most integrated campus. About 15 percent of its 12,000 students are from groups classi fied as non white, about 1,200 are mixed-race, 300 are black and 250 Indian. Black students do tend to stick together in campus politics and in the lunchroom—as they frequent ly do in the United States. Otherwise, students mingle freely in classes, at charity events like the annual tray to boggan down the Jameson steps, on sports teams and even in the dorms—in contempt of the Group Areas Act, which de crees who may live where Like the three other "open” universities—the University of Witwatersrand, Natal Univer sity and Rhodes University— UCT was founded by South Af ricans of British descent, who have traditionally tended to be more liberal than the Dutch descended Afrikaners. Clamping town: UCT students are struggling to make the racial equality of their cam pus the rule. Their running battle with local authorities heated up last year, when the white regime declared a state ofemergencyandclamped down on protests. UCT stu dents fought back, lining both sides of the road that skirts the campus and bran • ,, I ... III. in >•!••(< it Clastlfltt dasMt: Mingling races in a first-year history lecture dishing antiapartheid banners. In August police warned the students to clear out, but the protesters held their ground. Then shotgun-toting police ar rived in two armored trucks, lobbing tear-gas canisters and chasing students with hide whips Dozens of faculty mem bers and students were arrest ed, and 12 took their final ex ams in cells. "White students had heard about the state of emergency, while black stu dents had to live with it," says Jonathan Benn, a 21-yeur old white majoring in political science. "It was only through the resistance that white stu dents began to appreciate the realities.” Since South Africa’s elemen tary and high schools are segre gated, UCT is many a student's first exposure to classmates of other races. Whites usually ar rive better prepared ucudemi cally, so the university tries to help the disadvantaged catch up, offering free coaching in English, mathematics and communication skills. "Th< whites come from privileged backgrounds," concedes u 20 yeur-old black science student named Jaffer (who asked that his last name not be used) 'Tutting bluck und white stu dents together makes white realize that blucks have th< same abilities It won’t solv< South Africa’s political prob lems—but at least it's a start hapw-fsctlMs: Still, UCT in many ways continues to reflect the imperfect world outside the campus "The majority of whit* students don’t care about the oppressed,” says Shureen, 21, a black social-science major who