So far, four colleges have announced their support for one or more of the Campaign GM proposals. Bryn Mawr, Brown and Antioch voted in favor of the first and third proposals; Pomona voted only for the third.
Large institutional supporters of the third proposal include the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association (700,000 shares) and the First National Bank of Pennsylvania (300,000 shares). The Dreyfus Fund has agreed to poll its shareholders before voting its proxies.
A Campaign GM spokesman said yesterday that the second proposal-which has received little support-was added "to arouse debate" while the third, in particular, "we're very optimistic about."
The Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church has introduced another resolution on the GM proxy statement. If passed, it would require GM to wind up operations in the Republic of South Africa. GM has investments in South Africa valued at $125 million.
According to the Rev. Everett Francis, coordinator of the campaign, the proxy solicitors have not yet received any institutional support.
Asked about his chances for victory, Francis said, "We do it to win but I don't think we get much further than raising the issue."
Last Tuesday Harvard voted its Gulf Oil proxies against a similar proposal which demanded that Gulf get out of Angola, a Portuguese colony in Africa.