In a move reminiscent of a coffee and-dounts session he held 15 years ago as Dean of the Law School. President Bok ventured across the Yard yesterday to talk to protesting students about Harvard's South Africa-related investments.

On his way to lunch, Bok stopped to defend Harvard's $580 million stockholding in companies that do business in the apartheid state.

He encountered a group of 25 students who have staged daily noontime vigils outside University Hall the University Hall nerve center--since last Friday.

The lunchtime protests are part of a recent surge of anti-apartheid activism Harvard and other colleges Students have said Harvard's investments support repression by the South African government and want the University to divest its holdings.

Bok told the group--which plans to stage the 45 minute vigils until the end of exam period--that he has spent more time examining the divestment issue than any other matter this year.

Bok withheld that the students means of protest than are "most affective," rather than ones that make them "feed good," He said students should talk to their Senators, rather than Harvard administrators, about problem in South africa.

Bok also said that the time he has spent investment polices outweighs that of any student by a least "a factor of five."