Their efforts that year were paid off with the greatest university concession to the movement in its history. The Corporation, which decides the policy on Harvard's investment portfolio, agreed to sell its stock in banks that gave direct loans to South Africa. When the university tried to pull back on that policy in the spring of 1982, SASC shook itself out of a four-year dormancy to maintain the policy.

Three years ago, activists held rallies drawing hundreds of people, and seven students staged a brief hunger strike, garnering national news attention. They also founded the Endowment for Divestiture as an alternative to the senior gift. Money raised for the Endowment will not be given to Harvard until the university divests.

But at times in the past, the divestment movement has been relatively quiet. At times there have been so few people in the movement that it cannot concentrate on both agitation and education. Two years ago marked a particular low in the movement, and much of last year was spent attempting to regain some of the momentum the movement had lost, SASC members say. This year, SASC numbers 30 core members.

"A year ago [at this time] nothing had happened on campus and nothing had happened the year before that," says Weissman. "Since then, we've created a strong vibrant movement that we've shown has broad support and a large number of committed activists."

Back to the Present

While last year, divestment activists concentrated on recapturing the fervor of the past, this year they will be concentrating on branching out and attempting to reach a broader section of the Harvard community. Members continue to solicit alumni support two nights a week, because as Sara L. Szanton '88, SASC coordinator of the drive, says "alumni are a lot more powerful than we are."

And now, SASC is attempting to coordinate its activities with faculty members, partially spurred on by Dartmouth's success at persuading faculty members to join the movement, say SASC members. "The Dartmouth faculty certainly showed that faculty can play an important part in putting pressure on the administration," says Dane F. Smith '88, a SASC member who is involved in establishing a link between the divestment group and the faculty.

Bourke says that this expansion and other expansions in the divestment movement "are making it clear that Harvard wants divestiture and making it clear that the people who don't want divestiture do not represent Harvard's opinion."

But he cautions against thinking of the Harvard community as analagous to some of the other campuses which have had active divestment movements this spring. "We have a different kind of faculty than Dartmouth, a different kind of community than Brandeis, and there is a different relationship between us and the people who make the decisions," he says.

SASC and TWSA will start formalizing plans for the April rally this week and next week, while the faculty will discuss the issue of divestment in a full faculty meeting on March 11. SASC members agree that in no way will the divestment movement this spring be unnoticeable.

"The divestment movement has been around for over a decade and is not something that is going to go away," says Stam. "The driving force does not hinge on any one group of individuals. SASC is going to keep on putting political pressure on the administration and insure that the administration remains accountable to the Harvard community.