More than one third of the faculty and staff of the Graduate School of Education this month signed a petition urging the University to divest.

Professor of Education Courtney B. Cazden said she circulated the petition in reaction to a letter sent last month at President Derek C. Bok's request to all Harvard alumni. That letter, signed by Joan T. Bok '51, president of the Board of Overseers, urged alumni not to vote for three candidates for Overseer who are running on a pro-divestment platform.

"The timing was provoked by the elections of the Board of Overseers," she said.

Cazden said she sent a mailing to all 260 faculty, administrators, and staff members of the Ed School and 89 of them agreed to affix their names to the petition calling for Harvard to divest of its $416 million in South Africa-related investments.

A similar petition for divestment was circulated at the Ed School last year, but it was restricted to faculty members, and about 35 people signed it, Cazden said.

"Since the situation hasn't changed, we feel we have to say it again," she said.

Before Joan Bok's letter was sent, Cazden asked and seven other current and former Ed school faculty members mailed a letter to all Ed School alumni, endorsing the pro-divestment candidates.

The faculty members said they wanted to tell the alumni: "Watch for the ballots. Don't throw them away. It's important this year," Cazden said. "There's never been this kind of really powerful issue."

"We do not believe in politicizing the University, but some issues are of transcendant importance; this is one," the letter says.

Lecturer on Education Joseph L. Featherstone '62, who drafted the letter, said the faculty members who signed it advocated a plan which would allow the University to divest gradually. Explaining that the faculty members had the University's interests in mind as well as the oppressed Blacks in South Africa, he said, "This isn't just a tantrum."