When Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni Against Apartheid (HRAAA) was formed in 1986, one of its primary goals was to elect pro-divestment candidates to the Board of Overseers, the University's junior governing board.

And for several years, it was successful in doing so. By 1989, four Overseers had been elected as petition candidates to the 30-member alumni governing board--three under HRAAA's auspices and one independently.

Each year, Harvard alumni elect five Overseers to six year terms. Since 1986, HRAAA has fielded its own slate of candidates against the official nominees of the Harvard Alumni Association.

Since 1989, however, no petition candidates have been elected to the Board--the result, HRAAA officials charge, of Harvard Alumni Association campaigning against "one-issue" candidates and of election reforms that "titled the playing field" in favor of official candidates.

And now the organization' moral trump card--divestment from South Africa--has been weakened by a series of South African political moves, including the release of Nelson Manuela and the passage of the De Klerk referendum.

It is no wonder, then, that HRAAA's decision not to field petition candidates this year was widely interpreted as the group's death notice.

"I think that the organization may be about to wrap it up," said former HRAAA Executive Director Robert P. Wolff '54 earlier this spring.

And Overseer Gay W. Seidman '78, who was elected as a petition candidate in 1985, said, "I actually didn't know HRAAA still existed until last week."

In fact, HRAAA is still very much alive, and is planning to expand its scope of action in the coming year, according to Jan L. Handke, the group's current executive director.

At least one activity under consideration--a conference on campus racism--might show the public for the first time that HRAAA is indeed more than a "one-issue" organization.

"It could spark a lot of useful efforts at campuses all over," Handke says.

In addition, next fall HRAAA plans to start a newsletter that would inform people of developments concerning aparthied.

And according to one source close to the group, it is likely that HRAAA will again field its own candidates for the Board of Overseers in future years.

Handke says HRAAA did not nominate candidates this year because it chose to focus its energies where it could "maximize" their contributions.

Though many anti-apartheid activists still argue that complete divestment must be pursued until more significant changes take place in South Africa, the Harvard administration is already beginning to think in terms of reinvesting. It is clear to HRAAA that the group will not succeed in effecting a shift towards total divestment from South Africa.

Although the group never elected enough Overseers actually to change the University's stance on divestment, its members and former officials say they believe its efforts were worth-while nonetheless.

"I think a lot of issues got raised inside and outside the board," Said-man says.

And Wolff says, "I think we mobilized a large number of socially conscious alumni."

HRAAA-nominated Overseers and HRAAA officials repeatedly emphasize that they are not focused only on the one issue of divestment. The Alumni Association seems to disagree.

"I don't have a lot of support in my mind or my heart for people who have one particular issue that they're interested in at the expense of everything else," says John P. Reardon '60, executive director of the Alumni Association, adding that he believes non-petition candidates are already socially responsible.

But Reardon says, "I would hope that the University can always work well with any of the alumni that our electorate feel want to be on that board."

Transition Year

The first year of President Neil L. Rudenstine's administration has been one of transition and adjustment for the Corporation, the University's seven-member chief governing board.

"The main thing the Corporation did was get acquainted with Neil and Neil with us," says Corporation Treasurer D. Ronald Daniel, who describes the new president as "a very good questioner as well as a good listener."

The Corporation also chose a new member, Richard A. Smith, age 67, to replace the late Gilette CEO Colman M. Mockler '52. Two other Corporation members, Robert G. Stone Jr. '45 and Charles P. Slichter '45, are approaching 70, the age at which members traditionally step down.

Stone's fundraising acumen will be missed if he steps down, Daniel says, as will be Slichter's contributions as one of only two academics on the board.

In other developments, the Board of Overseers this year moved closer to a committee recommendation on the University's needs in computers and technology.

Also, the Board has formed a new committee on the arts, chaired by actor John A. Lithgow '67.

Next year, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Arthur A. Hartman '47 will take over from financier Franklin D. Raines '71 as the board's chair.