To the editors:

It is with joy that we watched as Harvard honored President Nelson Mandela and the new democratic regime elected by all the people of South Africa. Our joy is for the South African people who have removed their oppressors from power, dismantled apartheid and begun rebuilding their country without violence in the spirit of truth and reconciliation.

But at the same time we cannot forget that, despite widespread student protests and organized alumni activity, Harvard for decades resisted African National Congress calls for divestment of its endowed portfolio from the apartheid regime.

We, along with thousands of other graduates, tried to change University policy by running and voting for petition candidates for the Board of Overseers on platforms stressing the moral issue of divestment; and in fact four Overseers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, were elected based on that message.

Now Harvard is jumping on the bandwagon of Mandela's worldwide fame and political success, attempting to obliterate that shameful history. It is both telling and amusing that the University Gazette (Sept. 24) managed to prepare a 28-paragraph front-page story without ever mentioning the protracted controversy over Harvard's South African investments and the stand of Harvard's governing boards throughout Mr. Mandela's long years in prison.

Harvard needs to apologize to the people of South Africa, as well as to generations of students and alums who tried to get the University to do the right thing at a time when it could have influenced events.

And Harvard needs to learn to listen more closely to the voices from within its own family when moral issues are raised that clearly outweigh its traditional single-minded emphasis on maximizing investment returns. JEROME GROSSMAN '38,   CHESTER HARTMAN '57, PH.D '67,   VICTOR W. SIDEL M.D. '57,   ROBERT PAUL WOLFF '53, PH.D. '57,   PETER WOOD '64   NOV. 1998