The Harvard Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR) yesterday released its 1998-99 annual report.

The document explained the CCSR's decisions for voting Harvard-owned shares on 99 company proposals "dealing with issues of social responsibility addressed to corporations whose securities are owned by Harvard."

Thirty of the proposals dealt with the environment, seven with labor practices and two with the tobacco industry.

The report also discussed proposals relating to diversity and equality in employment, nuclear power, military contracts, political action committees, executive compensation and doing business in countries with histories of human rights abuses.

"I think this was a year of business as usual," said Joseph L. Badaracco Jr., last year's chair of the University's Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR).

"There were some new aspects of old issues.... We addressed them and started a dialogue with the CCSR about them," added Badarucco, the Shad Professor of Business Ethics at Harvard Business School.

The CCSR and ASCR work together to ensure that Harvard applies its policies consistently in shareholder voting.

The CCSR, acting for the President and Fellows of the University, decides how Harvard votes its shares. The ACSR, composed of faculty, students and alumni, makes recommendations to the CCSR on selected proposals. The report includes the findings of both committees.