The GM issue was not the only controversy in which Harvard Treasurer Bennett revealed his view of how Harvard should handle its investments. Harvard's tenth largest investment sum is placed in stock of Middle South Utilities, one of whose subsidiaries. Mississippi-Power and Light employs only 45 per cent black employees in an area where 50 per cent of the population is black. Investigations of two other Middle South subsidiaries-Arkansas Power and Light and Louisiana Power and Light-conducted by the Equal Opportunity Commission, revealed similar employment practices. One EEOC official said. in releasing the employment figures, "it is difficult for us to avoid the conclusion that the companies are guilty of severe discrimination against Negro employees."

Student critics of the Middle South investment asked not that Harvard sell its stock but that it use its prestige to change the policies of the company. Bennett sits on the Board of Directors of Middle South and Harvard owns five per cent of the company's stock. Yet the response of Harvard financial experts was to label the EEOC employment figures "a one-sided smear attack."

Investment policies have never been among the hotter issues at Harvard. Yet they are issues which can best unite radical and liberal students, Faculty, and alumni against the administration. Last year saw an increased criticism of Harvard's investments. Next year could bring more criticism and more anger from a united left.

Harvard as an Employer

Among the most complex issues which divided the University last year is the question of employment practices. Harvard has a rather spotty record on the hiring of minority groups. In April 1969, blacks made up 6.7 per cent of the Harvard work force. This was a jump from 5.2 per cent of a year earlier. But the figure did not include the Faculty, which is overwhelmingly white, and a breakdown of the jobs held by blacks revealed that most Harvard black employees were either in clerical positions or on maintenance crews.

Harvard has been trying for several years to improve its minority hiring program. One of the plans it set up with this end in mind was the so-called "painters helper" program. Under this system Harvard hired blacks as painters helpers in order to give them on-the-job training to becomepainters. Painters' helpers received a lower wage than painters.

In a Fall campaign which culminated in tre occupation of Dean May's office on November 19, SDS charged that the painters' helpers program was an example of subtle racism in the University. They said that many of the painters' helpers were in fact experienced painters and demanded that all painters' helpers be promoted to painters immediately.

The University responded by saying that it would investigate the problem. Sixteen students were required to leave the University for their part in the November 19 demonstration.

SDS is predominantly white, and for most of the Fall few blacks took part in demonstrations concerning the painters' helpers. On December 5, however, the Harvard Organization for Black Unity (OBU) seized University Hall. They issued three demands:

That Harvard raise the wages of all painters' helpers to those of painters and abolish the painters' helper category;

That 20 per cent of all workers employed at present and future construction sites be black or third world;

And that a mechanism be established to provide for a compliance officer to supervise those sites.

The 175 OBU members left University Hall after Administration spokesman Archibald Cox, professor of Law, agreed to negotiate the demands. Negotiations broke down six days later, chiefly because of disagreement over the 20 per cent figure. The administration charged that the figure was too high and that it did not correspond to the percentage of black workers in the Boston area as indicated by the 1960 census. OBU said that the 1960 figure was out of date, and that black and third world people constituted actually more than 20 per cent of the Boston population.

On December 11, OBU seized University Hall for the second time. The University first announced that the 91 blacks in the Hall were suspended and then obtained a court injunction against the demonstration. The blacks left the building at 4:45 p.m. after holding it for more than five hours.

Three developments cooled the situation in the following weeks. A new contract with the painters was negotiated which provided a mechanism for promoting the helpers. It did not, however, provide for immediate or automatic promotion.

In addition, the University appointed Clifford Alexander '54, former chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, to form a comprehensive minority hiring program for the University. Two new building contracts which the University signed on February 9, one for Gutman Library at the Education School and the other for an extension of Paine Hall, provided for the hiring of between 19 and 23 per cent black workers.