Pro-Divestment Officers Picked By Law Class

Elections for the Law School's 1988 Class Committee turned up gold for pro-divestment supporters last Wednesday and Thursday, as six of the eight positions were claimed by candidates with pro-divestment platforms.

The committee consists of eight different positions: Class Marshall, Class Secretary and six class committee members. All posts were voted upon solely by the members of the Law School Class of 1988, who elected the six pro-divestment candidates along with two students with no announced political position.

Newly elected Class Marshall Sal Casente, who was one of the two that took no political stand, will assume the traditional role of committee head, lead the class procession at graduation and provide general representation of the class at desig- nated times in the future.

"I don't oppose [the pro-divestmentcandidates'] position" Casente said. "But in myplatform, I just chose not to take a particularpolitical stand."

Divestment has only been an issue in theelections for two years, but in that time it hasdeveloped into the central point around which theannual competition revolves.

The class committee, which traditionally helpsraise money for the school's endowment inconjunction with the Alumni Association andprovides social functions for its class members,plans on staging many of the same type of eventsdespite its pro-divestment majority, the newmembers said.

However, they said they will put the moneyraised by such activities in escrow until thecommittee decides that the school has madepositive changes in their policy towards thesituation in South Africa.

"We would like to create an alternative fundother than the University's endowment,"newly-elected class officer Hillary Richard said.It will be "something similar to the E4D fund[Endowment for Divesture fund] that the Collegehas created."

"We ran specifically on the platform that wewould try to create an alternate fund," Richardsaid. "We are not refusing to solicit funds forthe University."

"We will hold the money we raise from theUniversity until they divest all funds from anybusinesses with investments in South Africa, oruntil the UN [United Nations] certifies that SouthAfrica has fully dismantled apartheid and turnedover the reigns of the government to its blackmajority," Richards said.

Although many of the newly-elected membersspecifically stated they were pro-divestment, theyalso showed a general concern for other Law Schoolissues such as faculty diversity, the tenureprocess and the role of students in administrativedecisions.

"Divestment is just one of many issues thingsthat we hope to make a stand on and contributeto," said Ron Davenport, the other new committeemember that took no political stand on the issue."There are many people in the class with concernsother than divestment.