Protesters Lie in Front of Cars, Block Stanford Trustees : Stanford Trustees’ Cars Blocked by Bodies of Protesters

STANFORD —  About 50 Stanford University students protesting the school’s investments in companies doing business with South Africa lay down in front of the cars of university trustees Tuesday, blocking the trustees’ exit from a board meeting.

Most of the trustees quickly found other transportation and, although campus police were present, there were no arrests.

The trustees, who had just voted not to totally divest the university of its holdings in the companies, appeared unruffled by the demonstration and inconvenience.

“The students have been fine,” said Trustee John T. Packard. “It’s a nonviolent demonstration and they are outraged at what’s happening in South Africa; they want to be part of something that might do some good.”

‘Abhorrence of Apartheid’

The trustees, in deciding not to take an immediate hard-line anti-apartheid stance, agreed to work with university President Donald Kennedy to “form a consortium of university and industry leaders to seek ways of influencing the repeal of apartheid laws in South Africa,” according to a statement released by the board.

The trustees also expressed “their abhorrence of apartheid” and called the school’s current divestment policy inadequate.

Two months ago, the board recommended that the university sell more than 100,000 shares of Motorola Inc. stock if it could be shown that the company had been doing business with South Africa’s military and police after 1982. Officials of Motorola denied that the company had been dealing with South African military and police in recent years and there has been no divestment of the stock.

A spokesman for the anti-apartheid demonstrators estimated that Stanford has about $215 million invested in firms engaged in business with South Africa.

University treasurer Rod Adams said Tuesday that the $215-million figure “sounds about right,” though he added that the sum varies on a daily basis as the value of stocks rises and falls.

Students have been staging a sit-in demonstration in a university plaza for several weeks, protesting apartheid and the school’s links with South Africa.