Columbia University voted to divest certain stocks.

The university’s board of trustees voted to sell nearly all of its $39 million of common stock in companies doing business in South Africa, school officials said. “Divestment strengthens our condemnation of apartheid,” Columbia President Michael I. Sovern said in a statement. Columbia will divest itself by October, 1987, of all stock in companies that have South African operations, except for “appropriate exceptions,” such as news media companies with bureaus in South Africa. The university’s investment portfolio totals about $900 million.