The Proxy Committee was established in 1974 as a sub-committee of the Board of Trustees Finance Committee. The purpose of the committee was to monitor the investments of Mount Holyoke College and inform the Finance Committee of actions by corporations in which the College was a share holder that did not comply with socially responsible practices. Much of the focus of the committee's work through the mid-1980s concerned the question of whether the College should divest itself of investments in companies doing business in South Africa or with the South African government, which the Board of Trustees voted to do in November, 1985 to protest that country's apartheid system. Other issues considered by the committee include corporate policies affecting the health of workers and the environment.

The records of the Proxy Committee date from 1973-1996 and concern the investments of Mount Holyoke College, particularly those in South Africa. Proxy Committee records also contain minutes, agenda, correspondence, and other documents generated by the Mount Holyoke faculty advisory Committee on Social Responsibility, which favored divestiture of investments in South Africa because of that country's apartheid system. Materials are arranged in three series: Meeting Binders, Subject Files, and Divestiture Materials; Correspondence, Committee on Social Responsibility Materials, Background Materials, and Reports; and Meeting Notebooks and Chronological Files. Meeting Binders, Subject Files, and Divestiture Materials (1973-1992) consist of minutes and agenda, reports, correspondence, questionnaires, notes, statements, resolutions, articles, and publications. These documents also include copies of a paper by a Mount Holyoke College student, Carol Ann Drogus entitled "An Analysis of Divestiture." Correspondence, Committee on Social Responsibility Materials, Background Materials, and Reports (1981-1994) were used by the Committee to prepare recommendations concerning the College's investments. Many of these reports were published by the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC). There are also two "Sullivan Reports" (1984, 1985) that discuss policies of corporations with regard to the fair and equal treatment of all employees. Meeting Notebooks and Chronological Files (1973-1996) contain minutes and agenda, reports, correspondence, questionnaires, statements, shareholder proposals, notes, proxy voting records, publications, and newspaper and magazine articles. These materials include minutes and reports of the Committee on Social Responsibility for 1978-1990, reports by the IRRC, and materials relating to the Sullivan and the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) investment principles.

This collection is organized into three series:

• Meeting Binders, Subject Files, and Divestiture Materials (1973-1992)
• Correspondence, Committee on Social Responsibility Materials, Background Materials, and Reports (1981-1994)
• Meeting Binders and Chronological Files (1973-1996)