Since October, outsiders have bought five units and three more are in contract, said Joan Garvin, a corporate loan officer for a bank who is the president of the co-op board.

The fraternity issue was revived when an outsider, a person not affiliated with Bowdoin, bought a house for one of the fraternities and other all-male groups expressed similar intentions.

The Sherman family owns about a third of the fund, and the elder Mr. Sherman said yesterday that outsiders had not bought many shares in his fund so far this year.

Though outsiders - residents of other areas - can usually buy regional funds, they often appeal mainly to local pride.

In this type of investment, the managers of a company buy it away from its stockholders, or outsiders buy it from its owners and then restructure it.

The meeting was called to decide whether outsiders opposed by the current management could buy into the company.

To prevent the kind of real estate speculation that has expelled fishing families from many of Brazil's coastal resorts, outsiders cannot buy village houses.

The outsiders have bought into the British merchant banks when most analysts expect the banks' profit growth to trail off, after several years of rapid ascent.

Most peasants did not want to lose the safety of the commune or to permit outsiders to buy village land, however.

An outsider would never buy.