- January/February 2003 Harvard Magazine letters "ROTC
at Harvard" (letters about the "Crimson, White, and
Blue" article in the November/December issue). Note:
Responses to these letters appeared in
the March - April issue.
- 7 January 2003 FrontPage Magazine article "Harvard
vs. ROTC". Correction: ROTC is not
banned at Dartmouth.
- 9 January 2003 National Review column "Think
ROTC: Building
our forces" by Stanley Kurtz. Comment:
Kurtz points out that Congressman
Rangel's goal of getting a full cross section of American young
people involved with the military could best be achieved by restoring
ROTC programs.
- 10 January 2003 Stanford Daily article "Republicans
push for ROTC return".
- 11 January 2003 Kalamazoo Gazette article "Threat
of war aids revival of ROTC". Comment: ROTC
cadets in uniform sometimes report awkward moments on campus. One
recounts "People come up and give you hugs".
- 15 January 2003 Harvard Crimson column "Letting Students Be Soldiers"
by Richard C. Arthur. Comment: Arthur outlines steps
universities could take to facilitate students serving in the
military. Currently, one student who managed to squeeze military
service into his Harvard years has been called
up to serve. Arthur also points out benefits of military
experience among the nation's leaders: "One need look no farther than Clinton’s first presidential term as proof of the miscalculations that can occur when ignorance and distrust are pronounced features of the civil-military
relationship."
- 17 January 2003 Stanford Daily editorial "ROTC
does not live up to University’s standards". Comment:
The editorial states incorrectly that the rules on gays in the military
are "the military’s policy"; actually they are federal law,
as documented on Stanford's "Don't
ask, don't tell, don't pursue Web site.
- 29 January 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Rangel's
Wake-Up Call" by Eric Chen. Comment:
Representative Charles B. Rangel called
for a return of the military draft because a "disproportionate number
of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the
military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or
absent." It turns out he was wrong
about the racial mix of the military but he may be correct about the mix
of economic backgrounds. Chen points out that the best way to rectify
this imbalance of economic backgrounds is to restore ROTC at elite
universities.
- 3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator Op-Ed "ROTC and Opportunity"
by Jennifer Thorpe.
- 3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator article "Senate
Reaches Solution For Censorship Concerns". Note:
This article also discusses ROTC: "[Columbia President] Bollinger
was also asked for his opinion on bringing ROTC back to Columbia, more
than 30 years after it was banned from campus during the Vietnam War.
Bollinger said he did not have a strong opinion in either direction and
would welcome a discussion of the issue."
- 3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Return Proposals Provoke Activist Criticism". Note: "At University Senate meeting on Friday, Bollinger made clear that any reinstatement of ROTC will have to begin at the student level, not the administrative level."I think this is something that if there are a significant number of people in the community who want to make this an issue, we should take it up," Bollinger said. "I don't think this is something that should come from the top.""
- 5 February 2003 Columbia spectator letter "'Don't
Ask, Don't Tell' Shows Military Still Needs Reform" by Ross McSweeney,
CC '02.
- 6 February 2003 Brown Daily Herald article "Brown
student participation in ROTC is expected to grow".
- 13 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "The
Myth of Anti-Military Bias" by Merlin Chowkwanyun. Comment:
Chowkwanyun argues that the military, more than Congress, is responsible for
the 1993 Federal
Law mandating the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy for the
military.
- 14 February 2003 Columbia Spectator
letters "Articles Fail to Accurately Cover Campus ROTC Debate" by Shane
Hachey, GS '04 and "CU Should Support Student Participation in the Military"
by Jeff Sult, TC '03.
- 16 February 2003 Cleveland Plain Dealer article "ROTC
programs see increase in enrollments across nation".
- 17 February 2003 Tri-City Herald (WA) article "Retired military chiefs backing Michigan school's admissions policies".
- 19 February 2003 Amicus
brief to United States Supreme Court by retired military leaders in
support of affirmative action in ROTC.
- 20 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "The Truth About ROTC"
by Sean Wilkes.
- 20 February 2003 Michigan Daily article "Former
military officers seek to further diversity".
- 21 February 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Study:
Military Policy on Gays Unfounded; Harvard
research shows ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ does not protect privacy".
Comment: The study suggests there is a drawback to using a
privacy rationale for justifying the 1993 Federal
Law mandating the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy for the
military since the law "mandates investigations into peoples’
sexual orientation that can often be “invasive”". It also
points out that "the privacy rationale will soon become less
relevant, with a planned military barracks construction program giving
most men and women private baths and bedrooms within the next few
years". This leaves unanswered important questions about
sexual privacy when troops are deployed, but implies it may be useful to
think of the issue of gays in the military as a gender issue, similar to
issues about women in the military.
- 24 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "Spectator
Needs to Maintain Higher Journalistic Standards" by Eric Gutman, SEAS
'03.
-
24 February 2003 Justice Talking debate "Military
Recruiting".
- 27 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Collateral
Damage" by Yoni Appelbaum.
- 28 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
Curriculum Does Not Match Ivy League Standards" by Merlin Chowkwanyun,
CC '05.
- March -April 2003 Harvard Magazine letters "The
Debate About ROTC". Note: These are
responses to letters
in the January - February issue.
- 3 March 2003 Yale Daily News article "In
small ROTC corps, focus and discipline".
- 3 March 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "Opinion
Article's ROTC Arguments Fail To Convince" by Michael Noble, CC '05.
-
5 March 2003 Eliot and Rafi Cohen - Family Tradition in Harvard ROTC
-
5 March 2003 Charles and Jeff Munns - Family Tradition in Naval ROTC
-
6 March 2003 FrontPage Magazine article "".
-
9 March 2003 Associated Press article "Policy Toward Gays Faces Criticism".
-
10 March 2003 Ventura County Star article "Students, faculty protesting ROTC on CSUN campus:
Groups say Hispanics targeted".
-
11 March 2003 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today "Left-Wingers Against Affirmative Action"
by James Taranto. Comment: Taranto discusses the 10 March
Ventura County Star
article about "targeting" of Hispanics for ROTC and points out
the irony of opposing affirmative action for Hispanics.
-
13 March 2003 Tahlequah (OK) Daily Press article "ROTC
returns". Note: The article notes that "a
study conducted in 2000 determined that students of Native American and
Hispanic descent were not being provide equal access to ROTC programs."
-
22 March 2003 Fayetteville Observer article "1st ROTC Region deactivated".
Note:
Army ROTC will consolidate its three ROTC regions into two, closing the 1st
ROTC region headquarters at Fort Bragg NC. Details of the new
organization were not spelled out.
-
24 March 2003 Daily Iowan article "After vandalism, ROTC drops uniforms".
-
25 March 2003 Hardin County Kentucky News-Enterprise article
"ROTC scale back will bring new positions to Knox".
Note: The new Army ROTC organization will be along "East-West"
lines, with Fort Knox Kentucky in charge of the East.
-
30 March 2003 New York Times article "Military
Mirrors Middle-Class America".
-
31 March 2003 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today
"Masters
of the Obvious" by James Taranto. Comment:
Taranto discusses the 30 March New York Times article "Military
Mirrors Middle-Class America" and suggests "the most obvious way of getting more Harvard students into the military: reinstating ROTC on
campus... If the absence of recruits with an elite education really is a national problem, the first step toward solving it is an attitude adjustment in the ivory
towers".
-
1 April 2003 Columbia Spectator article "Panel
Speakers Link ROTC to War With Iraq". Comment:
One student argued for not having ROTC cadets on campus because, she said, members
of the armed forces are trained to "evaporate dissent".
Another "condemned the entire U.S. military as racist, lamenting what
she called disproportionate numbers of low-income people of color serving in
the military's rank-and-file". The ROTC program that serves
Columbia graduated an ROTC cadet named Colin
Powell, who faced no glass ceiling in his advancement in the military
and beyond.
-
2 April 2003 New York Times article "For
a Future Soldier, Life on a Liberal Campus Can Be a Battle".
-
2 April 2003 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed column "My
Ivy League Soldier: Why is that such a rare combination?" by Regina
E. Herzlinger. Comment: A Harvard Business School
Professor tells of her son, who did ROTC while at Harvard, and says the
country would be better off if more graduates of elite colleges served in
the military. Prof. Herzlinger is a member of Advocates
for Harvard ROTC.
-
3 April 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Military
Intelligence" by Brian Wagner. Comment: Wagner
dissects the anti-ROTC arguments made at a
Columbia
College forum.
-
3 April 2003 USC Daily Trojan column "ROTC bashing reveals problem"
by William Goodwin. Note: The Dartmouth Army ROTC
program is on
campus, officially through "an extension school for Norwich University",
and the Professors of Military Science have Dartmouth faculty appointments.
-
5 April 2003 New York Times article "Professors
Protest as Students Debate". Comment: The
article mentions the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and the response to
ROTC at Princeton. "When Gary J. Bass, an assistant professor of
politics at Princeton, asked his class on "Causes of War" how many
students were in R.O.T.C., two raised their hands. The rest applauded."
-
7 April 2003 Cornell Daily Sun article "ROTC
Confronts The War on Iraq: Cadets relate experiences". Comment:
A cadet at one of the four Ivy League colleges with campus-based ROTC
describes student attitudes.
-
8 April 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Don't
Question or Doubt the ROTC" by James Pulizzi. Note:
See response
letter
on 10 April.
-
8 April 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
at Ivy League Will Improve Diversity of Military" by Sean Wilkes CC '06.
-
8 April 2003 The Hill column "ROTC
at Yale remains a distant concept".
-
10 April 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
Program Would be Valuable to Columbia Community" by Eric Chen.
Note: This is a response to the 8 April
Pulizzi
column.
-
10 April 2003 The Dartmouth article "As
war continues, students prepare for military service: College ROTC trainees
take conflict in stride".
-
10 April 2003 Yale Daily News article "Panel
urges ties between Yale, military".
-
10 April 2003 Associated Press article "ROTC,
Activists Co-Exist on Campus". Comment: A report
on ROTC at Princeton, mentioning Princeton Naval ROTC graduate Donald
Rumsfeld.
-
12 April 2003 Ithaca Journal article "ROTC
trains at Cornell".
-
14 April 2003 Stanford Daily article "ROTC
readies military leaders".
-
17 April 2003 Columbia Spectator article "High
Turnout Decides CC Student Council Election". Comment:
Towards the end of the article is results from "a referendum asking if
the University should prohibit the ROTC from having a chapter at Columbia".
By a vote of 973 to 530, students favored allowing ROTC. The students
do not have an official say in the decision.
-
21 April 2003 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web
Today "Harvard
Hangups" by James Taranto. Comment: Taranto
notes the 973 to 530 student vote for ROTC at Columbia and observes how
times have changed.
-
22 April 2003 Stanford Daily column "Under
Bush administration, ROTC is not admirable program" by John
Martin. Comment: A Stanford alumnus argues that ROTC cadets
should refuse to fight outside the USA, risking court martial and
imprisonment.
-
24 April 2003 Stanford Daily column "Stanford
needs ROTC to train leaders, teach discipline" by Jeffrey C.
Needham.
-
25 April 2003 Wall Street Journal column "A
Marine's Story: "God, country, Notre Dame": For some on campus,
two out of three are enough."
-
27 April 2003 Washington Post article "First
Person Singular: Maj. Jon J. Chytka - Assistant Professor and ROTC
enrollment officer, Washington". Note: Maj.
Chytka is with the Army ROTC Hoya
Battalion and his faculty appointment is from Georgetown University.
-
May 2003 Johns Hopkins University "Policy
on the Reserve Officer Training Corps". Note: The
university, which has an Army ROTC
program, has a disclaimer that "Johns Hopkins University does not
discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, age, sexual
orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, marital status or
veteran status in any student program or activity administered by the
university or with regard to admission or employment. Defense Department
discrimination in ROTC programs on the basis of sexual orientation conflicts
with this university policy. The university is committed to encouraging a
change in the Defense Department policy." One should note, however,
that "Don't
ask, don't tell" is a federal law, not merely a Defense Department
policy.
-
1 May 2003 Bay Windows Op-Ed "Bring
Back Campus ROTC" by Paul Varnell. Comment: This
article is of particular significance because Bay Windows describes itself
as "New England's largest gay and lesbian newspaper". Note,
however, that the rules about gays in the military are federal
law, not a military policy.
-
2 May 2003 MIT News article "Army
ROTC honors Paul Gray".
-
9 May 2003 FrontPage Magazine
column "Graduation
Present: It's Not 1968 at Columbia Anymore" by Ron Lewenberg.
-
14 May 2003
Defense Business
Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: In a meeting
of the Defense Business Board, Fred Cook said "we would like to have a DBB study on
an effort to bring ROTC back to elite Northeast campuses that kicked them
off campus during Vietnam. We want to set up meetings with the Assistant
Secretaries of the Services to see if we could move forward."
Dana Mead noted "There is an alumni contingent at Harvard, that would like to see this
back."
-
19 May 2003 Speech by Senator
John F. Kerry in Manchester New Hampshire "A
New Era of National Service". Note: Senator Kerry
said "I also believe no university that receives federal aid should be
allowed to ban the ROTC from campus. It hurts our students; it hurts our
colleges; it hurts our country. It is wrong - and under a Kerry
Administration, it will be illegal."
-
27 May 2003 New York Times article "Trust
in the Military Heightens Among Baby Boomers' Children".
-
3 June 2003 Harvard ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony.
-
3 June 2003 Harvard
President Lawrence H. Summers' speech at the ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony. Note:
President Summers said "Harvard aspires to train leaders of our
country" and includes military leaders in this universal vision for the
university.
-
4 June 2003 Harvard Crimson article
"Eight
Cadets Become Officers In Yard Ceremony".
- 4 June 2003 Bull Moose Republicans Op-Ed "" by Bill Fusz.
-
5 June 2003 Harvard Gazette article
"ROTC members commissioned:
Graduates prepared to serve their country". See also a
photo
of some of the graduating midshipmen.
-
18 June 2003 MIT Tech article "ROTC
Discrimination Statement to Change". Note: A
reference to MIT attempts to change the "Don't ask, don't
tell" law
was removed from MIT statements since that effort is dormant. In
addition, the opening of some ROTC courses to non-ROTC students is
detailed.
-
18 June 2003 MIT Tech editorial "Revisiting
Gays in ROTC".
-
Summer 2003 Parameters
article "Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell: Is the Gay Ban Based on Military Necessity?"
by Aaron Belkin.
-
July/August 2003 Harvard Magazine article "Commencement
Confetti". Note: the article includes a
photo and account of Rear Admiral Charles L. Munns administering the
oath of office to his son, graduating midshipman Jeffrey C. Munns '03.
-
9 July 2003 MIT Tech column "Gays
And ROTC" by Prof. Michael J. Piore.
-
30 July 2003
Defense
Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note:
In a discussion about ROTC on elite colleges by the
Defense Business
Board,
Fred Cook said "Dr.
David Chu is highly supportive but the Services are reluctant."
Dennis Bovin said "Mr. Larry Summers indicated that the mood on campus
has changed. Now might be a good time to get onto campus."
-
August 2003 Harvard College Freshman Dean's Office "Guide
for the class of 2007: ROTC".
-
10 August 2003 Washington Post Op-Ed "Repressing
ROTC" by Christina Hoff Sommers.
-
16 August 2003 Washington Post letter "Colleges
and the ROTC, In Good Times and Bad" by Robert V. Hamilton.
-
24 August 2003 New York Times Magazine article "Harvard
Radical" by James Traub '76. Note: Traub cites
Harvard President Lawrence Summers' support for ROTC as one of the defining
stands of his presidency.
-
25 August 2003 National Public Radio "All Things Considered"
segment "In
Hilla, U.S. Troops and Locals Get Along". Note: NPR
interviewed Harvard graduate Seth Moulton '01 about his TV show in Iraq.
-
28 August 2003 Washington Post article "Enrollment
Rising In ROTC Programs
". Note: In the last academic year, nationwide
increases in total ROTC enrollment were: Army 29,818 to 30,824 cadets (3.4%), Air
Force 14,308 to 17,513 cadets (22%), Navy 5,831 to 6,068 midshipmen (4.1%).
-
7 September 2003 New York Times article "Britain's
Upper Crust Still Soldiers On". Note: Many elite
British private schools "require their pupils to spend one year in a
uniformed cadet force to learn military skills". This accounts
for the high representation of British elites in the military.
-
18 September 2003 Hofstra
University conference "Don't
Ask, Don't Tell: 10 years later". Note: One of the
sessions focused on the ROTC issue.
-
25 September 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Radical
Group To Rival BGLTSA: Founders
favor queer ‘resistance’". The newly-formed "Queer
Resistance Front" "protested and picketed the ROTC table at the
Freshman and Upperclass Activities Fairs for their “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell” policy towards queer members of the military."
-
10 October 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Panel
Discusses Military Policy Toward Gays".
-
28 October 2003 Harvard Crimson column "Respecting
ROTC" by Travis R. Kavulla ’06.
-
29 October 2003 Harvard Crimson article "More
Students Enroll in ROTC: Class of 18 first-years is largest in recent years".
-
1 November 2003
World and I article "Share
the Burden or Fob it Off? : National Service and a Common Vision" by
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg.
Note: The president of George Washington University
observed that "practically no members of Congress or their staff members
have served in the military and, thus, were in no better position than
the average citizen or reporter to evaluate truly what was going on" in
military operations. "What this means (and this is melancholy) is
that most of us are not particularly sympathetic to military needs
because we are ignorant of what the military actually does and how it
goes about doing it. I can say this because I have the honor of an
informative (and rather humbling) experience, serving on the executive
panel of the chief of naval operations."
-
12 November 2003 Tufts Daily article "Alumni,
cadets work to gain credit for ROTC classes".
-
13 November 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Pressure
Builds Against Military Recruiting: Despite HLS Petition, Summers Says Harvard Won't Challenge Solomon".
Note : University General Counsel Robert W. Iuliano wrote
“[F]or a variety of institutional considerations, including the partnership
that exists between universities and the federal government in a number of
important areas, the university itself does not expect to take the
adversarial step of initiating litigation”.
-
13 November 2003 Tufts
Daily editorial "Fighting
for Tufts' beliefs".
-
17 November 2003 Tufts Daily editorial "Giving
credit to the Cadets".
-
18 November 2003 Harvard Crimson article "HLS
Professors Will Soon File Solomon Suit: Summers explains University’s reluctant stance on litigation".
-
20 November 2003
Defense
Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes.
Note: The participants in the Defense Business Board
meeting discussed
"implementing ROTC programs at top tier schools".
Dov Zakheim
mentioned the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and said "I spoke to
the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and he is extremely interested ... We
would like to get on the campus at Harvard. The President of
Harvard has showed an interest in this."
Bill Carr raised the
possibility of restoring ROTC at Yale, citing the difficulty of Yale
students traveling to ROTC programs at other colleges. He also
discussed the tradeoff between getting top tier cadets and paying the
high cost of ROTC scholarships to top tier schools. The group
recommended to "approach Harvard's President first and if successful,
then approach Yale, Columbia and Brown".
-
24 November 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Students
Get West Point Experience, For a Weekend".
-
25 November 2003 Harvard Crimson editorial "Acting
Unwise on Solomon".
-
8 December 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Alums’
Letter Blasts Summers: Gay, lesbian alums
call for Harvard to fight Solomon Amendment.
-
10 December 2003 New York Times article "Gay
Ex-Officers Say 'Don't Ask' Doesn't Work". Note: Two
retired generals and one retired admiral announce that they are gay and
"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said the Bush administration will
not revisit the policy". It is not clear whether Secretary
Rumsfeld was referring to
regulations
interpreting the
1993 law or some or all changes in the law itself.
-
20 December 2003 Princeton
University Army ROTC "Fifth
Annual Newsletter". Note: University President
Shirley Tilghman "agreed to chair the ROTC commissioning ceremony for the
Class of 2004". She said “Our ROTC cadets represent the most tangible
evidence on campus of the University motto, In the Nation’s Service”.
-
23 December 2003 Bandera Roja
press release "Universitarios
se reúnen con Presidente de la UPR para exigir cierre del ROTC".
Note: A socialist group backing the occupation of an
Air Force
ROTC site at the
University of Puerto
Rico at Mayagüez reports that the university president promised not to
remove the occupiers.
-
2003: Kerry
Presidential campaign statement "John
Kerry's plan to enlist citizens in the cause of a safer, stronger and more
secure America". Note: Senator Kerry signals approval of
current law about ROTC and federal funding ("Solomon
Amendment") and suggests a new step to bolster ROTC programs at elite
institutions despite their higher tuition: "In a Kerry Administration, no
university that receives federal aid will be allowed to ban the ROTC from
their campus, except for religious reasons. And the ROTC scholarship program
will be adequately funded so that students can attend the college of their
choice."
-
9 January 2004 Frente Universitario por la Desmilitarización
y la Educación (FUDE) press release "Anti-ROTC
Civil Disobedience Encampment at the University of Puerto Rico".
Note: An anti-military organization pushes to ban ROTC from the
University of Puerto
Rico at Mayagüez, taking over the construction site where an
Air Force ROTC building
was being re-built.
- 11 January 2004 New York Times article "Challenge
for Bootstrap General Is Winning Over the Wary Iraqis".
Note: Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of allied forces in
Iraq, talks of his ROTC experiences.
- 12 January 2004 The Dartmouth "Far
from Hanover, military alums reflect".
-
14 January 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Faculty
File Brief Against Pentagon". Note: A majority of
Harvard Law School faculty argue that denying access of military recruiters
to some Harvard Law School facilities does not violate the provision in the
Solomon Amendment about
universities prohibiting or preventing the military from "gaining entry to
campuses, or access to students ... on campuses, for purposes of military
recruiting".
-
20 January 2004 Bandera Roja press release "Rescatan
edificio del Army ROTC en Mayagüez". Note: A
socialist group announces the occupation the
Army ROTC building at
University of Puerto
Rico at Mayagüez.
-
21 January 2004 Advocates for Columbia ROTC press release "Columbia
University and ROTC". Note: Columbia now offers
information about ROTC on its Web
site and will list ROTC courses on student transcripts.
-
22 January 2004 Bandera Roja press release "¿Porqué
el ROTC debe salir de la Universidad?". Comment: A
socialist group calls for the elimination of ROTC at
the University of Puerto
Rico, arguing that Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford have eliminated ROTC
without losing federal funding. However, the
Solomon Amendment would
not apply for these colleges unless the military asked to re-establish the
units at those colleges. In contrast, the military has already
indicated a desire to have ROTC units at the University of Puerto Rico since
they exist now.
-
27 January 2004 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Marches Back to Columbia: New Web Site, Registration Credit Give ROTC
Supporters Hope for Program at CU".
-
28 January 2004 Letters to President
Bush and University of Puerto Rico President Padilla
from 1952 University of Puerto Rico ROTC Class, asking for assistance in
rebuilding ROTC buildings damaged by hurricane George. Note:
Anti-military demonstrators were preventing the rebuilding.
-
29 January 2004 Puerto Rico Wow article "Popular
senator favors ousting ROTC from RUM".
-
2 February 2004 Columbia University "Grants
and Scholarships from Sources Other than Columbia". Note:
Columbia adds information about financial support from ROTC to its financial
aid Web site.
-
3 February 2004 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Return Proposals Provoke Activist Criticism". Note:
President Bollinger "made clear that any reinstatement of ROTC will have to
begin at the student level, not the administrative level."
-
3 February 2004 Columbia Spectator editorial "Bring
Back ROTC". Note: Columbia's student newspaper calls
for the return of ROTC based on the importance of integrating the military
with society and ensuring a diversity of views on campus.
-
5 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Bringing
ROTC to Columbia Will Not Reform the Armed Services" by Michael
Castleman, SEAS '03.
-
6 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
Trains Its Members to Be Leaders of Society, Not Just Killers" by James
Bondarchuk, CC '05.
-
6 February 2004 Dartmouth Free
Press column "Student
Soldiers at Dartmouth" by Welton Chang.
-
14 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Articles
Fail to Accurately Cover Campus ROTC Debate" by Shane Hachey, GS '04.
-
14 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "CU
Should Support Student Participation in the Military" by Jeff Sult, TC
'03.
-
14 February 2004 Puerto Rico Wow article "Security
cameras could be installed at the ROTC". Note: "Following
Friday’s intentional fire at the ROTC military program building at the
University of Puerto Rico, Ponce campus, vice chancellor Jaime Marrero said
he will increase security within the campus. A fire described as
intentional by firemen caused damages to computers and equipment at the ROTC
building in Ponce. Commander Norberto Jimenez said the fire was
intentional because two Molotov bombs were found inside the building."
-
17 February 2004 Letter to Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley "Restoration
of ROTC" from Admiral B. James Lowe CC'51. Note: Admiral
Lowe mentions a commitment from Provost Brinkley "to form a committee from
the faculty senate to review the advantages and disadvantages that would be
derived from restoration of the ROTC to Columbia".
-
18 February 2004 Daily Princetonian article "ROTC
graduates face challenges overseas".
-
18 February 2004 letter "Help
End Discrimination at our Nation’s Top Colleges and Universities:
Cosponsor the R.O.T.C. and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act"
by Congressman Christopher Cox.
-
20 February 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Government
Pushes Solomon Amendment".
-
20 February 2004 Dartmouth Free
Press column "ROTC:
Five Years of Obscurity" by Welton Chang.
-
24 February 2004 Puerto Rico Wow article "FBI
to investigate fire at ROTC".
-
1 March 2004
Report
of the Task Group on Increasing Diversity in DoD's Flag and Senior Executive
Ranks. Note: This report of a
Defense Business Board
task force suggested "In an effort to tap into a broader pool of high
potential minority candidates and to attract them to military service, the
military services should attempt to reestablish ROTC detachments at the
"elite" colleges and universities that dropped ROTC in the aftermath of the
Vietnam War.... Note, success may require an increase in scholarship aid at
these schools because their tuitions are higher than at less competitive
schools."
-
2 March 2004 Presentation in Spanish and English to the
Ad-Hoc Military Science Committee of the Academic Senate of the University
of Puerto Rico
at Mayagüez "Historial
de Documentos que Afectan los Programas ROTC y a las Universidades de PR y
de EU" by Prof. Hiram González, former director of the Military Science
program at UPRM. Formats: Web presentation
or PowerPoint document.
-
4 March 2004 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "We
Were Souljahs" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto.
Note: Taranto notes with approval Senator John F. Kerry's
support for ROTC on campus. Taranto also refers to "the military's Clinton-era "don't
ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals", which is a federal law
called "Policy
concerning homosexuality in the armed forces".
-
5 March 2004 Dartmouth Free
Press column "Life
in the Dartmouth ROTC" by Welton Chang.
-
5 March 2004 El Vocero de
Puerto Rico article "Macheteros
entran en pugna ROTC". Note: The article describes how
Professor Hiram González, former director of the Military Science program at
UPRM, was threatened by the Macheteros, an armed Puerto Rican Independence
organization.
-
5 March 2004 El Vocero de
Puerto Rico column "Posiciones
políticas hermafroditas" by José Garriga Picó. Note:
The writer, a political science professor at the University of Puerto Rico,
describes the neither-here-nor-there positions of the university leadership,
government of Puerto Rico and candidate for Resident Commissioner to the
Congress of the United States on ROTC.
-
5 March 2004 Puerto Rico
Herald column "The
ROTC Litmus Test" by John Marino.
-
6 March 2004 El Vocero de
Puerto Rico column "Camino
de la anarquía" by Luis R. Dávila Colón. Note: The
article describes how the government of Puerto Rico has tolerated violence
against the institutions of the federal government, including ROTC.
-
12 March 2004 US House of
Representatives bill 3966 "ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to
Campus Act of 2004".
Full text introduced by
Rep. Mike Rogers
(R-AL) with his
amendment.
Note: The bill clarifies the language in
the Solomon Amendment
challenged by a majority of Harvard Law School's professors.
-
16 March 2004 US House of
Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce press release "Boehner
Backs Bill to Ensure Equal Access for Military Recruiters at U.S. Colleges
and Universities; Proposal Reinforces Homeland Security Act". Note:
The article sums up the provisions of the "ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal
Access to Campus Act of 2004", sponsored by
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL).
-
16 March 2004 Tufts Daily
article "ROTC resolution passed by TCU".
Note:
The Tufts Community Union Senate voted 14 - 5 to support academic credit for
ROTC courses.
-
17 March 2004 Puerto Rico Wow
article "Dismantling
of anti-ROTC camp in Mayaguez begins". Note: UPR Dean
Arocho decided that ROTC will stay on campus but not get a new building.
-
17 March 2004 US House of
Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce press release "House
GOP Education Committee Members Praise Armed Services Committee for Passage
of Bill Ensuring Equal Access for Military Recruiters". Note: The
bill has 25 co-sponsors, including three key chairmen-- Homeland
Security Committee Chairman Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA); Armed Services Committee
Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA); and Education & Workforce Chairman
Rep. John
Boehner (R-OH). The Ranking Democrat member of the Committee,
Ike Skelton
(D-MO), made a statement expressing strong support for the bill.
-
17 March 2004 Joplin
Independent article "If
accepting fed funding, must allow ROTC".
-
18 March 2004 US House of
Representatives Armed Services Committee press release "HASC
approves legislation". Note: The committee approved
by voice vote H.R. 3966, the ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to
Campus Act of 2004. This
legislation was introduced on March 12, 2004, by
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and referred to the Committee on Armed Services and the
Committee on Education and the Workforce.
-
19 March 2004 Tufts Daily
article "Senate
resolution divides TTLGBC and TJO: Course credit for ROTC students a hot
issue".
-
21 March 2004 "Brief:
Proposal to Return ROTC to Columbia’s Campus" by
Advocates for Columbia ROTC and
Students United for America.
Note: The
document is also on the Web site of the
Columbia University Senate.
-
25 March 2004 University of
Wisconsin Badger Herald article "ROTC could be
kicked off campuses".
-
25 March 2004 Yale Daily News
article "Armed
Services approves bill strengthening Solomon".
-
25 March 2004 Indiana Daily
Student article "House
protects campus recruiting: Lawmakers to stiffen fines against colleges who
ban military recruiters".
- 26 March 2004 Columbia University Senate minutes "Proposal
to bring ROTC back to Columbia".
-
29 March 2004 Columbia
Spectator article "Senate
Passes ROTC Task Force". Note: Columbia is setting up
a committee to look into the restoration of ROTC.
-
29 March 2004 Servicemembers
Legal Defense Network press release "House
Poised to Vote on Controversial Military Recruiting Bill; Revision to
Solomon Amendment Attempts to Squash Legal Challenge"
-
30 March 2004 Office of
Management and Budget "Statement
of administration Policy: H.R. 3966 - ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal
Access to Campus Act of 2004".
-
30 March 2004 Press Release "Chairman
Cox Praises House Passage of H.R. 3966, Legislation to Revitalize ROTC on
Campus". Note: The House of Representatives passed the
bill
by
343-81. Rep.
Cox, a co-sponsor of the bill said it "might just as well be called the
Harvard Act--because it squarely addresses the scandal of Harvard University
and other schools banishing ROTC and military recruiters from campus, while
cashing Uncle Sam's checks for billions of taxpayer dollars each year from
the Department of Defense and other federal agencies fighting the global war
on terror."
-
30 March 2004 Associated
Press article "Military
Recruiters May Get Campus Access". Note: The sponsor
of the
bill,
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said
that "his bill grew out of a November 2003 decision by the U.S. District
Court in New Jersey that rejected the claims of a group of law schools that
the Solomon Law was unconstitutional but also found that the law nowhere
states that military recruiters must be given the same degree of access as
provided to other employers."
-
30 March 2004 Press Release "House
Speaker Hastert Applauds Passage of Legislation Allowing Equal Access for
Our Military Recruiters on College Campuses". Note:
Speaker Hastert said "In this time of war, our country's
Armed Services need access to the best and brightest minds our country has
to offer".
-
30 March 2004 Congressional
Record transcript of floor debate in the House of Representatives "H.R.
3966, ROTC AND MILITARY RECRUITER EQUAL ACCESS TO CAMPUS ACT OF 2004"
(Also in Microsoft Word format).
Note: The sponsor,
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said
that following a November 2003 court decision "the Secretary of Defense has
asked the Congress to clarify the Solomon amendment".
Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA) said "At Yale
where the school is happy to cash the ROTC scholarship checks, the Yale
students have to travel 75 miles to the University of Connecticut and then
75 miles back, 150-mile round trip, they have to do this three times a week.
It is an extraordinary burden to place just so that the university can make
a point that joining the military is not what we want our students to do."
-
31 March 2004 Birmingham News
article "Bill
targets colleges' treatment of military recruiters".
-
31 March 2004 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "A
Win for ROTC" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto.
Note: Taranto notes House passage of the
ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal
Access to Campus Act of 2004 and anticipates bipartisan support in the
Senate.
-
31 March 2004 United Press International article "Funds
barred from some colleges".
-
31 March 2004 The Penn article "Reporter
trains with ROTC".
-
31 March 2004 365Gay article "New
Federal Law Overrides Gay Protections".
-
1 April 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Possible
Return of ROTC to Campus Sparks Controversy". Note:
"I think everybody involved with the proposal is perfectly aware that the
law governing participation in the military has to change, and we will be
part of that change if we can," said professor of finance and economics
Michael Adler, one of the proposal's faculty supporters.
-
1 April 2004 Rocky Mountain News article "Ousted
gay ROTC student at CU gets help with debt".
-
1 April 2004 Daily Illini [Urbana-Champaign] article "Advertising
class hired by ROTC".
-
1 April 2004 Family News article "House
Passes ROTC Legislation".
-
2 April 2004 Washington Blade article "House
gay rights backers vote for 'anti-gay' ROTC bill".
-
2 April Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "Congressmen
Against Congressional Power" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto.
Note: Taranto uses the House debate on "H.R.
3966, ROTC AND MILITARY RECRUITER EQUAL ACCESS TO CAMPUS ACT OF 2004" to
discuss broader issues of separation of powers, and refers to Advocates for
ROTC.
-
5 April 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Funds
at Risk Due To ROTC Policy".
-
5 April 2004 Human Events article "House
Passes ROTC Bill, Upsets Homosexual Agenda".
-
8 April 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Racism
and Homophobia in ROTC Violate Columbia's Standards of Tolerance" by
Joya Banerjee, BC '04.
-
8 April 2004 Tufts Daily column "Don't
ask, don't tell" by Matthew Pohl.
-
9 April 2004 Harvard Crimson editorial "Fight
Discrimination at All Costs: Harvard should stand strong on ROTC, even if it
means losing federal funding".
-
9 April 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Congress
Pressures Colleges to Accept Military Recruiters".
-
14 April 2004 Columbia Spectator article "The
Professor Who Abolished ROTC From Columbia". Note:
Prof. Lewis Cole says he opposes university credit for courses about the
practice of war, but supports credit for courses about military theory.
-
15 April 2004 Third Annual
Harvard National Security Fellow - ROTC Student Breakfast.
-
20 April 2004 Yale Daily News article "Elis
lead fight against military recruitment". Note:
The article quotes
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL),
sponsor of HR 3966, ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act of 2004,
as saying that the bill was prompted by recent lawsuits seeking to overturn
the Solomon Amendment.
-
20 April 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Not
All ROTC Courses Would Be for Credit If the Program Returned" by Sean L.
Wilkes, CC '06. Note: The writer, chairman of
Advocates for Columbia ROTC, calls a
recent interview with Prof. Lewis Cole opposing credit for military
practice
courses but favoring credit for military theory courses "a very constructive suggestion"
and notes that similar criteria are used in giving course credit for
music-related activities. Wilkes says Prof. Cole's suggestions give him "optimism that we
can put together a broad consensus on the issue of credit for ROTC courses
at Columbia". The proposal referred to in Wilkes' letter is
here.
-
21 April 2004 Duke Chronicle article "your
dad's rotc?". Note: More accurate information on
which Ivy League colleges have ROTC is here.
-
23 April 2004 Tufts Daily column "Re-addressing
the ROTC" by Michelle Engelson. Note: Engelson
relates that at Tufts "some of the classes that cadets
and midshipman take are MIT courses that would normally transfer, but do not
because the cadet or midshipman took the class to fulfill an ROTC commitment".
- 30 April 2004 Columbia University Senate minutes "Proposal
to return ROTC to the Columbia campus".
-
5 May 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Bollinger
Speaks Publicly On Strike for First Time". Note: At
the end of this article is an account of brief discussion of ROTC at the
Columbia University Senate meeting.
-
6 May 2004 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "Abu
Ghraib and the Academic Left" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto.
Note: Taranto suggests that "increasing the quality of military
recruits would probably help avoid future Abu Ghraibs" and suggests return
of ROTC to elite universities.
-
11 May 2004 Purdue News article "Participation
in ROTC steadily increases nationwide since 9/11".
-
12 May 2004
Defense Business
Board meeting minutes. Note: At a meeting of the
Defense Business Board,
Fred Cook reported "We had a very successful meeting with Yale. The
initiative could not happen at this time, they think it is a great thing to
do. The problem is DoD’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy". One
possibility discussed was to have "DoD consider other ways to accommodate
gays in the military".
-
13 May 2004 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "Young
Patriots" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto.
Note: Taranto suggests that the increase in ROTC enrollment in the
past several years could be improved further by the return
of ROTC to elite universities.
-
13 May 2004 CNN article "A&M
cadets staunchly conservative". Note: The article mentions
the support of President George H. W. Bush for ROTC.
-
15 May 2004 Indianapolis Star article "ROTC
luring more recruits".
-
7 June 2004 Harvard Crimson article "College
Challenges Rigor of ROTC: In the wake of the Korean War, Harvard
re-evaluated the role of ROTC on campus".
-
9 June 2004 "Harvard
ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2004". Note: Secretary of the
Air Force
James G. Roche
DBA '72 was on hand to "show solidarity with a great academic leader and
commission a young friend".
-
9 June 2004 Harvard University Gazette article "ROTC
commissioning sends off Harvard officers". Note: More
photos are in the
10
June version of this article.
-
9 June 2004 "Remarks
of Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers:
ROTC Commissioning Ceremony".
-
10 June 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Senior
To Sail Troubled Waters". Note: An interview
with Stephen P. Bosco '04, one of the
students commissioned on 9 June. Bosco contrasts the positive
attitudes towards ROTC among students to the attitudes among faculty.
-
20 June 2004 Boston Globe article "As
ROTC debate stirs again, a few proud men graduate: Summers salutes Harvard
program". Note: Rafi Cohen '06 responded to critics who say
that the wealthy and educated send poor, uneducated people to fight their
wars by saying "I essentially agree with those critics: There shouldn't be
such a deep divide between social classes. That's part of why I enlisted".
-
7 July 2004 Princeton Alumni Weekly article "Graduating
into the Armed Forces". Note: This was the first time
in at least 15 years that the President of Princeton "presented the
commissioning certificates" at the ROTC Commissioning ceremony.
President Tilghman said “It is precisely at a time like this that our nation
is in greatest need of highly educated and highly motivated officers.”
-
August 2004 MIT Sloan Fellows
Learn from Army During Leadership Exercise.
-
September 2004 Harvard Magazine article "Dispatches
from the Front: 'You minimize travel'". Note: Vincent J.
Tuohey '01 says he appreciates how Harvard President Lawrence Summers has
changed the attitude of Massachusetts Hall toward ROTC and the military: "It
meant a lot to the alumni over here when he spoke at the [ceremony] and
mentioned many of us by name."
-
October 2004 United States Military Academy at West Point
announcement "BS&L
Partners with Columbia University". Note: "Starting in the
summer of 2005, from 18 to 25 US Army captains per year will enroll in
Columbia University and earn a Masters of Arts in Organizational
Psychology". More details about the program
here.
-
4 October 2004 Harvard Crimson column "Recognize
ROTC, Recognize War:
Keeping ROTC off campus is keeping students in the dark" by Alexander
B.H. Turnbull ’05.
-
18 October 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Rally
Decries Military Policy". Note: The article describes
the impending presidential approval of legislation clarifying rules for ROTC
on college campuses.
-
18 October 2004 Harvard Crimson letter "Accepting
ROTC would condone discrimination" by M Barusch '06 and Jordan Woods
'06. The writers respond to the 4 October Crimson
column.
-
18 October 2004 "Military Access to
Campus Provisions in Conference Report on HR 4200". Note:
Two key provisions of H.R. 3966, the ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal
Access to Campus Act, have been included in the conference report on the
Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4200). These changes were approved in
the House / Senate conference report on October 9, 2004 and the President
has indicated he will sign it. The provisions broaden the federal
funding covered by the Solomon Amendment and ban some forms of
discrimination against military recruiters.
-
29 October 2004 "President
Bush Signs Cox-Authored Law to End Anti-Military Discrimination on Campus"
-
23 November 2004 Ithaca Journal article "On
the Iraq war and Cornell's ROTC program". Note:
Applications to the ROTC programs have remained strong despite the war in
Iraq.
-
29 November 2004 New York Times article "Colleges
Can Bar Army Recruiters". Note: the text of the
Third Circuit court FAIR vs. Rumsfeld opinion is
here.
-
30 November 2004 Associated Press article "Harvard
Law to Bar Military Recruiters".
-
30 November 2004 A
Perspective from the Professor of Military Science by LTC Brian L.
Baker, Professor of Military Science at MIT. Note: LTC Baker,
the ROTC leader in charge of Harvard students in Army ROTC said "We’re
moving ever so closer to the day when we’ll need to post a Captain and a
Sergeant on campus, in the Yard, with access, and University support. I will
meet with President Summers this spring to discuss this very issue and
intend to request he allow/enable us to take this next step necessary to
double our enrollment by 2008."
-
1 December 2004 Harvard Crimson article "HLS
Bans Military".
-
1 December 2004 Cornell Daily Sun editorial "Solomon's
Revenge". Note: The editors ponder the implications of
FAIR vs. Rumsfeld
on the ROTC issue.
-
1 December 2004 Daily Princetonian article "Solomon
Amendment ruling will not affect University". Note:
Princeton explained that it allows ROTC and military recruiting to permit
interested students to pursue military careers. Since Princeton does not
have a law school it is not compelled by law school
accreditation rules to oppose
military recruiting, in contrast to other institutions.
-
2 December 2004 Harvard Crimson editorial "Defeating
the Solomon Amendment".
- 3 December 2004 Columbia Spectator editorial "CU
and the military: Columbia
should allow recruiters on campus". Note: The editors
said "military recruiters, like the Reserve Officer Training Corps, have a
place at Columbia—and more importantly, Columbians have a place in the
military".
-
3 December 2004 Washington Post column "Let
the Military on Campus" by EJ Dionne Jr.
-
5 December 2005 uExpress column "The
elite Left versus the military" by John Leo. Note: Leo
compares the heavy handedness of the Solomon Amendment and the Title IX
rules about college athletics. Leo also observes that the
overturning
of the Solomon Amendment
is a "decision that very well may be reversed on appeal".
-
16 December 2004 Wall Street Journal article "At
Ivy League Schools, ROTC, Long Banned, Plots a Comeback: Push May Stir Up
Old Passions On These Elite Campuses; A Beachhead at Harvard".
Note: The article
discusses the movements to bring back ROTC to Harvard, Columbia, Yale and
Brown, backed by the
efforts of the
Defense Business Board and a request
from the military. See
letters on 10 January.
-
16 December 2004 Thomas P. M. Barnett Weblog "On
the question of who serves, I say let 'em all in!" Note:
Barnett suggests that Congress change the laws so gays can serve in some
roles in the armed forces, and cites a
letter
he received from Cadet Sean Wilkes, Chairman of
Advocates for Columbia ROTC.
-
23 December 2004 Workers World article "Antiwar
professor speaks in U.S.". Note: A professor at the
University of Puerto Rico was suspended for what the article describes as
"activism against the ROTC" and went on a hunger strike and a lecture tour.
