National ROTC Coverage: 2007

January/February 2007 Columbia College Today letters from Josh Arthur CC'04: 7 November, 13 November, 25 November, 19 December. Note: Arthur, recently graduated from ROTC and Columbia, describes his deployment and experiences in Iraq.
1 January 2007 The Weekly Standard letter "Knights of Columbia" by Austin Byrd. Note: A first year student and Marine Corps officer candidate responds to the 18 December Weekly Standard item on the military and Columbia by noting that "the general feeling toward the military community is one of apathy, which in some ways is more difficult to confront than the passion of campus radicals". Byrd explains that the pro-military students at Columbia "have adopted the strategy of promoting interaction between the military community and the general student body" to overcome this apathy.
1 January 2007 Marine Corps Times column "Missing the big picture" by Matt Sanchez. Note: Military veteran and Columbia student Matt Sanchez describes how at a recruiting event a group of students started chanting "The military exploits minorities!" to which he responded "I'm a minority; I joined the military, and I don't think I'm being exploited." and was told "That's because you're stupid — too stupid to realize you're being used as cannon fodder." Sanchez goes on describe that "For the academics, joining the Corps over attending an Ivy League school was an obvious sign of desperation."
8 January 2007 The Morningside Post (official blog for Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs) blog video item "Columbia's Student Soldiers". Note: Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley said "We're not a particularly attractive campus for ROTC because we don't have space, and the level of interest among our students would probably be relatively low and the Pentagon has not asked us to host an ROTC unit, so its not as if we've refused".
15 January 2007 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Special Web-Only: Interview with Lt. Josh Arthur, CC ‘04" Matt Mireles. Note: Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes how he decided to serve in the military.
18 January 2007 The New Republic column "Military Academy" by Anthony Grafton. Note: A Princeton professor notes that Princeton has more connections to the military than many other elite colleges, and recommends that "We who teach young men and women need to know more about what we ask some of them to do on our behalf and what it takes to do their jobs".
22 January 2007 Columbia Spectator op-ed "No Shame in Service" by Sean Wilkes CC'06. Note: The recently graduated head of Advocates for Columbia ROTC quotes Lt. Gen. Sir William F. Butler, who warned that "The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards."
22 January 2007 Daily Princetonian article "Princeton, in the nation's service? With a shifting social ethos, alumni in the military are a vanishing and isolated breed". Note: "At a recruiting conference last fall, [military sociologist Charles] Moskos said, he asked recruiters whether they would rather have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush, President Bush's daughter, join the Army. Unanimously, the recruiters chose the latter option.". Not mentioned in the article is that the son of Princeton alumnus Gen. David Petraeus is in an ROTC program.
24 January 2007 Military Recruiting at Barnard's Activities Fair 2007
27 January 2007 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed "Gliberalism" by Ruth Wisse. Note: Professor Wisse, a member of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, cites the ban on ROTC at elite universities as a prime example of an attitude "that leaves to others the responsibility for governance, and arrogates to itself the right to criticize". See 28 January comment by Columbia Prof. Allan Silver.
28 January 2007 Comments on Prof. Ruth Wisse's article "Gliberalism" by Prof. Allan Silver. Note: Silver, a sociology professor at Columbia and a a leading proponent on the faculty for return of ROTC to Columbia, suggests that both the universities and the country's leadership could do better to create an atmosphere conducive towards return of ROTC to elite universities. His comments were prompted by Prof. Wisse's 27 January article in the Wall Street Journal.
29 January 2007 Public Radio International "Open Source" story "Do Americans Need to Serve?" by Christopher Lydon. Note: Lydon interviews Alan Khazei, Alan Gropman, Frank Schaeffer and Seth Moulton '01 about the value of national service.
1 February 2007 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Letter from Baghdad - Dispatch # 3" by Josh Arthur CC '04. Note: Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes an engagement with a lone sniper and how his men showed restraint until they were confident they had identified the attacker.
5 February 2007 Washington Post article "Officers With PhDs Advising War Effort". Note: Gen. David Petraeus, the new military commander in Iraq, is assembling "a small band of warrior-intellectuals" from "one of the most selective clubs in the world: military officers with doctorates from top-flight universities and combat experience in Iraq." Petraeus has described himself to Advocates for ROTC as a "huge supporter of ROTC" and said that graduates from top programs are "true national assets".
8 February 2007 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Letter from Baghdad - Dispatch # 4" by Josh Arthur CC '04. Note: Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes his most enduring memory in Baghdad, retrieving a soldier with a fatal wound.
14 February 2007 Harvard Crimson article "More Than Just an Anthem". Note: Four Harvard ROTC students participated in a color guard at a Harvard-Princeton basketball game on 9 February, the "first at a Harvard athletic venue in many years".
14 February 2007 Cornell Daily Sun editorial "A Tradition Worth Keeping". Note: The Sun calls for support for ROTC, writing "It is more imperative than ever that the University continues to support this program to ensure that the best and brightest are where we need them."
15 February 2007 Columbia Spectator Op-Ed "When Anti-war is Anti-peace" by Eric Chen GS'07. Note: One of the leaders of the ROTC and veterans' movements at Columbia observes how anti-war sentiment is undermining nation-building. Through an error, a non-final version of this article was published. The version that was suppose to be published is here.
17 February 2007 New York Post column "Dodging Rangel's Draft" by Flagg K. Youngblood. Note: Youngblood, an army veteran and Yale alumnus, asks "Why should America pursue a measure as coercive as the draft without first seeking to cultivate voluntary military participation, especially at schools where the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) does not exist or its enrollment is low?"
22 February 2007 Wall Street Journal article "A Retreat From Big Cities Hurts ROTC Recruiting: Though Army Seeks More Ethnic Officers, It Shuns Northeast" (free link with the article attributed to AP here). Note: By having few ROTC programs in big cities, the military is missing out on recruits who have familiarity with foreign cultures and languages. One of the offices said of New York City "There were times when I felt like I was back in Iraq. There were people dressed in those man-dresses that they wear in Iraq. The women had veils. I know I shouldn't say this, but it made me want to look for IEDs". Some additional material is at this free WSJ link. See 25 February Intel Dump blog item for discussion.
22 February 2007 Harvard Gazette article "Student KSG, HBS veterans honored: Panelists say lead by example biggest wartime lesson". Note: The event, co-sponsored by the Center for Public Leadership and the Institute of Politics, featured an hourlong panel discussion followed by a half-hour of questions from the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum audience.
23 February 2007 Chronicle of Higher Education article "Harvard's Historic Choice". Note: At Penn, Harvard President-elect Drew Faust "was one of a half-dozen professors who met each Tuesday at 7 a.m. during the late 1980s and early 90s to talk informally with the provost about such topics as the expansion of the medical school, the reorganization of the library, and the place of ROTC on the campus".
25 February 2007 Intel Dump Blog item "ROTC retreats from American cities". Note: Blogger Phillip Carter discusses the 22 February WSJ article and many respond, including sources for the original article.
25 February 2007 Boston Globe editorial "Crimson and camouflage". Note: The Globe notes that there are 100 active-duty or reserve officers at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Business School and reflects on the "salute to Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans" panel, where five officers discussed leadership in combat. "A 1983 Kennedy School graduate, Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, director for operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lute said it was his Kennedy School experience that helped him commit to a full career in the military. He encouraged the officers to treat Harvard as a "two-way street," where they are both learners and contributors." Click links for the 20 February 2007 event list of participants, audio and video.
March / April 2007 Harvard Magazine column "The War at Home" by Casey N. Cep '07. Note: The writer quotes ROTC student Olivia Volkoff ’09 who "emphasizes the value of having an ROTC program at a university like Harvard: “It’s a means for people to put a face with the armed services.”" Efi Massasa ’09 said "Even though all students don’t serve, it is important they interact with people who did so they will be able to shape their own opinions about military service."
March 2007 Military Officer article "ROTC at Harvard: One Man's Experience" by Jeffrey Race '65. Note: Race, a member of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, describes how his service in Vietnam led to his writing the book "War Comes to Long An", about which a White House staffer said "A lot of people are alive today who would be dead if you had not written that book."
9 March 2007 Massachusetts Daily Collegian article "Tempers flare at ROTC Rally: Groups nearly come to blows outside Student Union". Note: After "a recent incident in which a list of prospective recruits was taken off a ROTC table by members of the Radical Student Union" a pro-ROTC rally was held, which was disrupted by protestors yelling comments such as "Get the ROTC off campus" and "I'm proud to be a traitor!"
14 March 2007 Cornell Daily Sun column "Orgies, Adultery and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" by Bill McMorris. Note: McMorris argues that homosexuality is but one of many areas in which the tolerance of the university and the military are, and should be different. "In July 1998, 10 United States naval personnel, seven male and three female, participated in an orgy in a Hong Kong hotel room. Every sailor, regardless of their sexual orientation, was charged, indicted and found guilty of “adultery, sodomy and fraternization.” No one had any problem with the moral judgment that was cast down upon these sailors."
15 March 2007 Brown Daily Herald column "Reconsidering ROTC at Brown" by Brian Barbata '68. Note: Barbata notes that "For schools like Brown to blindly resist ROTC is a very short-sighted, non-productive stance which clearly has no effect other than to contribute to the gradual downgrading of the officer corps."
16 March 2007 film "Indoctrinate-U". Note: According to the film maker Evan Coyne Maloney, "about 5 minutes or so in the film" is material dealing with ROTC "near the end of the film. A number of people have told us they feel it is the most infuriating footage in the film." "The segment discusses both ROTC and military recruiters on campus, and the various efforts to bar them from campus. We have footage from San Francisco State, U.C. Berkeley, Columbia and Hobart. U.C. Santa Cruz, Yale.... We get right inside the protests themselves, some of which were quite nasty. All of this is discussed in the context of what sorts of views are welcome on campus (Ward Churchill, for example) and what is not (quite literally, the American flag, which was actually removed from a number of campuses immediately following the September 11th attacks). It packs quite an emotionally powerful punch."
19 March 2007 Brown Daily Herald letter "ROTC should be welcome at Brown" by Paul Kechijian MD '61. Note: Kechijian observes that "Men and women interested in ROTC who attend Brown would enrich the University's diversity" and "Brown graduates who serve in the military would bring a diversity of concepts and ideas that might greatly benefit the military".
19 March 2007 Columbia Spectator column "Bringing the Military to Columbia" by Matt Sanchez. Note: Sanchez describes discussions with Columbia officials about healing the rift between Columbia and the military.
20 March 2007 Wall Street Journal book review "Between Classes, Getting Ready for Combat". Note: Kyle Smith reviews the book about ROTC "Army 101: Inside ROTC at a Time of War" by David Axe, and explains why drill sergeants yell.
21 March 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Miss Bad-Ass". Note: Harvard's student newspaper profiles Shawna L. Sinnott ’10, the only female from Harvard in the Marine Corps branch of the Navy ROTC. Sinnott has competed in several beauty pageants, and observes “You can prepare as much as you want, but it’s not like the Corps where you can just train and see an improvement. You can work as hard as you want but in the end, it’s still about people’s opinions.”
28 March 2007 Young America's Foundation press release "Stage Lighting & Ceramics—More Important than National Defense at William & Mary?". Note: Matt Pinsker, a William & Mary sophomore who is pursuing an Army commission through ROTC, comments, “In effect, William & Mary is telling me that the time I spend studying the art of leadership to defend our country is much less important than understanding stage lighting or how to make a vase. By studying lighting techniques for one semester, I can earn the same number of credits it takes me two years to earn in ROTC. Talk about discouraging!” He successfully petitioned William & Mary’s Student Senate to ratify a resolution seeking course credit equality for ROTC on behalf of the school’s student body. The symbolic resolution passed unanimously.
April 2007 Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society article "ROTC and the Catholic Campus" by Ward Thomas. Note: Thomas argues that "claims of a basic contradiction between the religious identity of Catholic institutions of higher learning and ROTC programs do not stand up well to scrutiny."
10 April 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Guns n' Roses: Freshman in Navy ROTC takes home 'Miss Boston' crown". Note: Shawna L. Sinnott ’10 showed it is possible to be a Harvard student, a US Marine in training, and a beauty queen, all in one person. "Pageants are judged based on poise, intelligence, fitness, and confidence, which are all the exact qualities we are looking for in an officer, especially in the Marine Corps," Sinnott said. She placed heavy emphasis on her platform issue of Veterans Affairs, which was the topic of her on-stage question.
10 April 2007 Cornell Daily Sun column "College, Not Combat" by Laura Taylor. Note: Taylor claims that ROTC students don't understand what they are getting into and calls for Cornell to refuse all ROTC scholarships and replace them with full financial aid for all students that need it. See responses on 11 April (here and here) and 12 April.
11 April 2007 Cornell Daily Sun letter "Cornell’s military program attracts best, brightest" by Jonathan Green ’08. Note: Green notes Laura Taylor's column opposing ROTC scholarships, and observes that "ROTC scholarships are paid for by the U.S. Government and not the Cornell endowment... the money is not Cornell’s to spend."
11 April 2007 Cornell Daily Sun letter "Columnist unjustly attacks ROTC" by Webster Beary ’07. Note: An ROTC cadet rebuts the claim in Laura Taylor's column that ROTC students don't understand what they are getting into by noting "Cadets on scholarship can go through an entire year of the program and decide, “Hey, the Army is not for me."
11 April 2007 The Primary Source column "In Support of ROTC" by Daniel Mencher. Note: Tufts students are allowed to transfer credit from ROTC courses at Boston University but not MIT, where Tufts ROTC students typically train.
12 April 2007 Cornell Daily Sun letter "Columnist’s position on ROTC program misguided" by Richard Menger ’07. Note: Menger notes Laura Taylor's column opposing ROTC scholarships and observes "Following her logic, if Laura served one less poor person would have to."
18 April 2007 Brown Daily Herald Opinion article "Brown and the ROTC?". Note: The article announced a panel discussion to take place that evening on ROTC and issues of the civilian-military divide.
18 April 2007 Harvard Crimson article " Here from Over There: Harvard's military veterans look like normal students, but their identity as soldiers rarely fades away". Note: Seth W. Moulton ’01, a Marine Reservist who has been accepted to do graduate work at Harvard, said "I’m shocked at how disconnected Harvard students are from the war, and I’m shocked because these people are not that different from the young Americans fighting and dying overseas".
18 April 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Student Soldiers: ROTC's Challenge". Note: Harvard ROTC students describe why they have chosen military service.
20 April 2007 Salem Oregon StatesmanJournal editorial blog item "The value of ROTC" by Dick Hughes. Note: A retired Air Force officer writes that "A heavy mixture of ROTC officers keeps the military more the way civilians would like it to be and less "military" yet still competent and professional."
26 April 2007 Brown Daily Herald article "Student group stirs up ROTC debate". Note: Jason Carr '09 and Josh Teitelbaum '08 are founding a pro-ROTC group "to take steps toward breaking down the campus community's isolation from what they say is an important social institution".
27 April 2007 Stanford Review column "Stanford’s Anti-ROTC Policy is Self-Contradictory" by Yishai Kabaker. Note: A gay man argues that it is unfair to restrict the rights of students to do ROTC because of the federal "don't ask, don't tell" law, and notes that "ROTC courses like “The Evolution of the United States Air and Space Power,” “Naval Ship Systems” and “Navigation and Naval Operations” are today deemed academically unfit for Stanford while “Chick Flicks and Breakup Songs” receives full credit without question."
7 May 2007 Federal Register "Military Recruiting and Reserve Officer Training Corps Program Access to Institutions of Higher Education: Proposed rule" (in PDF form here). Note: These proposed rules implement the October 2004 changes in the Solomon Amendment. Of particular note is the "Supplementary Information" similar to language in the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 about faculty appointments and course credit: "The criterion of ``efficiently operating a Senior ROTC unit'' refers generally to an expectation that the ROTC Department would be treated on a par with other academic departments; as such, it would not be singled out for unreasonable actions that would impede access to students (and vice versa) or restrict its operations."
14 May 2007 U.S. Army News Release "President to host first joint commissioning ceremony for ROTC cadets and midshipmen at the White House: 23 Army ROTC Cadets Chosen for Joint Commissioning Ceremony". Note: 55 ROTC Cadets and Midshipmen from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force will be commissioned on 17 May, representing all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and territories.
17 May 2007 The Stanford Daily article "Cadet to White House: ROTC senior will meet president, take oath". Note: Stanford student Diana Clough ‘07 will take her oath, "the first time the president has conducted the swearing-in ceremony for ROTC cadets".
17 May 2007 Remarks by the President at Joint Reserve Officer Training Corps Commissioning Ceremony. (Video here) Note: President George W. Bush said "All of you have made many sacrifices to receive your commission. Yet some of you have had to endure even greater hardships -- because your universities do not allow ROTC on campus. For those of you in this position, this can require long commutes several times a week to another campus that does offer ROTC, so you can attend a military class, participate in a drill. Most of all, it means living a split existence -- where your life as a cadet or midshipmen is invisible to most of your fellow students. Every American citizen is entitled to his or her opinion about our military. But surely the concept of diversity is large enough to embrace one of the most diverse institutions in American life. It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible. To the cadets and midshipmen who are graduating from a college or university that believes ROTC is not worthy of a place on campus, here is my message: Your university may not honor your military service, but the United States of America does. And in this, the people's house, we will always make a place for those who wear the uniform of our country." Among the officers sworn in at the ceremony were Erik Sand of Harvard, Diana Clough of Stanford and Bret Woellner from Columbia.
17 May 2007 Associated Press article "Bush says ROTC has a place on campus". Note: "Three of the officers in the White House ceremony came from schools that don't allow ROTC on campus, including Harvard University, Stanford University and Columbia University. Bush saluted their extra sacrifice."
17 May 2007 United States American Forces Press Service article "Gates Commissions ROTC Cadets at White House". Note: "A change in the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act allows the president, vice president or secretary of defense to administer the oath of commission or enlistment".
17 May 2007 United States Department of Defense photos "White House Commissioning Ceremony". Note: One of the photos is of U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with graduating Harvard ROTC student Erik Sand and his mother. More photos here and here.
17 May 2007 Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog item "Bush Assails Colleges That Shun ROTC Units". Note: The Chronicle notes that in addition to colleges that ban ROTC there are colleges where there is no ROTC program because the Pentagon concluded that there were "poor prospects of finding good recruits".
17 May 2007 New York Sun article "Bush Rebukes Universities On ROTC Ban". Note: "Yesterday's ceremony featured a diverse group of cadets from all 50 states and included a graduate student at Columbia, Bret Woellner, who was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. The president's statement took officials at a few leading universities aback. Spokesmen at NYU and Harvard and Yale universities, which also do not offer ROTC on campus, did not respond publicly. Riaz Zaidi, president of Columbia's Hamilton Society, a military group, said the president's words were "gratifying." Mr. Zaidi, a cadet in the Fordham ROTC program, said that while he thought the military should reconsider the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Columbia should reinstate the officer-training program regardless." See response by Paul E. Mawn, head of Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
18 May 2007 New York Sun reader comment "Observations on the commissioning select ROTC students in the White House" by Paul E. Mawn. Note: The head of Advocates for Harvard ROTC responds to the previous day's article and wrote that universities "need diversity which is also based on opinion and provides a climate of tolerance and acceptance for undergraduates who believe in duty, honor and country".
18 May 2007 New York Sun editorial "Redeeming Columbia". Note: Citing Columbia's rejection of ROTC in 2005 and the ROTC commissioning of Columbia student Bret Woellner, the Sun wrote "a generation or so hence the shame of Columbia will be lessened, its honor redeemed by the fact that Lieutenant Woellner made his choice, got up early, did his drills, learned to lead, and, in the East Room of the White House, stepped forward to accept a commission from the Congress in a time of war."
18 May 2007 The Stanford Daily article "Bush condemns schools without ROTC programs". Note: Graduating ROTC student Diana Clough ‘07, who was commissioned at the White House, said that "the President’s speech writers met with her before yesterday’s White House ceremony in the East Room. “I felt like he was talking about me the entire time, which is really insane"". Jeff Wachtel, special assistant to Stanford President John Hennessy "said that Hennessy and Prof. William Perry, formerly a U.S. secretary of defense, held a lunch in the fall to honor ROTC students on campus." "Clough said that the University misses out on “a vital chance to influence the student leaders of tomorrow.” “Stanford is really into producing future leaders in every area, but they don’t include the military, which is interesting considering the times we’re in,” she said".
18 May 2007 The Stanford Daily article "Bush honors Stanford cadet at White House: Top ROTC scholar, markswoman becomes an Army Lt.". Note: "This year, about 4,000 graduating college seniors will commission into the Army. Clough’s decorated service record and strong performance in drills places her among the top 50 cadets in the country."
18 May 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Bush Commissions Dunsterite". Note: Erik Sand '07 said “Harvard has a great tradition of involvement with armed forces, and it’s important to both the University and country that the tradition be renewed, but if change doesn’t happen, we’ll still keep doing what we’re doing.”
25 May 2007 The Stanford Daily editorial "Time to rethink ROTC". Note: Stanford's student newspaper calls for the university to "rethink its rationale for banning on-campus ROTC programs". One of the ideas raised is for ROTC to "have access to Stanford facilities in a manner akin to extra-curricular student groups", which does not meet the full requirements of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964.
27 May 2007 Washington Times editorial "Bring back ROTC". Note: "It's time for Harvard, Columbia, Yale and other schools to heed what President Bush said last week: "It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible." It's time to give ROTC a chance."
27 May 2007 New York Times column "The Quiet Americans" by Thomas Friedman. Note: Friedman describes graduation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and being impressed by "the number of R.O.T.C. grads, including women, who came up and collected their degrees in full dress uniforms. It was not only the pride with which they wore those uniforms that was palpable, but also the respect they were accorded by their classmates. I spoke to one young man who was going from graduation at Rensselaer right out to sea with the United States Navy. As bad as Iraq is, they just keep signing up."
29 May 2007 The Stanford Daily article "Azia used Stanford to get ROTC spot". Note: A woman masquerading as a Stanford student and squatting in a Stanford dorm forged a Stanford transcript and convinced the Army ROTC program at Santa Clara University to allow her to take ROTC classes. In the comments on this article "Hooah" notes "If the ROTC program was run on the Stanford campus, the ROTC Cadre would have easily identified Ms. Kim's fraud as they could check enrollment through the registrar -- something they cannot do as a third party without the student's permission, which is the case now."
30 May 2007 Letter from Columbia University School of General Studies Dean Peter J. Awn inviting members of the armed services to apply to Columbia. Note: Dean Awn wrote that "the experience and talents that these students bring to Columbia enhance immeasurably the academic discourse in the classroom" and announced Columbia's new military-veteran Web site: www.columbia.edu/cu/gs/military.
1 June 2007 Chicago Maroon column "ROTC bans counterproductive to their cause" by Alec Brandon. Note: Brandon writes "Without a doubt, the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is discriminatory, but it is just silly to respond to a discriminatory policy with your own version of a discriminatory policy." (The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is specified by federal law.)
4 June 2007 ABC News story "Disparity of ROTC programs raises concern that cadets aren't diverse enough: Virginia has 11 ROTC programs while New York City only has 2".
6 June 2007 Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2007.
6 June 2007 Remarks at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2007 by Stephen Rosen, Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard.
6 June 2007 Remarks at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2007 by LTC Leo McGonagle, Professor of Military Science at MIT.
7 June 2007 Harvard University Gazette article "Eleven elevated to officer: ROTC proudly celebrates commissions". Note: The father of Ensign Donald Coates '07 said of his son’s choice to enter the military "This wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I’m proud that he’s achieved what he wanted to. He had to get up at 7 a.m. to take the train down to MIT while his roommates were still sleeping."
8 June 2007 Wall Street Journal editorial "Faustian Bargain". Note: The Journal notes that former Harvard president Lawrence Summers spoke at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony every year of his presidency, yet this year neither acting president Derek Bok nor president-elect Drew Gilpin Faust accepted invitations to attend. "Faculties now say they object to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, but the anti-ROTC hostility seems more owing to the sentiments of the "antiwar" movement and other ideological academic causes. Chastened by Mr. Summers's toppling, Ms. Faust is no doubt wary of upsetting this constituency, if she is not a part of it herself."
8 June 2007 Video "MIT Army ROTC Year in Review '06-'07".
14 June 2007 Boston Globe Op-Ed column "The patriot and the Harvard president" by Brian Wright O'Connor '78. Note: O'Connor recounts "an example of the political confrontation needed to allow every patriot to serve in uniform". Charles V. "Chuck" DePriest '77 "marched into Massachusetts Hall and sat in Derek Bok's outer office until the Harvard president had no choice but to see him." President Bok arranged for Harvard to cash DePriest's ROTC scholarship check, but kept the ROTC program off campus and denied credit for ROTC courses taken at MIT, despite the cross-registration agreement with MIT. However, as Steven Peck '79 related to Advocates for ROTC, DePriest's actions were only the first step towards allowing "every patriot to serve in uniform". "DePriest was allowed to enroll secretly", relates Peck. "While he was enrolled I was told cross registration couldn't be allowed" but after Peck "found out half way through the year they let him in" and protested, Peck became the second person to enroll in ROTC, and through these efforts, cross-registering in ROTC at MIT became open to all Harvard students.
22 June 2007 Harvard Crimson article "After Harvard Leaders' Absence, ROTC Supporters Fear Return to Icy Relations: Wall Street Journal, student Republicans criticize Bok, Faust for failing to speak at commissioning ceremony". Note: Former President Lawrence Summers commented that while one can "disagree passionately with the elected officials who bear responsibility for military policies on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to gays in the military," these concerns are not sufficient "not to support those who commit themselves to the defense of our country." The article referred to the text of Prof. Rosen's speech as being on "ROTC's Web site"; actually it is here.
25 June 2007 Inside Higher Ed column "The Defense Department vs. Free Speech on Campus" by John K. Wilson. Note: The author of Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and Its Enemies writes that the military is about to "invade" American colleges. Sparked by the proposed regulations to implement the October 2004 changes in the Solomon Amendment, Wilson objects to the provisions in the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 about faculty appointments and course credit for ROTC, without making it clear that these provisions are due to the 1964 law. He also claims that language in the regulations about military recruiters experiencing "an inferior or unsafe recruiting climate" would "ban all protests against military recruiters", even though the oral arguments before the Supreme Court indicated that protests are permitted. He also states that "there is no college that has actually banned the military from renting space on campus like any other group and holding ROTC training sessions". Such a plan could be tested most easily by a non-governmental query because the Pentagon doing so "would trigger the Solomon Amendment" according to Fred Cook, who has served on the Defense Business Board.
July 2007 Harvard Magazine article "Warriors". Note: Harvard's alumni magazine covered the annual ROTC Commissioning and noted "Lawrence H. Summers spoke at the event in each of his years as president, but President Derek Bok did not attend."
July - August 2007 The American Interest article "Beyond the Cloister" by Gen. David Petraeus. Note: The top general in Iraq argues that "We need officers comfortable not just with major combat operations but with operations conducted throughout the middle- and lower-ends of the spectrum of conflict, as well. That is why it is so important to get the officers who will be our future commanders and leaders out of their intellectual comfort zones... Just as the best way by far to learn a foreign language is to live in the culture where the language is spoken, the best way to learn about other worldviews is to go to and live in another world" such as that of a civilian university. "When I first went to Iraq in 2003, my colleagues and I were repeatedly greeted by Iraqis—in the case at hand, in Mosul—who would say to us in the course of conversation: “We love democracy!...What is it?” I particularly remember being pulled aside after a provincial council meeting by an Iraqi business professor from Mosul University who cautioned, “You know, general, this idea of free markets scares some of these individuals.” I was not surprised, because as a Princeton international relations/economics Ph.D. (and later an assistant professor at West Point) I was well aware of the uneven spread of liberal ideas. And I was not totally at a loss for answers .."
July 2007 PS: Political Science & Politics article "Students in Uniform: ROTC, the Citizen-Soldier, and the Civil-Military Gap" by David L. Leal. Note: The article has many details about ROTC that are useful background to issues related to ROTC on campuses. For example, the article notes that "except for the time involved in summer military activities, students are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ)".
6 July 2007 Boston Globe article "NU dismissing faculty without advanced degrees". Note: This article about Northeastern University provides context for the concern among academics about credentials of ROTC faculty. The article describes "a national trend" to have faculty with higher degrees and research experience. Although this seems to run afoul of the provisions about faculty appointments for ROTC professors in the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964, there may be a workaround to this problem. The Globe article describes how after a communication studies faculty member was fired and students protested, she was "rehired for her previous lecturer position through Northeastern's School of Professional and Continuing Studies, which does not have the same restrictions on credentials as the regular undergraduate programs". Harvard's Kennedy School of Government is another example of having non-traditional faculty appointments for people with government or media experience. The Kennedy School's National Security Program, which has retired military leaders as faculty, may be a good home for Harvard ROTC faculty appointments.
20 July 2007 New Yorker blog item "Guns and Brains" by George Packer. Note: Packer predicts that current military conflicts will reduce the civilian-military divide, citing as examples the "soldiers whose reputations have been made and not destroyed in Iraq—General David Petraeus, Colonel H. R. McMaster, Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl—have doctorates in the humanities".
20 July 2007 Marine Corps News article "MECEP student spent five years in Corps before returning to Harvard". Note: Talya C. Havice left Harvard Colleges after one year, served in the Marines, and came back to finish her degree.
20 July 2007 Harvard Crimson "postcard" "There Once Was a Base…" by Reva P. Minkoff '08. Note: A Crimson editor is housed on a military base while working at Google and the experience of having soldiers around her gets her "to think differently about the military and military life".
22 July 2007 Washington Post article "Their war". Note: "since the end of the draft in '73, the percentage of officers educated in the isolated bubble of the military academies, instead of in ROTC, has doubled. This is producing an officer corps that collectively is less and less representative of the civilian world it serves, a trend observed by professor and national security specialist Michael Desch." See letter on 31 July.
22 July 2007 Harvard ROTC Aviation Award 2007. Note: Harvard Navy ROTC graduate Danielle Thiriot '07 zoomed into the sky on two flights in vintage east-block aircraft as winner of the 2007 Harvard ROTC Aviation Award.
31 July 2007 Washington Post letter "A Military World Apart" by Stephen K. Trynosky. Note: The writer, a captain in the Army Reserve, wishes the article "had explored those actions taken by the military to hasten this disconnection ... I have seen a disturbing trend of the military moving to distance itself from larger society".
6 August 2007 Cybercast News Service article "Harassment of Military Recruiters Sparks Lawsuit at College". Note: The Young America's Foundation filed a lawsuit against Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to compel him to enforce the Solomon Amendment at the University of California-Santa Cruz. The university "allowed military recruiters to be harassed and forced off campus by student protesters" and "In 2007, the military recruiters opted out of the job fair". The Solomon Amendment is invoked when "the Secretary of Defense determines that that institution (or any subelement of that institution) has a policy or practice (regardless of when implemented) that either prohibits, or in effect prevents ... the Secretary of a military department ... from gaining entry to campuses, or access to students (who are 17 years of age or older) on campuses, for purposes of military recruiting". If the Secretary of Defense can be required to make such a determination, such a ruling will also be applicable to ROTC, also covered by the Solomon Amendment, and clearly prohibited at some colleges.
17 August 2007 Wall Street Journal column "Professors on the Battlefield: Where the warfare is more than just academic." by Evan R Goldstein. Note: Goldstein suggests that "the Vietnam-era legacy of mistrust--even hostility--between academe and the military may be eroding" and cites a "shift in the zeitgeist is embodied by Gen. David H. Petraeus". However, an academic denounced such civilian-military cooperation as "the militarization of the social sciences" and an activist denounced it as "counter to the historic freedom of university life".
28 August 2007 Associated Press article "Vets Welcomed at Colleges". Note: Students who are veterans are bringing current real world experience to campus.
3 September 2007 Washington Post article "Talk About Field Trips!: Petraeus Gave Student Summer VIP Tour of Iraq". Note: Gen. David Petraeus took a 19 year old Princeton ROTC cadet under his wing. "I think he's universally well known for finding smart people who are interested in doing things a little differently, and I think that's a major reason for his success," says Capt. Elizabeth McNally, a West Point graduate and Rhodes Scholar who is Petraeus's speechwriter. Petraeus said "We need all the brilliant young people we can get. I'll just have to wait three years or so for this one."
7 September 2007 Wall Street Journal letter by Shane Cotner. Note: Responding to an article about the role of alumni in university governance, Cotner wrote "Dartmouth alumni are fortunate to have a man like T.J. Rodgers to represent their views, and a mechanism that allows those alumni to elect leaders like him to its board of trustees. As an alum of Columbia, my views have no comparable representation of which I am aware. When I hear about Columbia pursuing policies such as the banning of ROTC, and its lack of punishment for students who abuse conservative speakers, I realize I have no recourse whatsoever."
7 September 2007 ROTC Cadets Get Petraeus Visit at Fort Benning Ceremonies.
8 September 2007 Associated Press article "Petraeus travels to Benning to see son jump". Note: Gen. Petraeus took a break from preparing for his congressional appearances to pin jump wings on his son, an Army ROTC cadet at MIT. Stephen Petraeus said "My dad is a jumpmaster and a master parachutist,” he said. “I hardly think he’s nervous about giving a speech."
17 September 2007 Harvard Crimson editorial "A Laudable Battle: The University should not shy away from military scholarship". Note: The editors of Harvard's student newspaper observe "For all our devotion to the values of academia, we hardly study the war in Iraq and its ramifications .... Since the social uprisings of the late sixties, Harvard has distanced itself from the military. The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was banished from Harvard in 1969, the same year as the student takeover of University Hall to protest the Vietnam War. With it went the close ties between Harvard and the military that defined the institution during World War II and even into the Kennedy administration. While bringing ROTC back to campus should not be conflated with studying war, both stem from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ continuing apathy toward a more comprehensive study of national security ... Harvard has a handful of war scholars and courses directly related to the subject. But the topic is so vast and important to our nation’s immediate and long-term future that we believe Harvard—and academia at large—should devote more resources to its study and teaching. Otherwise, the University will have abdicated an important part of its mission—to educate wise and informed citizens." A dissenting opinion lists many courses about war at Harvard and suggests: "If you intend to study war as a social, political, and cultural phenomenon, Harvard can ably meet your needs. But if you’re still curious about how best to crush the infidels, then take the T to MIT, or better yet, the train to West Point."
18 September 2007 New York Sun editorial "Faust's First Move". Note: The Sun notes the support for ROTC by former Harvard president Lawrence Summers and suggests about incoming president Drew Faust that "one of the things people will be watching for her to say" when she is installed as president is "some words about the responsibilities of a university to its country in a war against an enemy determined not only to destroy Israel but also the rest of Western civilization".
18 September 2007 New York Times article "Is ‘Do Unto Others’ Written Into Our Genes?". Note: A moral psychologist defines the varied mental systems underlying morality, providing a framework for understanding how different groups are talking past each other when they address the issues relating to ROTC from different perspectives such as duty or rights of minorities.
20 September 2007 Weekly Standard column "Columbia University: Ahmadinejad Yes, ROTC No" by William Kristol. Note: Kristol contrasts hosting a talk and question period by the Iranian president with Columbia's prohibition of ROTC based on its campus.
20 September 2007 Wall Street Journal "Best of the Web Today" item "Columbia's Priorities" by James Taranto. Note: Taranto embellishes William Kristol's point about the Iranian president and ROTC by noting that Iran executes people for homosexual acts.
20 September 2007 New York Sun article "Outrage Builds Over Ahmadinejad Visit to Columbia". Note: Mr. McCain said "A man who is directing the maiming and killing of American troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university. Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should be welcoming the Reserve Officers' Training Corps back on campus to honor the men and women who put their lives on the line every day defending our freedom."
21 September 2007 Wall Street Journal editorial "Lee Bollinger, Tough Guy". Note: The Journal criticizes Columbia for hosting the Iranian president, yet not allowing ROTC.
22 September 2007 Fox & Friends Interview with Ted Graske Jr., Chairman of the Columbia Alliance for ROTC. Note: Graske discussed the irony of Columbia hosting Iranian President Ahmadinejad and banning ROTC from campus.
24 September 2007 Fox News interview with Columbia student Kelley Victor-Gasper '09. Note: Victor-Gasper, a Marine corps officer candidate notes the irony of Columbia's welcoming of Iranian President Ahmadinejad and banning of ROTC from campus. He notes that the ROTC ban is a protest against US law about homosexuality in the military, yet Ahmadinejad's regime executes people for homosexuality.
27 September 2007 speech by Senator John McCain at the Hudson Institute. Note: McCain noted that the Iranian president was welcomed at Columbia but ROTC was not, and said "Harvard and other great American universities remain closed to ROTC, whose graduates represent the bulk of the officers commissioned into our Armed Forces each year. Some academic elites may not like ROTC, and they are free to voice their objections. But they are wrong, and I stand with the many graduates of these institutions who for years have been trying in vain to bring ROTC back to their campuses."
29 September 2007 Boston Globe article "On campus & in training: As the Iraq war continues, it's a challenging time for area ROTC students". Note: The article describes experiences of ROTC students in the Boston area, including a protest by the City of Cambridge about military exercises.
29 September 2007 Boston Globe article "Controversy at Harvard". Note: The Globe interviewed LTC Leo McGonagle, Professor of Military Science at MIT, who said "Would I love to see Harvard allow ROTC on campus? Absolutely. But if that's not going to happen in the short term, that's OK because Harvard is producing some fantastic Army officers right now." The numbers given in the article for Harvard students are only for the Army program; others are in similar Air Force and Navy programs. The Globe misquoted Paul Mawn, chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, about the administrative fees paid to MIT. Those expenses are paid by an independent privately managed fund, established in 1995, not connected to Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
4 October 2007 Columbia Spectator column "ROTC Presence Is Not a Free Speech Issue" by Rebecca Evans. Note: Evans observes "We certainly did not, and will not, invite Ahmadinejad to set up a campus-based institution intended for recruitment and training... A more apt and pressing statement is this: if Columbia truly cares about questioning the ideologies and actions of those with whom it disagrees, it will welcome a military or government official who would be willing to speak to—and be spoken to by—the Columbia community".
11 October 2007 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Guard To Greet Faust". Note: At the request of Harvard ROTC students, Harvard President Drew Faust agreed to a color guard of ROTC students at her inauguration. President Faust also said that she would consider attending next year’s commissioning ceremony if she were invited.
15 October 2007 Minding the Campus blog item "The ROTC Is Not Invited At Harvard" by Anthony Paletta. Note: The item points out that recent appearances by Harvard ROTC students at Harvard events have come as a result of requests by the students.
16 October 2007 Chicago Maroon editorial "Allow room for ROTC". Note: The student newspaper of the University of Chicago called for the university to reverse its exclusion of ROTC.
18 October 2007 Morning Prayer remarks by Prof. Harry Lewis at Harvard. Note: The former dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences quotes from Romans 14:13 "that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way" and opines on Harvard's gay-rights concerns about ROTC "I don’t think Harvard’s stance on ROTC is morally tenable. We should not attempt to remove the barriers facing some of our students by placing stumbling blocks in the path of others... The issue is not bringing an ROTC unit to Harvard. Units are merging today, not splitting. We should normalize Harvard’s relations with MIT ROTC. Harvard ought to pay its bills to MIT directly. It ought to bus our ROTC students as it buses our volleyball teams."
29 October 2007 Columbia Spectator column "Why Columbia Needs the Marine Corps and Vice Versa" by Michael Christman. Note: A 2000 engineering graduate joined the Marines and urges others to do the same. "How can Columbia hope to produce the next generation of American leaders if it refuses to walk a mile in the shoes of those of whom we ask the most?"
November 2007 Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute) article "The Few. The Proud. The (Harvard???) Marines". Note: Veterans at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School report no hostility at Harvard these days - just a mixture of appreciation, curiosity and indifference. "Harvard’s Marines—and many other recent veterans as well—say they feel a special obligation to try to bridge the civilian-military divide. “I’m the only Marine in my [class] section, and I take very seriously my obligation that I may be the only Marine people meet,” Captain [Maura] Sullivan says." See also the December letter by Owen West '91 commenting on this issue from the perspective of ROTC. Reprinted from Proceedings with permission; Copyright © 2007 U.S. Naval Institute www.usni.org.
14 November 2007 Harvard Crimson Op-Ed "Stumbling Blocks" by Harry R. Lewis ’68. Note: A member of the Steering Committee of Advocates for Harvard ROTC and former dean of Harvard college notes the appearance of an ROTC color guard at the inauguration of Harvard president Drew Faust, writes "I don’t think Harvard’s stance on ROTC is morally tenable. We should not attempt to remove the barriers facing some of our students by placing stumbling blocks in the path of others. To quote Democratic Congressman Barney Frank ’61 (Massachusetts), speaking courageously some weeks ago on a related matter, “idealism that is empowered by pragmatism is the way in which we make progress.”"
14 November 2007 Fordham Law Review 76: 955-79 "Myth and Reality of University Trusteeship in the Post-Enron Era" by José A. Cabranes. Note: Judge Cabranes, a trustee of Columbia University, notes how "trustees play no significant role even on major questions relating to the external relations of universities to the government that subsidizes them in so many ways, for example, whether a university should offer its students the opportunity to participate in reserved [sic] officers’ training corps (ROTC) programs. The usual playbook is this: Trustees are informed by presidents that, for a variety of political or academic reasons, the faculty would find the return of ROTC intolerable and that any action to the contrary by trustees would make the president’s own position within the university untenable. Given the power of the faculties, the president is probably right. In any case, trustees will be reluctant to make the president vulnerable in the polity he knows far better than they."
17 November 2007 Washington Post article "Petraeus Helping Pick New Generals: Army Says Innovation Will Be Rewarded". Note: "It's unprecedented for the commander of an active theater to be brought back to head something like a brigadier generals board," said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College. "Dave Petraeus in many ways is viewed as the archetype of what this new generation of senior leader is all about, a guy . . . who understands information operations, who can be effective on Capitol Hill, who can communicate with Iraqis, who understands the value of original thought, who has the ability through the power of his intellect to lead people to change." Petraeus, who merges real world military leadership with the best of academic openness, is defining a new model of leadership that bears a striking resemblance to the combination produced by ROTC training at top universities. Those institutions that shun the military are likely to find that their graduates are not at the table when the next generation of leaders gets together to get things done.
26 November 2007 Brown Daily Herald article "ROTC exchange with [Providence College] down to a lone student". Note: The article profiles the lone Brown student enrolled in ROTC, Adam Swartzbaugh '09. Keeping down the numbers is a lack of interest on the part of the Brown community and the attitude of the admissions office towards military service.
26 November 2007 Brown Daily Herald editorial "Bring back ROTC?". Note: The student newspaper of Brown University called for opposing ROTC because "it is unacceptable that discrimination against openly gay students would be allowed on our campus".
December 2007 Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute) letter in response to "The Few. The Proud. The (Harvard???) Marines" by Owen West '91. Note: West takes issue with the statement in the original article that Naval ROTC midshipmen "are as much at home at Harvard" as veterans who are graduate students. He points out that the faculty has a "clear disdain" of ROTC and that there was a similar attitude from the university administration except during the term of President Summers. Reprinted from Proceedings with permission; Copyright © 2007 U.S. Naval Institute www.usni.org.
2 December 2007 Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony at Columbia University.
22 December 2007 New York Times article "Scholars and the Military Share a Foxhole, Uneasily". Note: At a conference about counterinsurgency co-sponsored by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, "Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the top American commander in Iraq, was impressed with what he heard ... and on the spot began assembling a team to revise the doctrine." As recounted in an article in the US Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine, Harvard's Kennedy School is a part of the university that is quite receptive to the military.

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