Word: rotc
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...University that prides itself on unflinching candor and logical consistency in the eternal pursuit of veritas, Harvard’s bizarre relationship with the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) embarrassingly fails to live up to its own standards. Rather than take a decisive and unambiguous stance in the controversy over patriotism and “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the University seeks shelter from accountability in a murky ROTC policy that, in the end, pleases...
...Though ROTC was initially forced off campus in 1969 in reaction to Vietnam protesters, it remains banned from the Yard and barred from University funds only because of the University’s opposition to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals. But instead of rejecting ROTC outright and forcing potential cadets to apply elsewhere, the administration has taken a “middle road” by agreeing that cadets may train at MIT—without the military’s intolerance...
...prevent protest in the Yard and parsimony during donation season. And to those who might consider such distancing disrespectful to the students who express their patriotism through military service, the University can conveniently respond that cadets have the opportunity—indeed, the privilege—of holding their ROTC graduation right here on campus...
...course, the University’s ambivalence about ROTC serves only to evade the issues at hand and to insult both cadets and opponents of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Cadets don’t see Harvard as a place where they are embraced for their courage and their dedication to our national safety; they see a place that shows them off when convenient, and respects their right to serve our nation while simultaneously holding them in contempt as scabs in the University’s strike against discrimination...
Many hoped that renewed patriotism after Sept. 11 might spur a debate about ROTC’s place at the University. But today, four months after the attacks, their hope is supported only by President Lawrence H. Summers’ belated admission that Harvard’s ROTC policy is “unorthodox” and “unusual.” If the patriotism that has engulfed the nation since Sept. 11 stops at Johnston Gate, if we can’t now reconsider ROTC with fresh perspective, then we need to realign our priorities...