Word: rotcs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...freshman representative questioned Faust about future changes in Harvard’s ROTC policy in light of Obama’s stance against the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that currently bars openly gay individuals from serving in the armed forces. Harvard currently does not allow its ROTC students to conduct training exercises on campus...
...conduct a poll at all four of the university's undergraduate colleges on whether to bring back the military officer training program that was booted from campus in 1969 at the height of anti-Vietnam furor. While students voted 54% to 46% to keep the ban in place, ROTC advocates say the tenor of the debate was more revealing than the ultimate result. Take Learned Foote, for example, a sophomore who is gay but supports ROTC as a way to bridge the gap between civil and military service. "If you push [the military] off of campus and wait for others...
...ROTC supporters point to the debate at Columbia and its focus on "don't ask, don't tell" as a sign that students no longer have strong objections to the military more generally - and therefore would be receptive to inviting the program back if the policy were repealed, something more than 100 retired generals and admirals called for in November...
...same time, notes Allan Silver, a Columbia sociology professor who supports the return of ROTC despite what he calls its "abhorrent" policy on gays, having future soldiers live side by side with students who sometimes criticize them would encourage critical thinking and thereby strengthen the military. "At ROTC programs in Virginia, there are no objections," he says. "Let [soldiers] feel at home in Stanford and the Bronx, and we'll have a better military and a better society...
...though, the debate at Columbia remains largely symbolic. University President Lee Bollinger has said he won't ask ROTC back until "don't ask, don't tell" is overturned. Moreover, even if Bollinger did let ROTC on campus, the Pentagon may not allocate funding to start training there, according to spokesperson Eileen Lainez. Students who are so inclined can continue to participate in Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC at nearby colleges...