Word: rotcs
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...main objectives of ROTC members and their supporters on campus has been to divorce opposition to DADT from opposition to ROTC, the military, and its members. However, by drawing a line between “supporters” and “opponents” of ROTC over the issue of official recognition, the HRC poll conflates the large number of ROTC supporters concerned about discrimination on campus with a small minority of staunch military opponents, much to the detriment of an open and productive dialogue...
...were likely framed under the false assumption that no such distinction exists. Shortly before the poll’s release, Caleb L. Weatherl ’10, president emeritus of the HRC, denied the claim that DADT constituted legitimate grounds for Harvard’s refusal to officially recognize ROTC. Such a stance, Weatherl argued, would be “intellectually inconsistent” because neither ROTC nor the military was responsible for instituting or overturning ROTC...
...Weatherl’s emphasis that DADT is the product of a congressional act rather than a ROTC-specific decision is useful in informing the misinformed. But wielding that fact as evidence of Harvard’s “intellectual inconsistency” unfairly ignores the logic behind Harvard’s position and suggests that it must stem from antagonism against ROTC and its members...
...points at the heart of the debate over recognition are worth clarifying. Regardless of whether ROTC deserves recognition on the merits of its mission alone, the program continues to enforce the inherently discriminatory DADT policy. As such, pending changes to federal law, Harvard cannot officially recognize ROTC because the program enforces a policy irreconcilable with Harvard’s nondiscrimination policy. The university’s position in no way rests on a claim about who is responsible for the policy. Rather, it is the direct consequence of the reality that the “current federal policy of excluding...
Though while we are interested to see what better polling would uncover, our position on the fundamental question of ROTC recognition will not change no matter what the results are, because this is an issue of discrimination that should not be decided by majority opinion. Harvard should welcome ROTC back when ROTC welcomes all students to join, not in response to any poll—especially a poll as flawed as this...