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ROTC Coverage Added Recently

  • 18 November 2008 BWOG blog item "Anti-NROTC Coalition Holds Meeting with Councils, Dems Put Up New Posters; UPDATE: Pro-NROTC Responds".  Note:  An anti-ROTC poster is shown claiming that "If we were to welcome ROTC onto our campus, the 19% of our population who identify as LGBTQ would be legally barred from taking any ROTC-specific courses" and the pro-ROTC side countered by demonstrating that this is not the case at MIT.  An anonymous poster in the comments section suggests that pro-ROTC people "take all the energy you're investing here in trying to get the university to bend over backwards to accommodate ridiculous policy like DADT and instead combine forces with all the other pro-ROTC groups at other campuses and put pressure on congress to fix DADT."  That is in fact being done; details of such efforts over the past several years may emerge at the 19 November forum.
  • 18 November 2008 Columbia Spectator article "Councils to Host One Discussion Forum, Not Two, on NROTC".  Note:  The forum will be on 19 November at 7 PM.  The survey will be open for at least a week after 24 November, until 55% or more of students respond.  "The group Columbia Students for NROTC held its own event on College Walk yesterday, offering passersby a script to call and petition congress members to repeal DADT. Justin Johnson, SIPA ’10, is a member of the group, and said despite opposing DADT, he would vote to bring back NROTC because it would draw more open-minded and affluent students to the military and because the government, not the military, is to blame for DADT."
  • 17 November 2008 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC Survey to Open Nov. 24".  Note:  The corrected version of the article gives the wording of the ROTC question as “Would you support bringing a Naval ROTC program to Columbia's campus at this time?”  The article also repeats the common error of referring to "military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy", while in fact DADT is required by federal law.
  • 14 November 2008 Columbia Spectator op-ed "Why ROTC Should Return to Columbia" by Prof. Allan Silver.  Note:  Silver, who opposed ROTC when it was de-certified in the late 1960s, writes that "The conspicuous absence from military service of those headed for leading positions in society is a civic scandal... When military service is not broadly shared, military and civilian society risk an unhealthy mutual isolation".  He proposes that Congress reform the "Don't ask, don't tell" law and reconsider some provisions of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964, and the military increase the number of urban ROTC programs.  "The government and the military must decide whether to invest in a diverse, regionally balanced, educationally qualified military leadership. Columbia must decide if it is prepared to include ROTC among its responsibilities... Whether you support ROTC now or after DADT’s reform, vote “yes” in the upcoming survey. Only voting “yes” makes it clear that in principle you want Columbia to make that contribution".
  • 13 November 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard Veterans Tell Stories of War: In recognition of Veteran's Day, Harvard ROTC association hosts four former military officers".  Note:  One of the officers, Seth W. Moulton ’01, said “When you come from a place like Harvard, you have some advantages but some handicaps... They respect the hell out of you, but they are concerned you have no common sense”.  (The photo caption referring to Advocates for Harvard ROTC is an error, brought to the attention of the Crimson).
  • 12 November 2008 Columbia Spectator article "NROTC Forum Previews Survey Opinion".  Note:  A coalition of anti-ROTC groups held a panel discussion with a question and answer period.  The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network pulled out of the event at the last minute.  The article notes that "Some students who had graduated from the ROTC program also commented and asked questions, emphasizing their disapproval of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and challenging the panelists on some of their assertions."
  • 12 November 2008 BWOG blog item "Anti-NROTC Groups Raise Their "Voices"".  Note:  Professor David Eisenbach, one of the anti-ROTC panelists, agreed in response to a question that "Don't ask, don't tell" is a federal law and it is "now it is up to the politicians to end it".
  • 11 November 2008 BWOG blog item "Brace for Impact! What's Ahead for the NROTC Debate".  Note:  The blog shows the "rather interesting poster" used to advertize for an anti-ROTC event and links to the website of Columbia Students for NROTC.
  • 10 November 2008 Questions and Answers About NROTC by Columbia Students for NROTC.  Note: Columbia students outline the case for Naval ROTC at Columbia in advance of the student survey scheduled for 24 November.
  • 7 November 2008 Wall Street Journal op-ed "Obama Needs a Strong Foreign Policy" by Will Marshall.  Note:  The president of the Progressive Policy Institute gives advice to the president-elect: "At a Sept. 11 summit on national service at Columbia University, Mr. Obama chided his alma mater for barring ROTC from campus during the Vietnam War. As America's next commander in chief, Mr. Obama should take that message to other elite universities, and to places like the Marine Recruiting office in Berkeley, Calif., whose mayor, Tom Bates, earlier this year called the Marines an "uninvited and unwelcome guest."  Such gestures would go a long way toward allaying suspicions that the Democratic Party harbors anti-military attitudes."
  • 6 November 2008 BWOG blog item "First Signs of ROTC Debate Appear".  Note:  The blog of The Blue and White, Columbia's undergraduate magazine, shows a poster "from the anti-ROTC coalition (so far including the Dems, Lucha, CQA, EAAH, and Proud Colors)."
  • 29 October 2008 Tufts Daily editorial "Credit where credit is due".  Note: The student newspaper of Tufts calls for course credit for its students who do ROTC at MIT.  Tufts maintains that the lack of course credit is due to the lack of a cross-registration agreement with MIT, however Harvard has a cross-registration agreement with MIT and also denies ROTC course credit.
  • 28 October 2008 Columbia Spectator Op-ed "Making the Case for the Military" by Peter Meijer '10.  Note:  Meijer writes "“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is an atrocious policy, but it is largely a product of the very disconnect between the armed forces and general society that the administration’s ROTC ban fosters.... Supporting ROTC is not a vote for the military and its policies. It is a vote to bring knowledge of our fighting forces to campus, for the benefit of both the university and the armed forces."
  • 28 October 2008 Columbia Spectator Op-ed "Palling Around with Traitors, or Those Who Feel Like Them" by Noah Baron '11.  Note:  Baron writes that as a gay student he'd feel unwelcome with ROTC on campus, fearing that "return of the NROTC will establish, for the first time in a long time, an entire department at this institution in which an entire section of our student body cannot participate".
  • 24 October 2008 Columbia Spectator column "On ROTC, Who Does Columbia Speak For?" by Armin Rosen.  Note:  Rosen compares Columbia's hosting of a speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to its unwillingness to host an ROTC program.
  • 23 October 2008 Aries L. blog post on ROTC.  Note:  The blogger, an architecture student at Columbia, expresses skepticism that the Navy would open an ROTC program at Columbia, and an ROTC advocate makes the case for ROTC at Columbia using statistics, analysis and history to detail the current and likely interest in ROTC from Columbia students.
  • 23 October 2008 Smith College Sophian article "ROTC faces nationwide campus recognition battle".  Note:  The article describes Smith College as recognizing ROTC, but having the only ROTC opportunities at UMass, in contrast to Harvard not-recognizing ROTC, but having the only ROTC opportunities at MIT.  The practical implication, according to Paul Mawn, chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, is that Harvard cashes the checks for the ROTC scholarships but fails to pay the overhead payment for ROTC to MIT.  Harvard students are only able to do ROTC at MIT because the overhead payments are made by the alumni-funded "Friends of Harvard ROTC Trust".  "Harvard gets the full amount of scholarship money from the Pentagon and they cannot pay an allocation. That, in my opinion, is illegal," said Mawn.
  • 22 October 2008 Harvard Crimson letter "Formally Recognize ROTC" by Paul E. Mawn '63.  Note:  The Chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC responds to a 2 October article and makes clear the group's position that the Harvard Corporation should "formerly recognize the ROTC programs which provide valuable leadership training to Harvard cadets and midshipmen. Such formal recognition should lead to greater participation of Harvard students in ROTC programs and the eventual physical return of the ROTC units to the Harvard campus."
  • 22 October 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Obama Win Could End ROTC Battle".  Note:  A Harvard Crimson news analysis suggests that "if Obama takes office on Jan. 20 and succeeds in rolling back the policy, Harvard would see its main reason for banning ROTC disappear."
  • 20 October 2008 BWOG blog item "New Dates for ROTC Survey".  Note:  The blog of The Blue and White, Columbia's undergraduate magazine, publishes the Student Government Association email announcing that the ROTC referendums will be conducted in the week of 17 November, and the forums will be in the week of 10 November.
  • 20 October 2008 Columbia Spectator Op-ed "A Bias-Free Campus?" by Learned Foote CC'11.  Note:  Foote, the President of the Columbia College Class of 2011 and treasurer of the Columbia Queer Alliance, argues for asking the military for an ROTC program at Columbia despite the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.  "We cannot address discrimination by distancing ourselves from the military. We cannot ignore Columbia’s potential to create a liberalizing influence from the bottom up."

Older material added recently:

  • 18 September 2008 Columbia University College Democrats "Statement on NROTC".  Note:  The statement says that NROTC "has no place in our community or on our campus" as long as the "Don't ask, don't tell" law is in place, and brands the law, passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by President Clinton, as unconstitutional.
Previous material on the sites can be reached using the links on the sidebar.  Please contact us if you have more links to add.

Last updated: 18 November 2008