Decades after Vietnam, ROTC making return effort to Ivy League

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-ct--ivyleague-rotc0121jan21,0,6610147.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

January 21, 2005, 7:53 PM EST

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Decades after Vietnam War protesters ran ROTC programs off many Ivy League campuses, the military training programs are slowly marching back to the prestigious schools that vanquished them.

Bolstered by the Pentagon's recent recommendation that the military recruit more topflight students, Ivy League alumni groups and students are pressuring administrators to give ROTC greater access to campus resources.

Successes have come slowly, but the signs are there: Columbia's student newspaper last year called for ROTC's return. A pro-ROTC petition drive is shooting for 2,000 signatures from Yale's 5,200 undergraduates. And this spring, military officials plan to ask Harvard University for office space for a recruiter _ something unheard of since the Vietnam era.

"The climate is different," Harvard spokesman Kevin Casey said. "ROTC is viewed as an important program for an important number of our students."

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[Scooter24]

1. I don't see

why ROTC can't just build a facility near campus. What they are really trying to do is once they gain access to the campus, they are going to push the curriculum committee into recognizing their programs as credit-level classes, something many of the Ivies don't want to do. However said, Yale is one college who takes their nondiscrimination policy very serious. They could push their recruiters onto campus, but they don't have to have ROTC's. Yale has been strong-armed enough by the Pentagon, it's highly doubtful they will give into such a request.

On a personal note- I see nothing wrong with ROTC being on campuses. I won't advocate for their return because I feel that ROTC should be held up to the same standards as any other program on campus, however, if they should return, then I shall have no sympathy for those students who want to enroll. College students, especially at the Ivy schools, should be bright enough to know what they are getting into.