Military recruiters, confronted by crowd, leave campus job fair

[kpete]

SANTA CRUZ
Military recruiters, confronted by crowd, leave campus job fair
Anti-war protesters at university block doors to building
Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Four military recruiters hastily fled a job fair Tuesday morning at UC Santa Cruz after a raucous crowd of student protesters blocked an entrance to the building where the Army and National Guard had set up information tables.

Members of Students Against War, who organized the counter-recruiting protest, loudly chanted "Don't come back. Don't come back" as the recruiters left the hilltop campus, escorted by several university police officers.

"The situation had degraded to the point where there was a possibility of injury to either a student or law enforcement officer. We certainly didn't want that to happen,'' said Capt. Will Griffin, one of the Army recruiters.

University officials had been aware for weeks that Students Against War planned a protest to prevent military personnel from participating in the school's biannual job fair held for students.

more at:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/12/BAG3KI7INT1.DTL

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Those who say "kids of today don't do squat"

Just aren't paying attention. Go, UCSC!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. And you know what

as much as I am against this war, these kinds of actions are NOT really that possitive... but just my two cents

The students should have let the recruiters in... AND GIVE INFORMATION OUT... let potencial recruits make up their minds, or have a counter recruitment, but let the recruiters do their job... those people have one choice if they fail... IRAQ

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. They were standing up, peaceably, for what they believe in. n/t

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

6. Guess you haven't seen the recruiters . . .

. . . and their strong-arm tactics.

As long as those kids weren't violent, I say they have the right to loudly protest. Reckon we'll just disagree on that.

Enjoy DU!

[kevinbgoode]

19. Not quite. Are you trying to say that students are incapable

of picking up the telephone and making an appointment to see a recruiter? Exactly what "choice" was being denied here? If you read the story, the choice was the military decision to LEAVE. Yep - the students blocked the door, but they could have gone over to any other building and set up a card table. Let's not pretend here that suddenly "other" students (meaning government-approved heterosexual ones) can't gain access to join the military - after all, the College Republicans should be holding their damned meetings at the recruitment headquarters.

[UCLA02]

4. And those recruited have one choice if recruiters succeed.

Iraq.

What's your point?

[Squatch]

9. Well, not really.

Only one-in-four active component servicemembers are overseas (combined number: either in military operations or otherwised just stationed overseas).

There is more than "one choice" after a recruit enlists, and the vast majority of those choices are stateside assignments.

[UCLA02]

40. I knew that. (see my avatar)

I was just following nadinbrzezinski's line of argument, specifically:

recruiters run off campus by students-->recruiters don't make their quota-->recruiters go to Iraq rather than students

Granted, I found it as specious as you found mine, however, mine was to test the bounds of nadinbrzezinski's point, not asserting my own.

[W_HAMILTON]

30. I don't agree with that...

Are you saying the recruiters have nothing left but to be deployed to Iraq if they don't recruit people? So the answer to that is to recruit more people so they can stay safe while those others get shipped off to die?

But even more than that, I don't agree with the recruiters one bit. I'm glad to hear the students did this. I was recruited once when I was about to graduate high school, and again -- surprise, surprise! -- sometime in the last year, even though I was 25 and figured they would have long forgotten about me by now. That's when I knew the military situation was in the shitter, when they're trying to go out of their way to recruit a guy who's coming up fast on the big 3-0. But back to the point, they lie. The guy that talked to me (oddly enough, sounded like the same guy from when I was 18) said crap like, "really man, Iraq ain't that bad, it's not as bad as they make it out to be on TV." And crap like "you know, if you don't want to go to Iraq, you don't have to, you can get involved in other stuff." Ironically enough, I saw a special on Dateline (I think it was) that was reporting how recruiters had no say in stuff like that, and many people were essentially getting "tricked" into signing up, then being deployed to Iraq after they had been reasonably trained.

The military just ain't for me, but I'm sure all they were offering, and people that were more gullible about the crap this guy was spewing would be lured into signing up. So no, I don't believe that the students were wrong in peacefully forcing the military recruiters out. GOOD FOR THEM.

[Squatch]

7. Your right to protest ends at my right to conduct my business.

Although I am glad cooler heads prevailed in this situation, the recruiters have every right to be there.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Good. It's about time.

We got the recruiters and ROTC tossed off my campus back in the '60s during another round of American Imperialism that demanded bodies.

[Squatch]

10. I am a product of ROTC and I think I turned out alright.

[Terra Terra]

13. So is it your position that...

The students are smart enough to handle college classes, but yet they're not smart enough to decide for themselves whether joining the military is a good idea?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. They're smart enough to throw the death dealers off campus.

Rather than play the "good German" and pretend that there isn't a war going on.

[Terra Terra]

17. Sounds like a fundie argument

"We know what's best for you. We'll restrict your access to certain books, movies, music, drugs, alcohol, etc. in order to save you from yourself, just in case you might decide to do something that we view to be self-destructive."

Let them protest all they want, but by the same token let the students who may be interested in what the recruiters (military or otherwise) have to say have access to the information.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Gosh, you mean the recruiting offices have all shut down?

I'm sure the recruiters have all kinds of really neat posters, pamphlets, and other trinkets, available for the poor sods stupid enough to visit them.

BTW soliers aren't just "self-destructive" they've been known to be a tad destructive to the folks that encounter them in politician driven wars.

[Terra Terra]

22. Have all the Human Resources offices shut down?

I'm sure corporate America has all kinds of really neat posters, pamphlets, and other trinkets for the poor sods who are stupid enough to visit them and get sucked into the corporate rat race.

Who destroyed more lives, a foot soldier in Iraq or Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, et al?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Ok by me.

[gkhouston]

15. or perhaps they're not smart enough

to call or visit a local recruiting office? Damn, that's just the sort of military we need. :sarcasm:

[Terra Terra]

16. Following that line of thinking...

Then why have businesses recruit on campuses? The students should be smart enough to contact the employer(s) which they're interested working for. Barring that, they can post a resume on Monster or Hot Jobs.

[gkhouston]

18. a lot of those recruiters are from out of town

and want to size up the job pool face-to-face before deciding who they want to fly out for an on-site interview. Military recruiters aren't nearly so choosy and many cities have recruiting offices right there in town.

[Terra Terra]

23. And most employers have offices nearby

I don't care if the kids want to sign up or not, but I do think they should have the same access to military recruiters' info as any other prosepctive employer's info. Let them decide for themselves.

[LeftyMom]

27. Santa Cruz is not so big and rather isolated besides.

Likely most of those employers' nearest office is in San Jose, so it makes sense to talk to a lot of canidates at once rather than have to navigate highway 17 several times.

[gkhouston]

29. maybe the people you interviewed with had offices nearby

but a lot of the folks I talked to didn't. They had sales offices, but not technical people, and a salesman's not going to know a good engineer from a bad one. I expect the same applies for many other fields. The students themselves decided to protest the recruiters. As long as it's not violent, I don't have a problem with that. I'd feel the same way if they chose to boycott Microsoft or some other employer or even all employers.

[Terra Terra]

32. I agree

Let them protest all they want, but don't block access to others who may be genuinely interested in what they're offering. Counter information (or a sales pitch) with more information (or a better sales pitch).

My campus didn't get that many recruiters, as it was a small college town off the beaten path. However, most companies initially send an HR rep to campuses as a point man to gather resumes and get initial impressions. Then, upon returning to their home office, they bring in the candidates for interviews. It's the most economical way for them to have a presence on numerous campuses around the country.

[BlooInBloo]

21. I at least think they're not smart enough for the college classes either..

... and I taught at 2 universities over about 7 years...

[EFerrari]

11. Good for Santa Cruz!

:toast:

[Nederland]

12. Excellent!

Although many here might disagree, I agreed with the SC decision to side with the military in regard to universities allowing military recruiters access to campuses. Universities should not be in the business of deciding which recruiters should be let on campus.

Rather, let the recruiters come and them watch the protests happen. It brings far more attention to the issues than a silent ban.

[coalition_unwilling]

25. I have a hard time believing that anyone on DU can seriously

defend military recruiters' rights of access to college and university campuses, when the military openly discriminates against gays,lesbians, bi-sexuals and transgendered.

The fact that the Supreme Court has recently ruled that they can't be barred from campus doesn't make their discrimination against LGBT any more moral.

What's upsetting to me is that some at DU are just fine with the U.S. military discriminating and being allowed to recruit on campuses where said discrimination is against campus policy.

[Terra Terra]

28. And other businesses don't discriminate?

The only difference is that the military has to make their discrimination public because they're a gov't entity. Thousands of other companies have, or currently do, discriminate, but we just don't find out about it until it hits the newswire as a scandal.

In a perfect world this wouldn't be an issue, but then, we don't live in a perfet world. If you let one in, you have to let them all in.

[coalition_unwilling]

33. A public university has a non-discrimination policy. It is a

"public" university, meaning it receives at least a portion of its funding from the government. For a public university with a non-discrimination policy to then allow an agency of the government with policies (the military) that violate that non-discrimination policy (with their horrendous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" bullshit) renders the public university's non-discrimination policy less than meaningless, i.e., totally hollow.

If you say you don't discriminate and then knowingly allow your facilities to be used by an entity that you know openly discriminates, then why should anyone take anything you say seriously?

What I can't believe is that anyone on DU is alligning him- or herself with defenders of discrimination (the military). It staggers the mind.

[Squatch]

34. Well, they can always rescind the government funding

and bar recruiters once and for all.

[Terra Terra]

35. It's federal law

The university has the option of rejecting federal funds and not allowing the recruiters on campus. However, they (the campus administration) feels it's better to sell off their moral beliefs to the federal government, and, by extension, the military, than to stand up for what's right.

[coalition_unwilling]

37. Believe me, I'm no big defender of the moral probity of

college and unviersity administrators. But the students at UC Santa Cruz had a moral responsibility to force their university (whether it sucks it up and refuses federal dollars or cravently commits abject moral hypocrisy by accepting federal dollars at the expense of its own policies) to abide by its own stated morality.

To say or even imply that what the UC-SC students did was "wrong" (as many replys to OP have done) is to give license to those who discriminate. Can't believe I even have to write this on DU.

[Terra Terra]

38. I agree

I have no problem with students protesting to their hearts' content as long as they don't block access to the recruiters for other students who may be interested in talking to them. Nothing wrong with protesting and stating your position.

[coalition_unwilling]

39. Well, as I understand it, no one held a gun to the recruiters' heads

and forced them to evacuate. The recruiters I've known in high school (and since via anecdote) are actually liars themselves and not people for whom its easy for me to give much of a shit about.

[Horse with no Name]

26. I was SOOOO proud of my daughter last night

She received a phone call. All I could hear was her side of the conversation.
I mouthed the question "Who is that" to her and she told me it was an Air Force recruiter.
I wanted to grab the phone out of her hand and tell them to keep their paws off my kid. She wouldn't give me the phone though.
She was very polite. He told her because of her test scores/grades, etc, that she could have ANY job the Air Force offered.
She told him that she already had college plans.
He persisted. She repeated it again.
Then she listened for a minute and finally she said "I'm not one of those kids you guys like to push around. I have plans already. I don't NEED what you are offering". And she hung up.
I couldn't have handled it better --and probably would have handled it much worse.

[misternormal]

31. Let's see...

... Of the people... By the people... For the people...

The people spoke... :shrug: Too bad the Military might not meet it's quota.

[BrotherBuzz]

36. Interesting, where were the Young Republicans?

Silly me, I would have thought they would be out in force countering the protesters. :shrug: