-
19 May 1951 New York Times
article "The
Outstanding Midshipman at Columbia"
-
12 Sept 1951 Columbia News
Office Memo - The founding of AFROTC at Columbia. Article pages: Page
1, Page
2.
-
1 Apr 1952 New York Times
article "Columbia
ROTC Holds Blood Donation Rally"
-
22 Nov 1952 New York Times
article "Midshipmen
Get a Dry-Land View of Cruiser"
-
19 Nov 1956 New York Times
article "Columbia
NROTC Members Train on USS Laning"
-
30 Mar 1957 New York Times
article "Submarine
Dives Thrill Students" - Midshipmen taste adventure under water in
cruise on Sound.
-
30 Mar 1957 New York Times
article "Submariners
are Hosts to Naval Officer Candidates from Columbia"
-
20 Oct 1965 Columbia Daily
Spectator article "ROTC
Has Had Tumultuous Career at Columbia"
-
26 Apr 1966 New York Times
article Columbia
University Cancels Awards Ceremony for Military Unit"
-
2 Nov 1967 New York Times
article
"Students
at Columbia Vote for Open Recruiting"
-
9 Oct 1968 Columbia Daily
Spectator - "Faculty
Group to Study NROTC"
-
14 March 1969 Columbia
University Report of the Joint Committee on
NROTC. Note: The committee recommended that "any
course offered as part of the naval training program shall carry credit
toward the satisfaction of degree requirements only if it is also listed in
the offerings of a regular academic department", "Personnel assigned to the
training program as instructors shall not be
ex officio members of any faculty of the University, and shall not hold
academic rank unless appointed according to regular procedures" and the
university "shall not allocate free space on campus to the Navy for drill or
for instructional purposes, whether or not for academic credit".
-
28 September 1973 Harvard
Crimson article "A
Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".
-
26 January 1976 Columbia
spectator article "University
Senate Passes Resolution Opposing ROTC".
-
24 Feb 1984 Columbia Daily
Spectator article "CC to Avoid ROTC". Article pages: Page
1, Page
2
-
23 Feb 1993 Columbia Daily
Spectator article "Columbia's
Cadets"
-
21 Feb 1994 Columbia Daily
Spectator article COI
Refuses to List ROTC Class Grades
-
10 March 1995 Columbia University Record article "From
the Senate". Note: The Columbia University Senate
registered disapproval of laws relating to homosexuality in the military.
- 9 October 2001 National Review column "Hypocritical Diversity:
Bring back the ROTC" by By Michael Knox Beran
- 26 November 2001 New York Times article "On
Campuses, Seeing the Military With New Eyes After Sept. 11"
- Autumn 2001 Columbia Political Review article "Revisiting
the ROTC: Is It Time to Bring the Reserve Officers' Training Corps Back
to Columbia?" by Matt Continetti.
- 15 November 2001 Boundless column "Oh,
Say Can't You See" by Sean McMeekin.
- 30 January 2002 SheThinks.org column "ROTC
Renaissance" by Matt Continetti. Comment: The
efforts of Advocates for Harvard ROTC
mentioned in this column began far before September 11th; the group has been
active since 1988.
- 29 March 2002 Columbia Spectator column "A
Time to Serve" by Eric Chen '04.
- 12 April 2002 Columbia Spectator column "ROTC
Belongs at Columbia" by Eric Chen '04.
- 26 April 2002 New York Sun article "Patriotism
is Columbia's Latest Cause Celebre".
- 28 April 2002 Forum: Should ROTC Return to Columbia?
Comment: This was the initial meeting with groups
supporting ROTC at Columbia. The handout is
here.
- 10 July 2002 Columbia Spectator cartoon "Help
End Anti-Military Discrimination at Columbia" by Eric Chen
GS 06.
- 17 September 2002 Columbia Spectator column "Changing
Times at Columbia" by Eric Chen. See
letter
and comment of 26 September.
- 20 September 2002 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "Ivy
League Sanity" in "Best of the Web Today" by James
Taranto. Comment: Taranto hails Harvard President Lawrence
Summers and Columbia undergraduate Eric Chen as examples of clear
thinking in the Ivy League. Chen describes advances in ROTC at
Columbia.
- 26 September 2002 Columbia Spectator letter "Columnist
Failed to Grasp Consequences of ROTC Program" by Quincy
Lehr. Comment: This letter was in response to
Eric
Chen's column of 17 September, says that the Air Force was among
those with "official tables at the Sept. 20 career
fair". If this is true it seems that formal military
recruiting is allowed at Columbia.
- 30 September 2002 Columbia Spectator letter "Columbians
in Military Would Ensure Greater Ethics in War".
- 1 October 2002 Columbia Spectator letter "University
Should Regard ROTC as Essential to Campus" by Megan Romigh, BC
'03.
- 10 October 2002 statement
from Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger announcing that
military recruiters will be allowed at Columbia Law School.
- 16 October 2002 New York Times article "Military
Recruiters Are Allowed".
- 22 October 2002 "Why is ROTC right for Columbia?"
by Eric Chen.
- 23 October 2002 Wall Street Journal "'That
Others May Live': A visit to the Air Force training base--a place that
causes great pain to some academics" by Dorothy Rabinowitz.
- 11 January 2003 Kalamazoo Gazette article "Threat
of war aids revival of ROTC". Comment: ROTC
cadets in uniform sometimes report awkward moments on campus. One
recounts "People come up and give you hugs".
- 29 January 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Rangel's
Wake-Up Call" by Eric Chen. Comment:
Representative Charles B. Rangel called
for a return of the military draft because a "disproportionate number
of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the
military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or
absent." It turns out he was wrong
about the racial mix of the military but he may be correct about the mix
of economic backgrounds. Chen points out that the best way to rectify
this imbalance of economic backgrounds is to restore ROTC at elite
universities.
- 3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator Op-Ed "ROTC and Opportunity"
by Jennifer Thorpe.
- 3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator article "Senate
Reaches Solution For Censorship Concerns". Note:
This article also discusses ROTC: "[Columbia President] Bollinger
was also asked for his opinion on bringing ROTC back to Columbia, more
than 30 years after it was banned from campus during the Vietnam War.
Bollinger said he did not have a strong opinion in either direction and
would welcome a discussion of the issue."
- 3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Return Proposals Provoke Activist Criticism".
- 5 February 2003 Columbia spectator letter "'Don't
Ask, Don't Tell' Shows Military Still Needs Reform" by Ross McSweeney,
CC '02.
- 13 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "The
Myth of Anti-Military Bias" by Merlin Chowkwanyun. Comment:
Chowkwanyun argues that the military, more than Congress, is responsible for
the 1993 Federal
Law mandating the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy for the
military.
- 14 February 2003 Columbia Spectator
letters "Articles Fail to Accurately Cover Campus ROTC Debate" by Shane
Hachey, GS '04 and "CU Should Support Student Participation in the Military"
by Jeff Sult, TC '03.
- 20 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "The Truth About ROTC"
by Sean Wilkes.
- 24 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "Spectator
Needs to Maintain Higher Journalistic Standards" by Eric Gutman, SEAS
'03.
- 27 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Collateral
Damage" by Yoni Appelbaum.
- 28 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
Curriculum Does Not Match Ivy League Standards" by Merlin Chowkwanyun,
CC '05.
- 3 March 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "Opinion
Article's ROTC Arguments Fail To Convince" by Michael Noble, CC '05.
-
6 March 2003 FrontPage Magazine article "".
-
1 April 2003 Columbia Spectator article "Panel
Speakers Link ROTC to War With Iraq". Comment:
One student argued for not having ROTC cadets on campus because, she said, members
of the armed forces are trained to "evaporate dissent".
Another "condemned the entire U.S. military as racist, lamenting what
she called disproportionate numbers of low-income people of color serving in
the military's rank-and-file". The ROTC program that serves
Columbia graduated an ROTC cadet named Colin
Powell, who faced no glass ceiling in his advancement in the military
and beyond.
-
2 April 2003 New York Times article "For
a Future Soldier, Life on a Liberal Campus Can Be a Battle".
-
3 April 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Military
Intelligence" by Brian Wagner. Comment: Wagner
dissects the anti-ROTC arguments made at a
Columbia
College forum.
-
5 April 2003 New York Times article "Professors
Protest as Students Debate". Comment: The
article mentions the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and the response to
ROTC at Princeton. "When Gary J. Bass, an assistant professor of
politics at Princeton, asked his class on "Causes of War" how many
students were in R.O.T.C., two raised their hands. The rest applauded."
-
8 April 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Don't
Question or Doubt the ROTC" by James Pulizzi. Note:
See response
letter
on 10 April.
-
8 April 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
at Ivy League Will Improve Diversity of Military" by Sean Wilkes CC '06.
-
10 April 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
Program Would be Valuable to Columbia Community" by Eric Chen.
Note: This is a response to the 8 April
Pulizzi
column.
-
17 April 2003 Columbia Spectator article "High
Turnout Decides CC Student Council Election". Comment:
Towards the end of the article is results from "a referendum asking if
the University should prohibit the ROTC from having a chapter at Columbia".
By a vote of 973 to 530, students favored allowing ROTC. The students
do not have an official say in the decision.
-
21 April 2003 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today
"Harvard
Hangups" by James Taranto. Comment: Taranto
notes the 973 to 530 student vote for ROTC at Columbia and observes how
times have changed.
-
9 May 2003 FrontPage Magazine
column "Graduation
Present: It's Not 1968 at Columbia Anymore" by Ron Lewenberg.
-
20 November 2003
Defense Business
Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: The
participants in the Defense Business Board meeting discussed "implementing ROTC programs at
top tier schools".
Dov Zakheim
mentioned the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and said "I spoke to the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and he is extremely interested ... We would
like to get on the campus at Harvard. The President of Harvard has
showed an interest in this."
Bill Carr raised the possibility of
restoring ROTC at Yale, citing the difficulty of Yale students traveling to
ROTC programs at other colleges. He also discussed the tradeoff
between getting top tier cadets and paying the high cost of ROTC
scholarships to top tier schools. The group recommended to "approach
Harvard's President first and if successful, then approach Yale, Columbia
and Brown".
-
21 January 2004 Advocates for Columbia ROTC press release "Columbia
University and ROTC". Note: Columbia now offers
information about ROTC on its Web
site and will list ROTC courses on student transcripts.
-
27 January 2004 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Marches Back to Columbia: New Web Site, Registration Credit Give ROTC
Supporters Hope for Program at CU".
-
2 February 2004 Columbia University "Grants
and Scholarships from Sources Other than Columbia". Note:
Columbia adds information about financial support from ROTC to its financial
aid Web site.
-
3 February 2004 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Return Proposals Provoke Activist Criticism". Note:
President Bollinger "made clear that any reinstatement of ROTC will have to
begin at the student level, not the administrative level."
-
3 February 2004 Columbia Spectator editorial "Bring
Back ROTC". Note: Columbia's student newspaper calls
for the return of ROTC based on the importance of integrating the military
with society and ensuring a diversity of views on campus.
-
5 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Bringing
ROTC to Columbia Will Not Reform the Armed Services" by Michael
Castleman, SEAS '03.
-
6 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC
Trains Its Members to Be Leaders of Society, Not Just Killers" by James
Bondarchuk, CC '05.
-
14 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Articles
Fail to Accurately Cover Campus ROTC Debate" by Shane Hachey, GS '04.
-
14 February 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "CU
Should Support Student Participation in the Military" by Jeff Sult, TC
'03.
-
17 February 2004 Letter to Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley "Restoration
of ROTC" from Admiral B. James Lowe CC'51. Note: Admiral
Lowe mentions a commitment from Provost Brinkley "to form a committee from
the faculty senate to review the advantages and disadvantages that would be
derived from restoration of the ROTC to Columbia".
-
21 March 2004 "Brief:
Proposal to Return ROTC to Columbia’s Campus" by
Advocates for Columbia ROTC and
Students United for America.
Note: The
document is also on the Web site of the
Columbia University Senate.
- 26 March 2004 Columbia University Senate minutes "Proposal
to bring ROTC back to Columbia".
-
29 March 2004 Columbia
Spectator article "Senate
Passes ROTC Task Force". Note: Columbia is setting up
a committee to look into the restoration of ROTC.
-
1 April 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Possible
Return of ROTC to Campus Sparks Controversy". Note:
"I think everybody involved with the proposal is perfectly aware that the
law governing participation in the military has to change, and we will be
part of that change if we can," said professor of finance and economics
Michael Adler, one of the proposal's faculty supporters.
-
8 April 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Racism
and Homophobia in ROTC Violate Columbia's Standards of Tolerance" by
Joya Banerjee, BC '04.
-
9 April 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Congress
Pressures Colleges to Accept Military Recruiters".
-
14 April 2004 Columbia Spectator article "The
Professor Who Abolished ROTC From Columbia". Note:
Prof. Lewis Cole says he opposes university credit for courses about the
practice of war, but supports credit for courses about military theory.
-
20 April 2004 Columbia Spectator letter "Not
All ROTC Courses Would Be for Credit If the Program Returned" by Sean L.
Wilkes, CC '06. Note: The writer, chairman of
Advocates for Columbia ROTC, calls a
recent interview with Prof. Lewis Cole opposing credit for military
practice
courses but favoring credit for military theory courses "a very constructive suggestion"
and notes that similar criteria are used in giving course credit for
music-related activities. Wilkes says Prof. Cole's suggestions give him "optimism that we
can put together a broad consensus on the issue of credit for ROTC courses
at Columbia". The proposal referred to in Wilkes' letter is
here.
- 30 April 2004 Columbia University Senate minutes "Proposal
to return ROTC to the Columbia campus".
-
5 May 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Bollinger
Speaks Publicly On Strike for First Time". Note: At
the end of this article is an account of brief discussion of ROTC at the
Columbia University Senate meeting.
-
October 2004 United States Military Academy at West Point
announcement "BS&L
Partners with Columbia University". Note: "Starting in the
summer of 2005, from 18 to 25 US Army captains per year will enroll in
Columbia University and earn a Masters of Arts in Organizational
Psychology". More details about the program
here.
-
3 December 2004 Columbia Spectator editorial "CU
and the military: Columbia
should allow recruiters on campus". Note: The editors
said "military recruiters, like the Reserve Officer Training Corps, have a
place at Columbia—and more importantly, Columbians have a place in the
military".
-
16 December 2004 Wall Street Journal article "At
Ivy League Schools, ROTC, Long Banned, Plots a Comeback: Push May Stir Up
Old Passions On These Elite Campuses; A Beachhead at Harvard". Note: The article
discusses the movements to bring back ROTC to Harvard, Columbia, Yale and
Brown, backed by the
efforts of the
Defense Business Board and a request
from the military.
-
16 December 2004 Thomas P. M. Barnett Weblog "On
the question of who serves, I say let 'em all in!" Note:
Barnett suggests that Congress change the laws so gays can serve in some
roles in the armed forces, and cites a
letter
he received from Cadet Sean Wilkes, Chairman of
Advocates for Columbia ROTC.
-
21 January 2005 Yale Daily News article "Return
of ROTC is debated: Defense Department shows renewed interest in bringing
program back to Ivy campuses". Note: The article also
discusses efforts to restore ROTC at Harvard and Columbia.
-
21 January 2005 Associated Press article "Decades
after Vietnam, ROTC making return effort to Ivy League". Note:
The article suggests that the "Captain
and a Sergeant" the military plans to post on the Harvard campus will be
to run "a recruiting office".
-
21 January 2005 Yale Herald article "The
Next Battle: ROTC at Yale: After a complex history, college military org.
may reoccupy hostile territory".
- 28 January 2005 Columbia University Senate minutes "Update
from the Senate Task Force on ROTC".
-
31 January 2005 Columbia Spectator
article "No
Change for CU in Military Recruiting". Note: The ROTC and
Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act of 2004 was
signed in October.
-
31 January 2005 Columbia spectator
article "University
Senate Debates Student Involvement in Future Task Forces". Note:
The University Senate also heard an interim report from the its ROTC task
force. A "town hall meeting is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 15 for
the task force to listen to the opinions of the Columbia community".
-
15 February 2005 Brown Daily Herald
article "Interest
in ROTC minimal at Brown despite debate at other Ivies".
Note: Currently there are only two cadets. Another
student said "People at Brown are the
type of people who should be filling the military in large numbers... I
think the military is an institution we should be dedicated to repair and
bring into the 21st century."
-
15 February 2005 transcript "Proceedings
of the University Senate: Should Columbia restore ROTC? A Town Hall meeting
moderated by the Senate Task Force on ROTC".
-
16 February 2005 Columbia Spectator
article "Debaters
Battle Military Recruit Policies at CU". Note: The
article describes the Columbia
University Senates' Town Hall meeting about the
proposal to return ROTC to Columbia. ROTC proponents discussed how
ROTC at Columbia would be good for Columbia and good for the country and
ROTC opponents cited the
Federal Law
about homosexuality in the military.
-
16 February 2005 Columbia Spectator column "ROTC,
You Are (Still) Not Wanted Here" by Nick Rosenthal. Note:
The writer calls for preventing discussion of the Columbia ROTC issue in the
New York Times and says that the attitude of ROTC proponents to gays is that
"we like to rape them with broomsticks". See
Chadwick ,
Scavone and
Hwong letters in response.
-
16 February 2005 New York Sun article "ROTC
Program May Be Revived At Columbia U". Note: The
Chairman of Columbia's Senate
Task Force on restoration of ROTC, Prof. James Applegate said "If the
faculty senate voted to restore ROTC ... the program would probably come
without academic credit, and ROTC educators would receive the title of
instructor rather than professor. Drill instruction would probably take
place off campus."
-
18 February 2005 Columbia Spectator
article "Ghosts
of '68 Haunt Latest ROTC Debate: Current Fight Over ROTC's Return to Campus
is Newest Chapter in Program's Controversial History". Note:
Participants at the Columbia Senate Town Hall on ROTC looked ahead to the
wider campus debate on the ROTC restoration proposal. Student Nate
Treadwell said “This shouldn’t be up to majority opinion...
Nondiscrimination is a principle that shouldn’t be waived if any number of
students want it”.
-
19 February 2005 "Letter
to the Columbia Senate Task Force on Restoration of ROTC" by
Henry Waller, Columbia Business School '05.
-
19 February 2005 "Letter
to the Columbia Senate Task Force on Restoration of ROTC" by Shane Hachey
GS '04.
-
19 February 2005 "Letter to the Columbia
Senate Task Force on Restoration of ROTC" by Eric Chen GS '06.
Note: Chen discusses ROTC and Columbia's non-discrimination
policy and argues that excluding ROTC jeopardizes the university's
principles of diversity and inclusiveness.
-
19 February 2005 "Letter to the
Columbia Senate Task Force on Restoration of ROTC" by Jason Van
Steenwyk. Note: Jason Van Steenwyk runs the
Countercolumn blog.
-
19 February 2005 "Letter to the
Columbia Senate Task Force on Restoration of ROTC" by Sarah Walter.
Note: Sarah Walter runs the
Trying to Grok
blog.
-
21 February 2005 Columbia Spectator letter "Rosenthal
Wilfully Overlooks the Positive Aspects of Military Service" by Joshua
Chadwick, Law ’05. Note: This letter responds to a
16 February column.
-
21 February 2005 Columbia Spectator letter "Columnist
Espouses a “Narrow Political Agenda" by Adam Scavone. Note:
This letter responds to a
16 February column.
-
25 February 2005 Columbia University Senate
"Emails
Sent to the ROTC Task Force".
-
25 February 2005 Columbia Spectator column "Free
To Be You and Me" by Shane Hachey GS '04.
-
25 February 2005 Columbia Spectator letter "Columnist’s
Depiction of ROTC Was Inaccurate and Harmful" by Taylor Hwong, SEAS ’92. Note: This letter responds to a
16 February column.
-
28 February 2005 Columbia Spectator article "U.
Senate Meets, Responds to MEALAC Debate". Note: "James
Applegate, co-chair of the ROTC Task Force Committee, presented a report on
the Town Hall Meeting about the issue at Columbia on Feb. 15".
-
3 March 2005 Columbia Spectator editorial "ROTC:
Return". Note: Columbia's student newspaper said
"While we oppose many of the military’s policies, particularly its “don’t
ask, don’t tell” program, we recognize the valuable ideological and
socioeconomic diversity that a military presence would bring to campus... As
we hope the military would change our campus, so would we hope to change the
military".
-
3 March 2005 Columbia Spectator column "Columbia
Liberals and ROTC Conservatives Can Help Each Other" by Jason Elliott.
Note: The author said "As the debate over whether to bring the
ROTC back to Columbia rages, I’d like to be one of the first left-wingers to
rise in support of reinstating the program... If we—the left wing—want to
fundamentally change the way America’s military is managed, we should do it
from the inside, by becoming the leadership: officers in the armed forces,
or officials in the Department of Defense".
-
3 March 2005 Wall Street Journal "Best of the Web Today"
item "The New
Generation Gap" by James Taranto. Note: Taranto cites the
pro-ROTC
editorial and
column in the Columbia Spectator and suggests that students are "more
patriotic today than their predecessors were in the 1960s and '70s".
- 3 March 2005 GedankenTravelExperiment blog item "ROTC".
Note: The author criticizes reasons cited against ROTC at
Columbia.
-
13 March 2005 Advocates for Columbia
ROTC flyer "A
Vote for ROTC Is a Vote for Affirmative Action".
-
13 March 2005 Advocates for Columbia
ROTC flyer "ROTC:
Democracy's Champions".
-
18 March 2005 Advocates for Columbia
ROTC flyer "ROTC
Addresses Class Inequality".
-
18 March 2005
Students United for America flyer "Why
is the Reserves Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Right for Columbia?".
-
22 March 2005 Columbia Spectator column "Against
the Proposed ROTC Restoration" by Yi-Sheng Ng, Karyn Lukoff, Katherine
Redmon, Christian Sjulssen, and Dustin Brauneck. Note:
The Columbia Queer Alliance, the Coming Out Group and Q, Barnard College’s
queer student organization, say that "Members of the ROTC have been expelled
after marching in a PRIDE parade, even though some were straight allies".
-
22 March 2005 Columbia Spectator column "Don't
Ask, Don't Tell, Pretend Nobody Gets Hurt" by Matt Grice.
-
28 March 2005
Columbia University Senate's
Task Force on ROTC "More
emails to the Senate ROTC Task Force". Note: One writer
says that a "quick review" of ROTC courses
suggest they are "hardly likely to be of
interest to non-ROTC students". A good counterexample is the
course detailed in MIT Sloan Fellows Learn
from Army During Leadership Exercise. The same writer says the "oft-repeated claim is that military
experience is widely valued by civilian employers" which the writer
thinks this is "generally untrue".
Some good example on this issue are in the Associated Press article "Secretive
Military Units Provide Training Ground for Israel's High-Tech Leaders".
Perhaps there would be more such examples in the United States if
universities such as Columbia had ROTC programs.
-
29 March 2005 Columbia Spectator column "When
Exclusion Breeds Exclusion" by Dennis Schmelzer. Note: The author asks
why the military, which was ahead of society in integration of blacks and
women, lags on integration of gays, and suggests that one factor is the
absence of ROTC programs at elite universities.
-
1 April 2005
Columbia University Senate's
Task Force on ROTC "Results
of deliberations". Note: The Task Force deadlocked
5-5 on the question of whether ROTC should return despite the
"Don't ask, don't tell" law.
-
5 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Debate Advances Toward Senate Decision: Task Force Split on Recommendation;
Debate Centers on Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy".
Note: The full University Senate is planning a May 6 vote on the
proposal.
-
5 April 2005 Columbia Spectator column "A
Betrayal in Soldier's Clothing" by Matt Smith. Note:
Smith calls for taxpayer-funded scholarships to be free of payback
provisions such as military service.
-
6 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "Panel
Examines ROTC Conflict: Clash Between CU Non-Discrimination Policy And
Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Stressed".
-
6 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "Conservativism
and Feminism Combined". Note: Tammy Bruce, an author and
former chapter head of the National Organization for Women said "the
exclusion of the ROTC is no different from the exclusion of other on-campus
groups".
-
14 April 2005 New York Post column "Columbia's
Bigotry" by Charles E. F. Millard. Note: The column
describes how supporters of ROTC at Columbia offered to make common cause
with opponents of the "Don't ask Don't tell" law and were spurned.
-
14 April 2005 Power Line blog item "Don't
ask, we'll tell". Note: The preference of anti-ROTC forces
at Columbia for a "Teach-In" instead of a debate is criticized.
-
14 April 2005 "Union
Theological Seminary, Columbia University: Statement of the Student Senate
Executive Committee". Note: The statement said "We
believe ROTC’s war-making and policy against homosexuals are violations of
the sacredness of human life" and urged shunning the military "until drastic
democratic reforms are made to US foreign and domestic policy ... Some of us
are pacifists and others of us simply reject the US military in its current
manifestation".
-
15 April 2005
Columbia University Senate "Transcript
of Special Senate Meeting on ROTC".
-
15 April 2005 Advocates for
Columbia ROTC handout for 15 April Columbia University Senate debate on
the
Proposal to Restore ROTC "Salient
points for ROTC".
-
15 April 2005 Power Line blog item "Honor
and disgrace". Note: Scott Johnson recalls the "military brief" solicited
by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger in the University of Michigan
affirmative action case and asks why Bollinger "isn't equally solicitous of
those signatories on the subject of ROTC on campus".
-
15 April 2005 "Report
to the Columbia University Senate and Personal Statement" by Nate
Walker, co-chair of
Columbia University Senate's
Task Force on ROTC. Note: Walker amends his original
comments on the meaning of the wide agreement that ROTC should return to
Columbia if there were no "Don't ask,
don't tell" law.
-
18 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "U.
Senate Hears ROTC Findings: Task Force Split 5-5 On Proposal to Return ROTC
Immediately".
-
19 April 2005 Personal Statement by Fred W. Cook "ROTC
at Columbia". Note:
This statement outlines a plan for an ROTC presence at Columbia. It
is similar to the plan discussed in 2004 for Harvard as outlined in a statement by LTC Brian
Baker and covered in a
16 December 2004 Wall Street Journal article.
Fred Cook is a member of
the Defense Business Board.
Transcripts of
14 May 2003,
30 July 2003 and
12 May 2004
Defense Business Board meetings discussing return of ROTC to elite colleges
contain key comments by him, thus his personal statement is likely to
represent Pentagon thinking.
-
21 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC
Debate Continues at Open Forum". Note: Nate Walker, co-chair
of the
Columbia University Senate ROTC Task Force, seems to indicate that all 5
who voted for the "ROTC if no DADT" resolution voted against the "ROTC even
if DADT" resolution, meaning that the sole abstention on the "ROTC if no
DADT" resolution was by an ROTC supporter.
-
25 April 2005
Speakers and
transcript of the panel and discussion,
“Perspectives on the Future of ROTC at Columbia”.
-
26 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "Panelists
Examine ROTC's Role on Campus: With University Senate Vote Approaching,
'Advocates for Columbia ROTC' Sponsors Forum".
-
27 April 2005 Columbia Spectator article "Univ.
Senate Advances Toward Vote on ROTC: Executive Committee Approves Resolution
on Future of ROTC for May 6 Senate Body Vote". Note:
ROTC Task Force co-chairman Prof. Applegate raised the possibility that a
vote on ROTC may not occur at the 6 May Columbia University Senate meeting.
-
29 April 2005 article ""Don't ask, don't tell" and ROTC:
Taking the moral high ground at Columbia"
by Michael Segal.
-
29 April 2005 "For
ROTC at Columbia" by Prof. Allan Silver,
Department of Sociology,
Columbia University. Note: Prof. Silver, who supported removal of
ROTC in 1969, argues for the importance in reducing the civilian - military
gap.
-
29 April 2005 Columbia News Tonight segment "Should
ROTC return to Columbia? A Roundtable Discussion. Guests: Nate Walker,
Co-Chair, ROTC Task Force; Scott Stewart, Columbia student, former soldier."
-
1 May 2005 New York Times
article "Offering
R.O.T.C. a Truce". Note: The movement at Columbia to
restore ROTC has "signaled a shift in student attitudes toward the
military and encouraged vigorous conversation on campus."
-
1 May 2005 "The
Case for ROTC at Columbia" by Prof. James
H. Applegate, Professor of Astronomy, Columbia University, Co-Chair,
Columbia University Senate
Task Force on ROTC. Note:
Prof. Applegate suggests that the arguments against ROTC
"arise from our looking inward and
seeing Columbia in isolation".
-
1 May 2005 INTEL DUMP blog item
"Bringing ROTC
back to Columbia's campus". Note: In the responses to
the item, Dave Glazier gives practical reasons why having ROTC is
more important than whether recruiting is on campus.
-
1 May 2005 Outside the Whale blog item "Columbia
May Reinstate the Campus Reserve Officers Training Corps Chapter".
Note: The importance of universities such as Columbia being
involved in ROTC is stressed because the military now has a "greater
emphasis on dealing with the threat of terrorism but also democratization
and nation and institution building".
-
2 May 2005 "Tell
Me Again Why Columbia Should Restore ROTC" by Columbia Alliance for ROTC.
-
4 May 2005 "Statement for the Final
Report of the Columbia University Senate Task Force on ROTC" by Sean
Wilkes CC '06, Member of the Task Force and Chairman of
Advocates for Columbia ROTC.
-
4 May 2005 Columbia Community
Discusses "Don't ask, don't tell" and ROTC. Note: A
set of actual e-mails debating the "Don't ask, don't tell" issue from a
variety of perspectives.
-
5 May 2005
Columbia University Senate Task Force on ROTC "Final
Report of the ROTC Task Force".
-
6 May 2005 Columbia University Executive Committee "Resolution
to Establish a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Program at Columbia
University".
-
6 May 2005 Advocates
for Columbia ROTC statement on ROTC at Columbia and “don’t ask, don’t tell”
-
6 May 2005 Columbia Spectator article "Senate
Rejects ROTC's Return: Resolution Overturned in Last Meeting of Year".
Note: The Columbia University Senate rejected a
proposal to invite ROTC to Columbia (this article reports the initial
inaccurate tally). The reason most cited was the "Don't
ask, don't tell law".
-
6 May 2005
Columbia University Senate transcript of
Senate meeting on ROTC.
-
6 May 2005
Columbia University Senate "Columbia
University Senate vote on resolution to establish an ROTC program at
Columbia University". Note: The Senate includes
faculty, administrators and students. Although the vote was reported
slightly differently initially, it was 53-10 against establishing an ROTC
program.
-
7 May 2005 New York Times article "Columbia
U. Senate Votes Against Return of R.O.T.C.". Note:
Alan Brinkley, Columbia's provost, said during the debate "Would we agree to
an organization on campus," that allowed "African-Americans to join this
organization only if they pass for white?"
-
8 May 2005 INTEL DUMP blog item "Columbia
U. makes a myopic move".
-
8 May 2005 article "After the
Vote: Why ROTC Belongs At Columbia" by Prof. Allan Silver,
Department of Sociology, Columbia University.
-
9 May 2005 Columbia Spectator article "Reserve
Officer Training Corps: After Semester of Debate, ROTC To Stay Off Campus".
-
9 May 2005 New York Sun editorial "AWOL
at Columbia". Note: The Sun notes "the lack of
protest of the policies of the Islamist enemy in respect of gay rights" at
Columbia and argues that one is not "helping the causes of tolerance or
civil rights by staying on the sidelines of this war".
-
9 May 2005 Inside Higher Ed article "Columbia
Says No, Still, to ROTC".
-
11 May 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial "A
Tale of Two Columbias: The patriotic and the politically correct".
Note: See
responses on
17 May
and 26 May.
-
13 May 2005 Wall Street Journal column "Neither
Fools Nor Cowards: Barriers between military service and higher education do
a disservice to both" by Eliot A. Cohen. Note: Prof.
Cohen discusses the civilian-military divide in light of Columbia's
rejection of ROTC and the fact that "the institutional military is not all that
eager to re-establish a ROTC presence on elite campuses". See
letter
in response on 18 May. Prof.
Cohen, a Harvard ROTC graduate, is pictured
here at his son's Harvard ROTC commissioning.
-
13 May 2005 Villainous Company
blog item "The
Wisdom of Solomon". Note: Cassandra discusses the
University Senate vote against ROTC at Columbia and argues that using the
Solomon Amendment for ROTC
removes the argument that universities with ROTC are tacitly
expressing approval for the "Don't ask,
don't tell" law.
-
16 May 2005 New York Sun article "Fossella:
Federal Money at Risk For Columbia". Note: A
New York City congressman suggests that the Secretary of Defense could
invoke the Solomon Amendment over Columbia's rejection of ROTC.
-
17 May 2005 Wall Street Journal letter "Columbia,
ROTC and Sexual Orientation" by President Lee C. Bollinger (also on
Columbia's Web site).
Note: Responding to an
editorial,
Pres. Bollinger writes "After acknowledging that reasonable people can
differ over the military's prohibition on openly gay and lesbian servicemen
and women, the editorial goes on to suggest that those of us who disagree
with that prohibition are anti-military, and to question our motivations."
However, this is not an accurate portrayal of the debate at Columbia.
As the
Columbia ROTC Task Force report makes clear, proponents of the return of
ROTC to Columbia also opposed "Don't ask, don't tell". The
disagreement between pro and anti-ROTC sides at Columbia was whether the
benefits of ROTC outweighed the disagreements with the
federal law. Pres. Bollinger
went on to blame the government for putting an end to the discussion about
ROTC at Columbia, noting that his vote against return of ROTC "was based on
a serious concern for the integrity of the university in the face of the
federal government's use of the power of the purse to force institutions to
compromise their principles". However, the best
indications of Pentagon
intentions available before the vote were that "the
Pentagon cannot provide a positive request or indication to Columbia to
reestablish an ROTC unit on campus because, to do so, would trigger the
Solomon Amendment should Columbia turn down the request".
See also a
letter in response on 26 May.
-
18 May 2005 New York Sun article "Columbia
To Consider Bringing ROTC Back to Campus". Note:
The chairman of the
board of trustees, David Stern, said he is pushing to
the forefront of the board's agenda the issue of the university's policy
toward ROTC.
-
18 May 2005 Wall Street Journal letter "Denying
Students ROTC" by David Thomas. Note: Responding
to Prof. Cohen's
article on 13 May, Thomas states
that "denying students exposure to ROTC and military history is as
short-sighted as eliminating, say, women's studies."
-
19 May 2005 New York Sun editorial "Wisdom
of Solomon". Note: The Sun calls for the
trustees of Columbia to restore ROTC and notes that "many
of those most committed to pressing the government to change its policy
toward gays in the military are those asking that Columbia open its doors to
ROTC." For examples, see the
Columbia University Senate Task Force Report, this
email discussion and this
proposal for immediate changes in the law.
-
19 May 2005 Inside Higher Ed article "ROTC
Debate Not Over at Columbia". Note: The
board of
trustees will meet on 4 June and "has invited Senate representatives from
both sides of the debate to answer questions on that, and a host of other
issues".
-
20 May 2005 New York Daily News editorial "Columbia
declares war on ROTC".
-
23 May 2005 New York Daily News column "Columbia's
old elite a new ROTC enemy" by Shane Hachey. Note:
The submitted text is here.
-
23 May 2005 Voice of America story "U.S.
Supreme Court Will Review Law that Denies Funding to Campuses that Bar
Military". Note: Columbia University student
Scott Stewart, a gay veteran who supports ROTC on campus, says you have to
associate with the military to influence it.
-
26 May 2005 Wall Street Journal letter "Columbia's
'Compromising' Exactly What Principles?" by Irving Louis Horowitz.
Note: Prof. Horowitz responds to President Bollinger's
letter about the
editorial
on ROTC at Columbia.
-
30 May 2005 Washington Times column "Honor
thy soldiers" by Suzanne Fields. Note: Fields
discusses the University Senate vote against ROTC at Columbia and quotes
Harvard President Lawrence Summers as saying that military service is
"vitally important to the freedom that makes possible institutions like
Harvard".
-
Spring 2005 Columbia magazine
article "University
Senate Says No to ROTC". Note: Although the Senate
vote was not binding "the administration has pledged to respect the vote".
Nate Walker '08TC, who co-chaired the ROTC Task Force, said "It's clear to
me, from my work on the senate, that when the military stops its invidious
discriminatory practices, Columbia probably will support ROTC's return",
referring to the "Don't ask, don't tell"
law. Provost Alan Brinkley, who abstained from voting as is his
custom, despite an impassioned anti-ROTC speech, said "there does not seem
to be strong intrinsic opposition toward the military, other than with
regard to this discriminatory policy".
-
August 2005 American Council of Trustees and alumni article "Universities
and the Military: What You Should Know About the Upcoming Supreme Court Case"
by Melvin H. Bernstein. Note: The article recounts the
history of the Solomon Amendment and compares the attitude of the presidents
of Harvard and Columbia towards ROTC.
-
September 2005 VFW Magazine article "". Note: Many of
the leaders of the Columbia effort were quoted, including Advocates for
Columbia ROTC chairman Sean Wilkes and alumni group Columbia Alliance for
ROTC chairman Ted Graske CC'59.
-
12 October 2005
American Council of Trustees and Alumni press
release "Hypocrisy
101: The Academy and Military Recruiters". Note: ACTA
lists the federal funds at risk under the Solomon Amendment. Of the
listed colleges barring ROTC, Columbia leads with $457 million at
risk.
-
21 October 2005
Columbia University Senate
"Minutes
of September 16, 2005". Note: Senator Paul Duby
reported on the discussions at the June
Columbia University
Trustees meeting about the ROTC issue. When "a Trustee
asked if there was anything else the Trustees were expected to do on this
subject; Sen. Duby said Provost Alan Brinkley answered in one word: No".
The minutes also note that "the Task Force made some recommendations
for improving conditions for Columbia students who are pursuing ROTC off
campus, at Manhattan College or Fordham. One was to provide more assistance
in the form of transportation, or maybe a small office on the Columbia
campus. Another was to assure that any students barred from ROTC because of
their sexual preference would be eligible for equivalent financial support
from Columbia. Sen. Duby said he and Sen. Applegate would discuss these
issues with the provost."
- 25 October 2005 Columbia Spectator column "Columbia
Plays Dirty Pool" by John Mateus. Note: A Columbia
Law student calls interference with military interviews, which blocked him
from being interviewed, "underhanded and sabotage" and criticizes the
unwillingness of Columbia to stop the interference. See also responses
by
Karyn Lukoff,
Michelle Rutherford and
Cuauhtemoc Ortega.
- November 2005 The Blue and White article "Embedded
in New York: Or, How I Learned to Stop Whining and Love ROTC".
Note: The article describes some of the ROTC training for Columbia
students "In one Chemical Warfare exercise, Wilkes had to walk through a gas
chamber filled with CS gas (ortho-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile). Cadets
wore gas masks, but were required to remove them in the middle of the room,
state their name and social security number, and answer a simple question
such as, "What's one plus one?""
-
7 December 2005 Columbia
Spectator article "Supreme
Court Hears Solomon Amendment Case". Note: The
article mentions how Solicitor General Paul Clement began to argue that the
2004 change to the Solomon Amendment
did not demand greater access for the military than other employers and
Justice Scalia said he was "galloping in the wrong direction".
-
12 January 2005 GayPatriot blog item "Columbia
University Wants It All". Note: A gay servicemember
says "If Columbia University doesn’t want the federal government on its
campus, fine. But they shouldn’t expect federal dollars."
-
18 January 2006 Columbia
Spectator op-ed "Veterans
Deserve Better" by Chris Kulawik
CC'08. Note: Kulawik describes an incident on Activities Day in
which a student visiting the Columbia Military Society table was "publicly insulted for being both a minority and a
veteran" by three people in a "violent rant" in which "the table
nearly flipped". The student "submitted a complaint to his dean with
hopes of a thorough investigation and ultimately disciplinary action against
those students who harassed him" and got no response from the
administration. See responses by
Jonah Birch, CC ‘05 and
Todd Murphy, GS '08.
-
25 January 2006 Columbia Spectator article "A Firm Stance:
CU Marine Reservist Targeted In Angry Confrontation; No Disciplinary Action
Taken". Note: An anti-military incident recounted in an
Op-ed column is covered by the Columbia student newspaper. The
Spectator claims that students urging other students to sign up for ROTC was
"not allowed on campus" at the time. This seems wrong. Even after
the 3rd Circuit court decision
allowing bans on external recruiters, students always
retained the freedom to urge other students to enlist to fight for their
country. After the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, the 3rd
Circuit
halted implementation of its ruling, removing the restriction on external
recruiters.
-
25 January 2006
U.S. Military Veterans of
Columbia University press release "Anti-Military
Discrimination at Columbia". Note: The
group "asks
that Columbia University amend its Discrimination and Harassment Policy to
grant all veterans and military-related persons protected status."
-
27 January 2006
Columbia Spectator Op-ed "The
Conservative Witch Hunt" by Zach Zill CC '06. Note: One of
the students who "confronted" pro-ROTC students in the "anti-ROTC
incident on Activities Day"
denounces the 25 January Spectator
news article as part of a "witch-hunt"
and denies having made offensive remarks attributed to him.
-
30 January 2006
Columbia Spectator column "Revisiting
Vietnam" by Monique Dols GS '06. Note: Dols observes that "ROTC
supporters are making headway by recruiting for the Fordham University and
Manhattan College ROTC programs on campus. By increasing the ranks of
military personnel on campus, they are laying the groundwork for the
program’s future return."
She regards this as a negative development and urges people to "expose
the ugly underbelly of US aggression in the world".
-
1 February 2006
New York Sun article "Veterans
Take Grievances to Columbia Provost".
Note: The provost, who
spoke passionately against ROTC on campus in May 2005, was to hear
complaints about harassment. The article lists an incorrect tally for
the Columbia Senate vote on ROTC in May 2005; it was
53-10.
-
9 February 2006
Columbia Spectator article "Sanchez
Lodges Protest: Reserve Marine Files Grievance With SDA Against ISO Protest".
Note: University spokeswoman Susan Brown said Columbia
already includes military status as a protected category in its speech code,
and the protection is not limited to Vietnam-era veterans.
International Socialist Organization member Monique Dols GS ’06 said
post-Vietnam veterans should not have such protection since they enlisted
voluntarily.
-
13 February 2006 Columbia Spectator Op-Ed "ROTC
and the Ivory Tower: Cease Fire" by Adam Weinstein. Note:
A self described "liberal war resister" suggests that if you have
disagreements with current military practices "You bring ROTC back to
Columbia, and you sign yourself up". He suggests that to do otherwise
is to "keep the military and the ivory tower separate and go on with your
life of smug self-satisfaction" and will result in "marginalizing yourselves
and alienating potential supporters". See
letter in response on 21 February.
-
21 February 2006 Columbia Spectator letter "Military
Veterans Bring Diverse Voices to Columbia Community" by The Executive
Board of U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia University (MilVets).
Note: The MilVets point out that Adam Weinstein’s February 13th
column is an example of the political diversity of military veterans on
elite campuses.
-
23 February 2006 Columbia University statement of
nondiscriminatory policies "Equal
educational opportunity and student nondiscrimination policies and
procedures on discrimination and harassment". Note:
The statement begins with the words "Columbia University is committed to
providing a learning environment free from unlawful discrimination".
Since the previous antidiscrimination rules had been used to argue against
ROTC on the basis of discrimination against openly homosexual people in the
military this wording is interesting because "Don't ask, don't tell" is the
law, and there fore not unlawful.
-
6 March 2006 Columbia Spectator article "Supreme
Court Upholds Solomon Amendment: Columbia Could Face Choice Between ROTC and
Federal Funding". Note: The ruling says nothing
about ROTC and the reasoning used in upholding the Solomon
Amendment, that "recruiters are not part of the law school", does not apply
to a full ROTC program, where instructors are faculty members and ROTC courses
are in the university's list of courses. However, the Pentagon's likely
offer to Columbia was
an
ROTC satellite office, not a full ROTC program, for which the faculty
appointment and course offering issues would not apply.
-
8 March 2006 Columbia Spectator
article "Supreme
Court Upholds Solomon Amendment: Unanimous Ruling Affirms Military’s Right
to Recruit on College Campuses". Note: ROTC opponent
Nate Walker TC '07 said it was likely that the Pentagon would use the court
victory to seek to restore ROTC at Columbia, while Sean Wilkes CC '06, head
of Advocates for Columbia ROTC, said it was
unlikely.
-
10 March 2006 The New Republic
article "War
College" by Peter Beinart. Note: Beinart describes
the scene outside the Columbia University Senate vote on ROTC on 6 May 2005:
"Outside
the senate auditorium, some pro-rotc students
hung a banner reading a vote for rotc is a vote for
the heroes of our generation. With the Court decision as her pretext,
Senator Clinton's opportunity is clear: Go to Columbia and tell its leaders
that those students are right...
Today, the Serviceman's Legal Defense Network--which represents gays and
lesbians in the military--understands the same thing. Which is why it does
not oppose rotc on campus, even as it
struggles heroically against "don't ask, don't tell." It is Bollinger and
Brinkley who, by shunning the military, have placed themselves in the
oppositional, anti-liberal tradition of the New Left."
-
22 March 2006 Columbia Spectator column "Rumsfeld
1, Columbia 0" by Chris Kulawik CC '08. Note: Kulawik
points out that Columbia has many programs that discriminate by race and
gender and concludes that to "claim that ROTC is the only such case ... is
blatant hypocrisy". He also recounts how anti-ROTC students told him
that “The racist military takes advantage of minority students; they aren’t
able to understand what exactly they’re getting into.”
-
24 March 2006 Columbia Spectator article "Discrimination
Policy Amended: New Policy Wording Adds Military Status to Protected Group
List". Note: When Columbia revised its
antidiscrimination rules to include all military veterans it began the
statement with the words "Columbia University is committed to providing a
learning environment free from unlawful discrimination". Since the
previous antidiscrimination rules had been used to argue against ROTC on the
basis of discrimination against openly homosexual people in the military
this wording is interesting because "Don't ask, don't tell" is the law, and
therefore not unlawful. However, this Spectator article adds another
possible explanation. University spokesperson Susan Brown said that
the new statement "is a semantic clarification, not a policy shift. New York
State Law had already held military status as a protected category, and the
old policy included “any other legally protected status”". This
suggests the possibility that Columbia may have been trying to include in
its policy all forms of unlawful discrimination without meaning to accept
forms of discrimination mandated for the military by federal law, but
Columbia has not commented more definitively on the wording change.
-
24 March 2006 Columbia Spectator editorial "Opportunity
Disguised". Note: "Getting as many liberal-minded
Columbia lawyers as possible, both gay and straight, into the military’s
judge advocate general corps would be one of the best ways to turn the tide
against “don’t ask, don’t tell” ... Shunting ROTC off to Fordham is a great
symbolic way to protest the military’s policies, but it does very little to
accomplish real progress. Increasing Columbia’s involvement with the
military through recruiting and ROTC might rankle some, but it would be the
best way for Columbians to work for justice."
-
5 April 2006 Detroit News column "Military
academy attracts new 'greatest generation'" by Thomas Bray.
Note: Bray observes that 62% of the Army's officers come from ROTC
programs "which been making something of a comeback on
college campuses" and notes the student-led effort to return ROTC to
Columbia.
-
28 April 2006 WNET TV (Channel 13) NY Voices report "Campus
Politics". Note: Sean Wilkes CC '06, chairman of
Advocates for Columbia ROTC discusses the history of ROTC at Columbia.
-
10 May 2006 My Learning Curve blog item "Shane
Hachey (GS 04) letter to Columbia University Senate. Subject: Columbia
v. The Military". Note: On the first anniversary of
the Columbia University Senate vote against ROTC Hachey notes that "this
vote had no tangible effect on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. It did not
"send a message" to anyone in Washington except that our university is
hostile to the military".
-
17 May 2006 New York Sun article "At
Columbia, First ROTC Event Since '72". Note: In
contrast to the annual ROTC Commissioning ceremony at Harvard, "the
commissioning ceremony is sponsored by the students, not the university."
Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley, who
spoke
passionately against ROTC at the 6 May 2005 Columbia University Senate
meeting that rejected ROTC, will attend the 19 May commissioning.
-
1 June 2006 "Columbia Hosts
ROTC Commissioning Ceremony". Note: The ceremony
was held on 19 May.
-
31 August "The
Movement to Restore ROTC at Columbia: Historical Background" by Sean
Wilkes CC'06, Chairman, Advocates for Columbia ROTC.
-
8 September 2006 "Military
Recruiting at Columbia's Activities Day".
-
12 September 2006 Columbia Spectator
column "Agents
of Change" by Joanna Bove. Note:
Bove suggests that those who blocked changing Columbia's policy on ROTC were
agents of change. See
letter on 15 September.
-
15 September 2006 Columbia Spectator
letter "ROTC
not Such a Victory: Progressives Should Welcome Change"
by Eric Chen GS'06. Note: Responding to a 12 September
column, Chen notes "it is an irony that those who blocked
changing Columbia's policy on ROTC would call themselves "agents of change"".
-
11 October 2006 Columbia University event
Discussion of Citizenship and Military Service at
Columbia University. Note: Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer, co-authors of
AWOL: the Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service—and
How It Hurts Our Country talked and answered questions at Columbia.
-
20 October 2006 Columbia Spectator
letter "LGBT
Groups Create Community, Should Also Focus on National Issues"
by Sean Wilkes, CC '06. Note: A recent ROTC
graduate discusses an
article focusing on the atmosphere for gender identity at Columbia and
urges activists to focus on national issue too, such as changing the "Don't
ask, don't tell" law.
-
24 October 2006 Columbia Spectator
article "Doing
Our Part in a Time of War" by Eric Chen. Note: One of the
main leaders of the ROTC and veterans movements at Columbia wonders whether
to re-enlist or stay in civilian life after graduation.
- November 2006 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Columbia’s
Warrior". Note: Matt Mireles interviewed Josh Arthur
CC '04, in Iraq after graduating from Columbia College and Army ROTC.
Arthur describes how he decided to go into an Army combat unit.
-
3 November 2006 Columbia Spectator
column "Reassessing
Kerry's Botched Joke" by Brandon Hammer. Note: Hammer
says it is "pretty true" that students who don't do well in school get
"stuck in Iraq". See
response on 10 November.
-
10 November 2006 Columbia Spectator
Op-ed column "Stupid
Soldiers" by Matthew Dunn and Michael Podberesky. Note:
Responding to Brandon Hammer's 3 November
column, they assemble the evidence that soldiers are above average on
many measures of intelligence and income, with fewer at the high and low
extremes. The lack of an ROTC program at elite colleges may account
for some of the data.
Similar data was assembled by the New York Times.
-
14 November 2006 Columbia Spectator
Op-Ed column "Wake
Up Dems, Liberalism is Dead" by Rudi Batzell. Note:
Batzell calls for increasing the proportion of the military that comes from
higher socioeconomic groups, but doesn't call for restoring ROTC at
Columbia.
- 25 November 2006 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Letters
From Baghdad: Our First Dispatch From the Front Line" by Josh Arthur CC
'04. Note: Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and
ROTC, is stationed in a Sunni area and describes finding bodies of
Shiites "in open fields near mosques, on heavily trafficked corners, or
simply in sites that are known as places to expect to find bodies."
-
1 December 2006 The New Republic
article "The
Academy and Iraq: War College" by Andrew Delbanco. Note:
Prof. Delbanco writes "For the vast
majority of students and faculty in places like Columbia--it's different for
support and maintenance staff, who are more likely to have friends or family
in the line of fire--war is an utter abstraction rather than an imaginable
fact. Perhaps the deepest divide in our country today runs between
those for whom the war is a relentless threat to loved ones and those for
whom it is a TV show to be switched on and off. At places like
Columbia, the former is our most underrepresented minority group."
See the 18 December Weekly Standard
response and the 1 January
response by Austin Byrd.
- 2 December 2006 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Letter
from Baghdad - Dispatch # 2" by Josh Arthur CC '04. Note:
Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes how Iraqis are
targeting each other more than Americans, but counterinsurgency remains
important.
-
4 December 2006 New York Post column
"Diversity
Double-Talk: Ivy's 'Inclusion' Excludes Military" by Matt Sanchez.
-
5 December 2006 BWOG (Columbia University Blue and White
Blog) item "Here
we go again...". Note: An item on the incident in
which Columbia student Matt Sanchez was insulted for his military service is
followed by a wide-ranging discussion that included ROTC. Issues
discussed include the question of why Columbia bans ROTC, citing
discrimination against gays, but does not ban Red Cross blood drives in
which gay men are not allowed to give blood.
-
16 December 2006
Marine Corps Commissioning Ceremony at
Columbia University - Mark Xue, CC 06.
-
18 December 2006 The Weekly Standard Scrapbook item "Utter
Abstractions at Columbia". Note: Responding to Prof.
Andrew Delbanco's New Republic
article the Weekly Standard notes "Delbanco never mentions in his
essay that in Columbia's case (as with many other elite universities) there
is a simpler explanation than social class for the situation he laments.
Columbia banned the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) from its campus
in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam war. And as recently as May 2005,
Columbia's Senate (an advisory panel of faculty and students) voted 53-10 to
keep Morningside Heights pristinely military free."
See the 1 January
response by Austin Byrd.
- January/February 2007 Columbia College Today letters from Josh Arthur CC'04:
7
November,
13
November,
25
November,
19
December. Note: Arthur, recently graduated from ROTC and
Columbia, describes his deployment and experiences in Iraq.
-
1 January 2007 The Weekly Standard
letter "Knights
of Columbia" by Austin Byrd. Note: A first year
student and Marine Corps officer candidate responds to the 18 December
Weekly Standard
item on the military and Columbia by noting that "the general feeling
toward the military community is one of apathy, which in some ways is more
difficult to confront than the passion of campus radicals". Byrd
explains that the pro-military students at Columbia "have adopted the
strategy of promoting interaction between the military community and the
general student body" to overcome this apathy.
-
1 January 2007 Marine Corps Times column "Missing the big
picture" by Matt Sanchez. Note: Military veteran and
Columbia student Matt Sanchez describes how at a recruiting event a group of
students started chanting "The military exploits minorities!" to which he
responded "I'm a minority; I joined the military, and I don't think I'm
being exploited." and was told "That's because you're stupid — too stupid to
realize you're being used as cannon fodder." Sanchez goes on describe that
"For the academics, joining the Corps over attending an Ivy League school
was an obvious sign of desperation."
-
8 January 2007 The Morningside Post (official blog for
Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs) blog video item "Columbia's
Student Soldiers". Note: Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley said
"We're not a particularly attractive campus for ROTC because we don't have
space, and the level of interest among our students would probably be
relatively low and the Pentagon has not asked us to host an ROTC unit, so
its not as if we've refused".
- 15 January 2007 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Special
Web-Only: Interview with Lt. Josh Arthur, CC ‘04" Matt Mireles.
Note: Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes
how he decided to serve in the military.
-
18 January 2007 The New Republic column "Military
Academy" by Anthony Grafton. Note: A Princeton
professor notes that Princeton has more connections to the military than
many other elite colleges, and recommends that "We
who teach young men and women need to know more about what we ask some of
them to do on our behalf and what it takes to do their jobs".
-
22 January 2007 Columbia Spectator op-ed "No
Shame in Service" by Sean Wilkes CC'06. Note: The
recently graduated head of Advocates for Columbia ROTC quotes Lt. Gen. Sir
William F. Butler, who warned that "The nation that will insist upon drawing
a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is
liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards."
-
24 January 2007 Military
Recruiting at Barnard's Activities Fair 2007
-
27 January 2007 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed "Gliberalism"
by Ruth Wisse. Note: Professor Wisse, a member of
Advocates for Harvard ROTC, cites the
ban on ROTC at elite universities as a prime example of an attitude "that
leaves to others the responsibility for governance, and arrogates to itself
the right to criticize". See 28 January comment by Columbia Prof.
Allan Silver.
-
28 January 2007 Comments on
Prof. Ruth Wisse's article "Gliberalism" by Prof.
Allan
Silver. Note: Silver, a sociology professor at
Columbia and a a leading proponent on the faculty for return of ROTC to
Columbia, suggests that both the universities and the country's leadership
could do better to create an atmosphere conducive towards return of ROTC to
elite universities. His comments were prompted by Prof. Wisse's 27
January
article in the Wall Street Journal.
- 1 February 2006 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Letter
from Baghdad - Dispatch # 3" by Josh Arthur CC '04. Note:
Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes an engagement
with a lone sniper and how his men showed restraint until they were
confident they had identified the attacker.
- 8 February 2006 The Eye (Columbia Spectator) article "Letter
from Baghdad - Dispatch # 4" by Josh Arthur CC '04. Note:
Arthur, recently graduated from Columbia and ROTC, describes his most
enduring memory in Baghdad, retrieving a soldier with a fatal wound.
-
15 February 2007 Columbia Spectator Op-Ed "When
Anti-war is Anti-peace" by Eric Chen GS'07. Note: One
of the leaders of the ROTC and veterans' movements at Columbia observes how
anti-war sentiment is undermining nation-building. Through an error, a
non-final version of this article was published. The version that was
suppose to be published is
here.
-
22 February 2007 Wall Street Journal article "A
Retreat From Big Cities Hurts ROTC Recruiting: Though Army Seeks More Ethnic
Officers, It Shuns Northeast" (free link with the article
attributed to AP
here). Note: By having few ROTC
programs in big cities, the military is missing out on recruits who have
familiarity with foreign cultures and languages. One of the offices said of
New York City "There were times when I felt like I was back
in Iraq. There were people dressed in those man-dresses that they wear in
Iraq. The women had veils. I know I shouldn't say this, but it made me want
to look for IEDs". Some additional material is at
this free WSJ link. See 25 February
Intel Dump blog
item for discussion.
-
25 February 2007 Intel Dump Blog item "ROTC
retreats from American cities". Note: Blogger Phillip
Carter discusses the 22 February
WSJ
article and many respond, including sources for the original article.
-
16 March 2007 film "Indoctrinate-U".
Note: According to the film maker Evan Coyne Maloney, "about 5 minutes
or so in the film" is material dealing with ROTC "near the end of the film. A number of
people have told us they feel it is the most infuriating footage in the
film." "The segment discusses both ROTC and military recruiters on
campus,
and the various efforts to bar them from campus. We have footage from San
Francisco State, U.C. Berkeley, Columbia and Hobart. U.C. Santa Cruz,
Yale.... We get right inside the protests themselves, some of which were
quite nasty. All of this is discussed in the context of what sorts of views
are welcome on campus (Ward Churchill, for example) and what is not (quite
literally, the American flag, which was actually removed from a number of
campuses immediately following the September 11th attacks). It packs quite
an emotionally powerful punch."
-
19 March 2007 Columbia Spectator column "Bringing
the Military to Columbia" by Matt Sanchez. Note:
Sanchez describes discussions with Columbia officials about healing the rift
between Columbia and the military.
-
17 May 2007
Remarks by the President at Joint Reserve Officer Training Corps
Commissioning Ceremony. (Video
here) Note: President George W.
Bush said "All of you have made many sacrifices to receive your commission.
Yet some of you have had to endure even greater hardships -- because your
universities do not allow ROTC on campus. For those of you in this position,
this can require long commutes several times a week to another campus that
does offer ROTC, so you can attend a military class, participate in a drill.
Most of all, it means living a split existence -- where your life as a cadet
or midshipmen is invisible to most of your fellow students. Every
American citizen is entitled to his or her opinion about our military. But
surely the concept of diversity is large enough to embrace one of the most
diverse institutions in American life. It should not be hard for our great
schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who
are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our
universities possible. To the cadets and midshipmen who are graduating from
a college or university that believes ROTC is not worthy of a place on
campus, here is my message: Your university may not honor your military
service, but the United States of America does. And in this, the people's
house, we will always make a place for those who wear the uniform of our
country." Among the officers sworn in at the ceremony were Erik Sand
of Harvard, Diana Clough of Stanford and Bret Woellner from Columbia.
-
17 May 2007 Associated Press article "Bush
says ROTC has a place on campus". Note: "Three of the
officers in the White House ceremony came from schools that don't allow ROTC
on campus, including Harvard University, Stanford University and Columbia
University. Bush saluted their extra sacrifice."
-
17 May 2007 United States American Forces Press
Service article "Gates
Commissions ROTC Cadets at White House". Note: "A
change in the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act allows the president,
vice president or secretary of defense to administer the oath of commission
or enlistment".
-
17 May 2007 United States Department of Defense photos "White
House Commissioning Ceremony". Note: One of the
photos is of U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff with graduating Harvard ROTC student Erik Sand and his mother.
More photos here
and here.
-
17 May 2007 Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog item "Bush
Assails Colleges That Shun ROTC Units". Note: The
Chronicle notes that in addition to colleges that ban ROTC there are
colleges where there is no ROTC program because the Pentagon concluded that
there were "poor prospects of finding good recruits".
- 17 May 2007 New York Sun article "Bush
Rebukes Universities On ROTC Ban". Note: "Yesterday's
ceremony featured a diverse group of cadets from all 50 states and included
a graduate student at Columbia, Bret Woellner, who was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the Army. The president's statement took
officials at a few leading universities aback. Spokesmen at NYU and Harvard
and Yale universities, which also do not offer ROTC on campus, did not
respond publicly. Riaz Zaidi, president of Columbia's Hamilton
Society, a military group, said the president's words were "gratifying."
Mr. Zaidi, a cadet in the Fordham ROTC program, said that while he thought
the military should reconsider the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Columbia
should reinstate the officer-training program regardless." See
response by Paul E. Mawn,
head of Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
- 18 May 2007 New York Sun reader comment "Observations on the
commissioning select ROTC students in the White House" by Paul E. Mawn.
Note: The head of Advocates for
Harvard ROTC responds to the previous day's
article and wrote that
universities "need diversity which is also based on opinion and provides a
climate of tolerance and acceptance for undergraduates who believe in duty,
honor and country".
-
18 May 2007 New York Sun editorial "Redeeming
Columbia". Note: Citing Columbia's rejection of ROTC
in 2005 and the ROTC commissioning of Columbia student Bret Woellner, the
Sun wrote "a generation or so hence the shame of Columbia will be lessened,
its honor redeemed by the fact that Lieutenant Woellner made his choice, got
up early, did his drills, learned to lead, and, in the East Room of the
White House, stepped forward to accept a commission from the Congress in a
time of war."
-
27 May 2007 Washington Times editorial "Bring
back ROTC". Note: "It's time for Harvard, Columbia,
Yale and other schools to heed what President Bush said last week: "It
should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor
the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that
make the work of our universities possible." It's time to give ROTC a
chance."
-
30 May 2007 Letter from
Columbia University School of General Studies Dean Peter J. Awn inviting
members of the armed services to apply to Columbia. Note:
Dean Awn wrote that "the experience and talents that these students bring to
Columbia enhance immeasurably the academic discourse in the classroom" and
announced Columbia's new military-veteran Web site:
www.columbia.edu/cu/gs/military.
-
7 September 2007 Wall Street Journal
letter
by Shane Cotner. Note: Responding to an
article about the role of alumni in university governance, Cotner wrote
"Dartmouth alumni are fortunate to have a man like T.J. Rodgers to represent
their views, and a mechanism that allows those alumni to elect leaders like
him to its board of trustees. As an alum of Columbia, my views have no
comparable representation of which I am aware. When I hear about Columbia
pursuing policies such as the banning of ROTC, and its lack of punishment
for students who abuse conservative speakers, I realize I have no recourse
whatsoever."
-
20 September 2007 Weekly Standard column "Columbia
University: Ahmadinejad Yes, ROTC No" by William Kristol. Note:
Kristol contrasts hosting a talk and question period by the Iranian
president with Columbia's prohibition of ROTC based on its campus.
-
20 September 2007 Wall Street Journal "Best of the Web Today" item "Columbia's
Priorities" by James Taranto. Note: Taranto
embellishes William Kristol's
point about the Iranian president and ROTC by noting that Iran executes
people for homosexual acts.
-
20 September 2007 New York Sun article "Outrage
Builds Over Ahmadinejad Visit to Columbia". Note:
Mr. McCain said "A man who is
directing the maiming and killing of American troops should not be given an
invitation to speak at an American university. Rather than rolling out the
red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should
be welcoming the Reserve Officers' Training Corps back on campus to honor
the men and women who put their lives on the line every day defending our
freedom."
-
21 September 2007 Wall Street Journal editorial "Lee
Bollinger, Tough Guy". Note: The Journal criticizes
Columbia for hosting the Iranian president, yet not allowing ROTC.
- 22 September 2007 Fox & Friends
Interview with Ted
Graske Jr., Chairman of the Columbia Alliance
for ROTC. Note: Graske discussed the irony of
Columbia hosting Iranian President Ahmadinejad and banning ROTC from campus.
- 24 September 2007
Fox News interview with Columbia student Kelley Victor-Gasper '09.
Note: Victor-Gasper, a Marine corps officer candidate notes the
irony of Columbia's welcoming of Iranian President Ahmadinejad and banning
of ROTC from campus. He notes that the ROTC ban is a protest against
US law about homosexuality in the military, yet Ahmadinejad's regime
executes people for homosexuality.
-
27 September 2007 speech by Senator John McCain
at the Hudson Institute. Note: McCain noted that the
Iranian president was welcomed at Columbia but ROTC was not, and said
"Harvard and other great American universities remain closed to ROTC, whose
graduates represent the bulk of the officers commissioned into our Armed
Forces each year. Some academic elites may not like ROTC, and they are free
to voice their objections. But they are wrong, and I stand with the many
graduates of these institutions who for years have been trying in vain to
bring ROTC back to their campuses."
-
4 October 2007 Columbia Spectator column "ROTC
Presence Is Not a Free Speech Issue" by Rebecca Evans. Note:
Evans observes "We certainly did not, and will not, invite Ahmadinejad to
set up a campus-based institution intended for recruitment and training... A
more apt and pressing statement is this: if Columbia truly cares about
questioning the ideologies and actions of those with whom it disagrees, it
will welcome a military or government official who would be willing to speak
to—and be spoken to by—the Columbia community".
-
29 October 2007 Columbia Spectator column "Why
Columbia Needs the Marine Corps and Vice Versa" by Michael Christman.
Note: A 2000 engineering graduate joined the Marines and urges
others to do the same. "How can Columbia hope to produce the next
generation of American leaders if it refuses to walk a mile in the shoes of
those of whom we ask the most?"
-
14 November 2007 Fordham Law Review 76: 955-79 "Myth
and Reality of University Trusteeship in the Post-Enron Era" by José A.
Cabranes. Note: Judge Cabranes, a
trustee of Columbia University, notes how "trustees play no significant
role even on major questions relating to the external relations of
universities to the government that subsidizes them in so many ways, for
example, whether a university should offer its students the opportunity to
participate in reserved [sic] officers’ training corps (ROTC) programs.
The usual playbook is this: Trustees are informed by presidents that, for a
variety of political or academic reasons, the faculty would find the return
of ROTC intolerable and that any action to the contrary by trustees would
make the president’s own position within the university untenable. Given the
power of the faculties, the president is probably right. In any case,
trustees will be reluctant to make the president vulnerable in the polity he
knows far better than they."
-
2 December 2007 Army ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony at Columbia University.
