Princeton ROTC Coverage

• 21 May 1957 Harvard Crimson article "Princeton ROTC Revision To Cause No Changes Here: Has 'Gone too Far'".  Note:  Harvard considered Princeton's move to give ROTC credit for many regular courses to be too sweeping.
• 15 October 1971 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC May Return to Ivy Schools".
• 13 January 1972 Harvard Crimson article "Princeton Students Protest Return of ROTC"
• 28 September 1973 Harvard Crimson article "A Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".
• 29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Other Campuses".  Note:  A summary of the status of ROTC at several elite universities.
• 23 October 2001 Daily Princetonian article "New wave of support spurs debate of Harvard ROTC"
• 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."
• 10 April 2003 Associated Press article "ROTC, Activists Co-Exist on Campus".  Comment:  A report on ROTC at Princeton, mentioning Princeton Naval ROTC graduate Donald Rumsfeld.

• 20 December 2003 Princeton University Army ROTC "Fifth Annual Newsletter".  Note:  University President Shirley Tilghman "agreed to chair the ROTC commissioning ceremony for the Class of 2004".  She said “Our ROTC cadets represent the most tangible evidence on campus of the University motto, In the Nation’s Service”.

• 18 February 2004 Daily Princetonian article "ROTC graduates face challenges overseas".
• 7 July 2004 Princeton Alumni Weekly article "Graduating into the Armed Forces".  Note:  This was the first time in at least 15 years that the President of Princeton "presented the commissioning certificates" at the ROTC Commissioning ceremony.  President Tilghman said “It is precisely at a time like this that our nation is in greatest need of highly educated and highly motivated officers.”
• 1 December 2004 Daily Princetonian article "Solomon Amendment ruling will not affect University".  Note: Princeton explained that it allows ROTC and military recruiting to permit interested students to pursue military careers. Since Princeton does not have a law school it is not compelled by law school accreditation rules to oppose military recruiting, in contrast to other institutions.
• 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".
• 7 April 2005 Daily Princetonian article "Referendum sought on Army ROTC: Students petition USG to take action against ROTC, military recruiting on campus".
• 8 April 2005 Daily Princetonian article "Petition on ROTC to be discussed".
• 11 April 2005 Daily Princetonian article "Senate tables amendment: Vote on proposed USG non-discrimination policy postponed".
• 13 April 2005 Daily Princetonian article "Whig-Clio votes to back ROTC".  Note:  Student Powell Fraser noted that "the on-campus Army ROTC program has roughly 30 cadets, as opposed to six in the off-campus Air Force program that trains at Rutgers University".
• 13 April 2005 Daily Princetonian editorial "Student body needs to voice opinion on ROTC: Debate on the issue should continue despite USG decision to table amendment".
• 14 April 2005 Daily Princetonian column "ROTC debate tests limits of empathy" by Jeremy Golubcow-Teglasi.  Note:  A student argues for expelling ROTC because "the deprivation of all is preferable to the depriviation of some", referring to gay students excluded from the military.
• 14 April 2005 Daily Princetonian letter "Sacrifice of ROTC cadets should not be  undervalued" by Will Wrightson '88.
• 19 April 2005 Daily Princetonian column "ROTC debate must focus on community" by Freddie LaFemina.  Note:  LaFemina argues for "examining the effects of "don't ask, don't tell" on our own community, not the nation."
• 26 September 2005 Daily Princetonian article "Solomon Amendment: Schools file brief on recruiting".  Princeton is not joining the legal action by law schools because it welcomes ROTC and military recruiting and it does not have a law school.
• 10 October 2005 Daily Princetonian editorial "University should lobby against Solomon Amendment".
• 21 November 2005 Daily Princetonian article "ROTC cadets do battle at simulated war zone in nearby Fort Dix".
• 13 January 2006 Daily Princetonian article "CAP's ROTC advocacy died down in 1980s".  Note:  When Judge Samuel Alito '72 joined Concerned Alumni of Princeton "keeping ROTC at Princeton was indeed a priority for CAP when it was founded in 1972. By the 1980s, however, ROTC appears to have disappeared as a major issue for both CAP and the University."  The first issue of CAP's magazine had an "article titled "The Prospects of ROTC," which outlined the University's recent actions against ROTC...  The 1972 Prospect article also stated that CAP opposed any further diminution of ROTC programs, and pledged to fight to protect Princeton ROTC. "Concerned Alumni of Princeton will take an active role in voicing alumni opinion on the matter," the article stated."
• 7 March 2006 Daily Princetonian article "Court backs military recruiters".  Note:  "Chai Feldblum, a board member of the Forum of Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), the coalition of law schools that sued the government, said she was "completely shocked" at the unanimous opinion ... The issue here has always been 'don't ask, don't tell.' That [policy] needs to get repealed, either by being invalidated by the Supreme Court or by Congress changing the law".
• 13 September 2006 Daily Princetonian article "In their shared pain, some find a new sense of purpose: The military represented a higher calling for some, but for others, the cost of serving wasn't worth it".  Note:  The writer interviewed Princeton alumni who have served in the military.
• 9 November 2006 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today item "It's personal" by James Taranto.  Note:  Taranto celebrates the example of Mark Reinhardt, a Princeton graduate who entered the military despite the views of his father, economist Uwe Reinhardt, that the military attracts people with few other opportunities.
• 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 Daily Princetonian article "Princeton, in the nation's service? With a shifting social ethos, alumni in the military are a vanishing and isolated breed".  Note:  "At a recruiting conference last fall, [military sociologist Charles] Moskos said, he asked recruiters whether they would rather have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush, President Bush's daughter, join the Army. Unanimously, the recruiters chose the latter option..".  Not mentioned in the article is that the son of Princeton alumnus Gen. David Petraeus is in an ROTC program.
• July - August 2007 The American Interest article "Beyond the Cloister" by Gen. David Petraeus.  Note:  The top general in Iraq argues that "We need officers comfortable not just with major combat operations but with operations conducted throughout the middle- and lower-ends of the spectrum of conflict, as well.  That is why it is so important to get the officers who will be our future commanders and leaders out of their intellectual comfort zones... Just as the best way by far to learn a foreign language is to live in the culture where the language is spoken, the best way to learn about other worldviews is to go to and live in another world" such as that of a civilian university.  "When I first went to Iraq in 2003, my colleagues and I were repeatedly greeted by Iraqis—in the case at hand, in Mosul—who would say to us in the course of conversation: “We love democracy!...What is it?” I particularly remember being pulled aside after a provincial council meeting by an Iraqi business professor from Mosul University who cautioned, “You know, general, this idea of free markets scares some of these individuals.” I was not surprised, because as a Princeton international relations/economics Ph.D. (and later an assistant professor at West Point) I was well aware of the uneven spread of liberal ideas. And I was not totally at a loss for answers .."
• 3 September 2007 Washington Post article "Talk About Field Trips!: Petraeus Gave Student Summer VIP Tour of Iraq".  Note:  Gen. David Petraeus took a 19 year old Princeton ROTC cadet under his wing.  "I think he's universally well known for finding smart people who are interested in doing things a little differently, and I think that's a major reason for his success," says Capt. Elizabeth McNally, a West Point graduate and Rhodes Scholar who is Petraeus's speechwriter.  Petraeus said "We need all the brilliant young people we can get. I'll just have to wait three years or so for this one."

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Last updated 15 December 2007