Harvard ROTC Coverage: 2005 - 2009
2005:
-
10 January 2005 Wall Street Journal letters "Ivy
League Should Open a Long-Closed Door". Note: These
letters are in response to the
16 December ROTC article.
-
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".
-
21 January 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Solomon
Case May Face Appeal". Note: Harvard Law School
professor Charles Fried said the Supreme Court "does
not like to leave a decision out there that says an act of Congress is
unconstitutional". The Bush administration cited the
“serious possibility” that the justices will uphold the
constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment. Harvard Law School is the
only law school to have barred military recruiters after the
Third Circuit
court decision.
-
23 January 2005 Sunday Times (London)
column "The
truth about men and women is too hot to handle"
by Andrew Sullivan. Note: Sullivan observes that Harvard
President Lawrence Summers "backed allowing military recruiters on
campus, despite a boycott because of their ban on gays. Some of the faculty
have been regretting Summers’s appointment ever since".
-
7 February 2005 Harvard Crimson
article "After
Harvard, Yale Law Second To Ban Military Recruiters".
Note: Due to a local court ruling against the Solomon Amendment, Yale is not defying the Solomon Amendment, but Harvard is on shaky ground
after implementation of the
Third Circuit
court decision against the Solomon Amendment was halted.
-
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."
-
18 February 2005 Wall Street Journal
article "Harvard
Clash Offers Management Case Study". Note: The
article discusses controversy
over Harvard President Summers and states that some professors "maintain that Mr. Summers's main failing
was running afoul of ideas favored by the liberal elite. Mr. Summers,
for example, has expressed his support for Reserve Officers' Training Corps,
which was banned from Harvard during the Vietnam era. While falling
short of calling for a return, that stance has angered gay students because
of the military's prohibition of openly gay soldiers."
-
25 February 2005 Boston Globe article "Professor's
motion seeks to air dissent on Summers". Note:
Prof. J. Lorand Matory's motion for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting
in March lists Summers' "support for the Reserve Officers Training Corps on
campus" as one of two grievances about Summers' term in office.
-
27 February 2005 New York Times column "The
Battle Behind the Battle at Harvard" by James Atlas. Note:
Three reasons for the controversy
over Harvard President Lawrence Summers are cited. One is that "he
would like to see R.O.T.C., which was banished from Harvard during the
sit-ins of the 60's, restored to campus".
-
27 February 2005 Shots in the Dark blog item "A
Crucial Issue" by Richard Bradley. Note: Bradley,
author of "Harvard Rules",
predicts "If the military lifted its ban on gays, the Harvard faculty would
vote to bring ROTC back to campus the next week". (The ban on
open homosexuality in the military is actually a federal
law.)
-
1 March 2005 Military.com article "Harvard
Graduate Answers Call to Duty". Note: Inspired by
fellow Harvard student Larry Obst '01 who completed Army ROTC, Moses Bloom '00 joined the Marines.
-
3 March 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Motion
Filed to Censure Summers: Vote on docket for March 15 faculty meeting".
Note: The
motion lists Summers' "support for
the military’s Reserve Officer Training Corps program" as one of two
grievances about Summers' term in office.
-
3 March 2005 Shots in the Dark blog item "The
Motion" by Richard Bradley. Note: Bradley quotes the
text of Harvard Prof. J. Lorand Matory's motion for the March 15 meeting of
Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences "to register dissent from Mr.
Summers' stated opinions". Of the three issues cited from Harvard
President Lawrence Summers' term in office one is "the authorized presence
on campus of organizations that infringe upon the equal rights of gay
people".
-
11 May 2005 Harvard Crimson letter "Military
Not the Only HLS Recruiter That Discriminates" by Elliott Marc
Davis. Note: The writer points out that Harvard Law
School allows recruiters to discriminate by race but does not allow military
recruiters to follow the "Don't ask,
don't tell" federal law.
- 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.
- 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."
-
8 June 2005 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC
Delays Office Request: Head of training program at MIT decides not to ask
Summers for space in Yard". Note: The
article says that in a private meeting with LTC Brian Baker in July 2004
President Summers said "that he was “not prepared” to make the argument for
ROTC space on campus, according to Baker". Actually, according to Baker,
Summers said only that he was not prepared to do so in 2004. Also, the
"November 2004 speech" mentioned in the article was actually a
letter, never delivered as a speech.
-
8 June 2005 Harvard Independent article "ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony".
-
8 June 2005 "Harvard ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony 2005". Note: LTC Brian L.
Baker, Professor of Military Science at MIT, presented a civilian award for
patriotic service to President Summers and thanked him for "supporting our
program through thick and thin".
-
8 June 2005 Harvard University Gazette article "ROTC
commissioning ceremony stresses importance of scholars and soldiers".
Note: Capt. Vincent Tuohey '01 said "Now more than ever, the
armed forces need leaders of your background and education".
-
9 June 2005 Harvard University Gazette article "Graduating
into service: Seven seniors begin military service with ROTC commissioning".
-
July 2005 Harvard Magazine article "Commencement
Confetti: Prepared to Serve". Note: "Lieutenant
colonel Brian L. Baker, professor
of military science and head of the ROTC program at MIT that Harvard
students attend, told the gathering, “I can imagine a day when [Harvard]
will allow us to post a captain and a sergeant on campus once again,
sometime in the future.” He presented an Army citation and an award to
Summers. “You are a true patriot,” he said as he affixed a lapel pin that
reads “Patriotic Civilian Service.”"
-
24 July 2005 New York Times article "All
Quiet on the Home Front, and Some Soldiers Are Asking Why".
Note: ""Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us," said
one officer just back from a yearlong tour in Iraq, voicing a frustration
now drawing the attention of academic specialists in military sociology".
Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales Jr. said he had heard a heavy stream of concerns
from current officers that "the military is increasingly isolated from the
rest of the country".
-
26 July 2005 Boston Herald Op-Ed "On
national defense, Harvard's boss AWOL" by Virginia Buckingham.
Note: She writes "Summers is the one Ivy
League president with the guts to lead the charge to return the Reserve
Officer Training Corp. to every campus".
-
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.
-
20 September 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Law
School To Allow Military Recruiters On Campus". Note:
Harvard President Lawrence Summers announced that Harvard would file an
amicus brief against the Solomon Amendment.
-
21 September 2005 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "The
Enemy Within" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto.
Note: Taranto notes
Harvard's
concerns about discrimination against gays on campus and notes how it
pales in comparison to
discrimination against gays by America's enemies.
-
22 September 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Professors
Stand Up To Recruiters: Forty law faculty
members file brief opposing military’s presence on campus".
Note: The 40 professors claimed that the Solomon Amendment has
unlawfully given the military a “unique privilege” to
overrule university policies but Professor of Law Janet Halley suggests that
Title IX rules on women in universities involves similar compulsion and if
the Supreme Court overturns the Solomon Amendment it could use the same
reasoning to invalidate Title IX.
-
22 September 2005 Wall Street Journal
editorial "'To
Serve Better Thy Country'". Note:
The Journal quotes from the words on a gate to Harvard Yard and notes that
Harvard Law School's decision to allow military recruiters was grudging.
-
22 September 2005 National Review
column "Do
Tell" by David Frum. Note: Frum compares Harvard Law
School dean Elana Kagan's exclusion of the
military to Harvard President Larry Summers' championing of the
military, and suggests that readers check out the Web site for
Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
-
23 September 2005 Harvard
Crimson article "In
Reversal, Harvard Takes Legal Action on Solomon Case: Brief by 7 schools
urges Supreme Court to overturn military recruitment law". Note:
The Crimson hears from Professor of Law Janet Halley that the arguments
"could conceivably undermine, for example, the high court’s 1983 decision in
Bob Jones University v. U.S., which held that the federal government could
deny tax-exempt status to a South Carolina college that prohibits
interracial dating."
-
28 September 2005 Harvard
Crimson editorial "Upping
the Ante: Kagan had to submit to Solomon, now the University must push back".
Note: The Crimson editors call for Harvard to push for repeal of the
"Don't ask, don't tell" law and
assert that "in the civilian world, this type of discrimination has long
been considered unconstitutional".
-
3 October 2005 Harvard Crimson
article "Military
Presence at Career Forum Sparks Student Protests".
-
7 October 2005 The World (PRI / BBC / WGBH) radio segment "ROTC
Report" (audio
here). Note: Harvard Navy ROTC students and faculty
are interviewed about the importance of doing ROTC at elite colleges.
-
13 October 2005 Harvard Crimson
article "Experts
Debate Army Recruiters: Two law professors argue the constitutinality [sic]
of the Solomon Amendment"
-
13 October 2005 Harvard Crimson
article "HLS
Protest Takes on Military: Students and profs call on Harvard to help repeal
“don’t ask, don’t tell” policy".
-
24 October 2005 History News
Network article "Why Don't
Harvard Graduates Join the Military Anymore?" by Richard F. Miller.
Note: Miller suggests that a lack of leadership and character
education result in an inward-looking attitude.
-
7 December 2005 Harvard Crimson
article "Court
Seems Ready To Uphold Solomon Law: Justices slam schools’ free speech
claims; only Souter is likely to vote for FAIR". Note:
The only argument taken seriously by the Justices was a question about the
wording of the
2004 change to the Solomon Amendment, an argument disavowed by the
lawyer for FAIR. "Experts weren’t surprised that FAIR spurned
the statutory argument, since Congress could just amend the law again" and
there is little question about the intent of Congress.
-
12 December 2005 Harvard Crimson column "Solomon's
Other Song: The debate over the Solomon Amendment is about more than gay
rights" by Samuel M. Simon '06. Note: Simon writes
"The debate over the Solomon Amendment on this campus has largely become a
proxy war between those who love the military and those who don’t...
The question isn’t whether gays and lesbians at Harvard are moral enough for
the military; it’s whether the military is moral enough for Harvard".
See 19 December
response by Peter H. Brooks '06.
-
19 December 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Recent
Grad Injured By Bomb in Iraq". Note:
George Morris
’04 was wounded in Iraq on 5 December and said “I want to get back to my
platoon—they are an amazing group of individuals and it is an honor to lead
them.”
-
19 December 2005 Harvard Crimson letter "Majority
Of Military Not Poor And Uneducated" by Peter H. Brooks '06.
Note: Brooks corrects "a claim based upon what is perceived as
common knowledge" in a
column by
Samuel M. Simon '06 and suggests that such misperceptions are a symptom of
the military-civilian divide.
-
19 December 2005 Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal column
"Reporting for
Duty: The U.S. military tells Iraqis the truth, and some call it a "scandal""
by John R. Guardiano. Note: Guardiano recounts how "an
enterprising young Harvard graduate and physics major, Marine Corps Lt. Seth
Moulton, founded his own television show, "Moulton and Mohamed" in Iraq".
Moulton was
interviewed in 2003 by National Public Radio.
-
20 December 2005 "The Drill Field
Inside the Ivory Tower: Harvard Officer Training the Creation of the Reserve
Officers’ Training Corps" by Erik Sand '07. Note:
Sand, an ROTC midshipman, recounts the how Harvard was ahead of the rest of
the country in creating an ROTC program in 1916.
2006:
-
7 February 2006
Harvard Crimson column "Reasoning
with Solomon" by Cormac A. Early '09. Note: Early
writes that opposition to military recruiting "marginalizes rational
and intelligent opposition to DADT, and acts only in the interests of those
who wish to preserve the status quo"
and "the University’s objections are more likely to be taken
seriously as the legitimate objections of a rational, moderate, and
patriotic institution, rather than the irrelevant obstructionism of radical
leftists" if military recruiting
is allowed.
-
21 February 2005 New York Sun editorial "Testing
Harvard". Note: The Sun notes rumors of an impending
resignation of President Summers and notes that he "showed
his understanding of the role of Harvard in wartime, beginning with his
appearance at a commissioning ceremony for the Reserve Officers Training
Corps program that was kicked off Harvard's campus in the era of protest
against the war in Vietnam."
-
22 February 2006 Wall Street Journal editorial "Veritas
at Harvard". Note: The Journal notes how ROTC was one of
the issues of contention between President Summers and the Faculty of Arts
and Sciences, and notes a similar conflict faced by former Dartmouth
president David McLaughlin.
-
23 February 2006 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed "Coup
d'Ecole: Harvard professors oust Larry Summers. Now they must face their
students" by Prof. Ruth Wisse. Note: Prof. Wisse
points out that President Summers' support for ROTC was one of the reasons
for his ouster, notes student support for both Summers and ROTC and predicts
"students will sooner or later stand up for their contemporaries who want to
serve their country".
-
6 March 2006 Harvard Crimson article "Court
Says Schools Must Let Military on Campus: Ruling by Roberts '76 puts his
alma mater in a bind".
-
10 March 2006 Harvard Crimson
editorial "Constitutional,
But Immoral: Although technically constitutional, the Solomon Amendment must
be fought against". Note: The editorial calls for
Harvard to lobby to change the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.
-
13 March 2006 Newsday op-ed "'Fortunate
Sons' Should Have to Serve" by Elaine Kamarck. Note:
A former aide to Vice President Gore details the problems with the "absence
of America's upper classes from military service."
-
15 March 2006 Harvard Crimson article "All
That She Can Be: The women of Harvard Army ROTC strive to find a balance
between learning how to fight and learning how to fit in."
-
3 April 2006 Harvard Crimson article "From
Plympton St. to the Pentagon: Caspar Weinberger dies at 88; former Crimson
chief served under Nixon, Ford, Reagan". Note: The
article quotes Harvard Alumni Association Executive Director Jack P. Reardon
Jr. ’60 as saying that “Caspar Weinberger ‘bled’ crimson!” and that he was
“endlessly interested in and supportive of Harvard and more especially
Harvard students.” He was the co-founder with classmate David Clayman
'38 of Advocates for Harvard ROTC and a
member of its Advisory Committee until his death. Even in the final year of
his life he continued to use his contacts and influence to press for having
ROTC at elite colleges.
-
7 June 2006 Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization formed.
Their Web site is
www.harvardveterans.org.
-
7 June 2006 Letter
of thanks from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Harvard President Lawrence
Summers. Note: The letter was presented to President
Summers at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony that day.
Discussing ROTC, Secretary Rumsfeld wrote "Your support has been enormously
constructive to the objectives of both our institutions".
-
7 June 2006 Address by COL (ret) Kenneth
G. Swan '56 MD at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony.
-
7 June 2006 "Remarks
at ROTC commissioning ceremony" by Harvard President Lawrence Summers.
Note: President Summers said "our country is best served when
great universities like this one stand with those who defend the freedom
that makes it possible for us to do all the wonderful things that we are
able to do here".
-
7 June 2006 US News and World Report blog item "The
ROTC at Harvard" by Michael Barone. Note: The
letter from Secretary Rumsfeld to
President Summers is quoted.
-
7 June 2006
Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2006.
-
7 June 2006 Daily Standard article "From
Rumsfeld to Summers: The secretary of Defense sends a note to the outgoing
president of Harvard." Note: The letter is the
same as the one posted on the
Advocates for Harvard ROTC web site on 7 June.
-
8 June 2006 Harvard Gazette article "ROTC
faces down rough weather: Graduates, Summers honored at ceremony".
Note: The Gazette notes the letter of thanks to President
Summers from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and the president's response that "I
look forward to the day when it is common and doesn't draw remark when an
Ivy League president attends an ROTC commissioning ceremony".
-
9 June 2006 Washington Times item "Harvard
hero" in Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough's "Inside the Ring" column.
Note: The letter from
Secretary Rumsfeld to President Summers is quoted.
-
12 June 2006 Harvard Crimson article "Rumsfeld
Says He Is 'Most Grateful' for Summers' Support of ROTC". Note:
The Crimson reported on the 7 June ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony and found a Pentagon spokesman to authenticate
the copy of the letter from Secretary
Rumsfeld to President Summers posted on the Advocates
for Harvard ROTC web site on 7 June.
-
16 June 2006 TCS Daily column "Profile
in Courage" by Michael M. Rosen. Note: Rosen notes
that President Summers "received what would otherwise be a kiss of death for
any university administrator: a letter of thanks from Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld praising him for offering a "recognition of [the officers']
personal commitment to serve this great nation.""
-
1 October 2006 Harvard Crimson
article "Military
Presence Sparks Protest". Note: To protest the
inclusion of the military in the "Career Forum" protesters entered the forum
location and changed into "superhero" costumes and "attempted to enlist in
the armed forces to protest its ban on openly gay soldiers".
-
9 October 2006 Greg Mankiw's Blog item "ROTC".
Note: The former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors calls for restoring ROTC at Harvard.
-
6 November 2006 Washington Times
column "Not-so-smart
college boys" by Suzanne Fields. Note: Fields
discusses the history of ROTC at Harvard and writes "An honest embrace of
diversity and multiculturalism would require inclusion of the military."
- December 2006 Parameters article "Storming
the Ivory Tower: The Military's Return to American Campuses" by Marc
Lindemann. Note: Lindemann recounts the history of ROTC at the
most selective colleges and suggests strategies for increasing the role of
the military at such institutions. One suggestion is "to work with
like-minded student organizations to bring charismatic service members to
speak on campus." Another is to "introduce students to veterans who, after
honorably fulfilling their military commitments, have succeeded in business,
medicine, law, or politics. Alumni groups, such as “Advocates
for ROTC,” are already poised to provide such representatives."
-
7 November 2006 New York Sun column
"The Ivy Soldier" by Seth
Gitell. Note: Gitell interviewed Retired Captain Paul Mawn, chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
Enrollment in the Paul Revere Army ROTC Battalion, based at
MIT, has grown 40% during the last year and a half. The Harvard
contingent is the biggest, outnumbering students from the host college MIT. Gitell also
interviews a Harvard student who tells of "considerable
interest in ROTC on the part of his classmates".
-
19 November 2006 New York Times
Op-ed "The
Great Liberator" by Lawrence H. Summers. Note: The
former Harvard president recounts how "Milton Friedman’s participation on a
government commission on the volunteer military in the late 1960s was a kind
of intellectual version of the play “Twelve Angry Men.” Gradually, through
force of persistent argument and marshaling of evidence, he brought his
fellow commission members around to the previously unthinkable view that
both our national security and our broader interest would be best served by
a volunteer military."
-
19 December 2006 Harvard Crimson
article "Adams
House Alum Dies in Car Crash". Note: Jamin B. Wilson ’04, an ROTC graduate, was killed in a car accident Thursday on his way to work at the Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.
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.
-
29 January 2007 Public Radio International "Open Source"
story "Do
Americans Need to Serve?" by Christopher Lydon. Note:
Lydon interviews Alan Khazei, Alan Gropman, Frank Schaeffer and Seth Moulton
'01 about the value of national service.
-
14 February 2007 Harvard Crimson article "More
Than Just an Anthem". Note: Four Harvard ROTC
students participated in a color guard at a Harvard-Princeton basketball
game on 9 February, the "first at a Harvard athletic venue in many years".
-
22 February 2007 Harvard Gazette article "Student
KSG, HBS veterans honored: Panelists say lead by example biggest wartime
lesson". Note: The event, co-sponsored by the Center
for Public Leadership and the Institute of Politics, featured an hourlong
panel discussion followed by a half-hour of questions from the John F.
Kennedy Jr. Forum audience.
-
23 February 2007 Chronicle of Higher Education article "Harvard's
Historic Choice". Note: At Penn, Harvard
President-elect Drew Faust "was one of a half-dozen professors who met each
Tuesday at 7 a.m. during the late 1980s and early 90s to talk informally
with the provost about such topics as the expansion of the medical school,
the reorganization of the library, and the place of ROTC on the campus".
-
25 February 2007 Boston Globe editorial "Crimson
and camouflage". Note: The Globe notes that there are
100 active-duty or reserve officers at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government and the Business School and reflects on the "salute to Iraq and
Afghanistan combat veterans" panel, where five officers discussed leadership
in combat. "A 1983 Kennedy School graduate, Lieutenant General Douglas Lute,
director for operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lute said it was his
Kennedy School experience that helped him commit to a full career in the
military. He encouraged the officers to treat Harvard as a "two-way street,"
where they are both learners and contributors." Click links for the 20 February 2007 event
list of
participants,
audio
and
video.
-
March / April 2007 Harvard Magazine column "The
War at Home" by Casey N. Cep '07. Note: The writer
quotes ROTC student Olivia Volkoff ’09 who "emphasizes the value of having
an ROTC program at a university like Harvard: “It’s a means for people to
put a face with the armed services.”" Efi Massasa ’09 said "Even though all
students don’t serve, it is important they interact with people who did so
they will be able to shape their own opinions about military service."
-
March 2007 Military Officer article "ROTC
at Harvard: One Man's Experience" by Jeffrey Race '65. Note:
Race, a member of Advocates for Harvard ROTC,
describes how his service in Vietnam led to his writing the book "War
Comes to Long An", about which a White House staffer said "A
lot of people are alive today who would be dead if you had not written that
book."
-
21 March 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Miss
Bad-Ass". Note: Harvard's student newspaper profiles
Shawna L. Sinnott ’10, the only female from Harvard in the Marine Corps
branch of the Navy ROTC. Sinnott has competed in several beauty
pageants, and observes “You can prepare as much as you want, but it’s not
like the Corps where you can just train and see an improvement. You can work
as hard as you want but in the end, it’s still about people’s opinions.”
-
10 April 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Guns
n' Roses: Freshman in Navy ROTC takes home 'Miss Boston' crown".
Note: Shawna L. Sinnott ’10 showed it is possible to be a
Harvard student, a US Marine in training, and a beauty queen, all in one
person. "Pageants are judged based on poise, intelligence, fitness,
and confidence, which are all the exact qualities we are looking for in an
officer, especially in the Marine Corps," Sinnott said.
She
placed heavy emphasis on her platform issue of Veterans Affairs, which was
the topic of her on-stage question.
- 18 April 2007 Harvard Crimson article "
Here from Over
There: Harvard's military veterans look like normal students, but their
identity as soldiers rarely fades away". Note:
Seth W. Moulton
’01, a Marine Reservist who has been accepted to do graduate work at
Harvard, said "I’m shocked at how disconnected Harvard students are from the
war, and I’m shocked because these people are not that different from the
young Americans fighting and dying overseas".
- 18 April 2007 Harvard Crimson article "Student
Soldiers: ROTC's Challenge". Note: Harvard ROTC
students describe why they have chosen military service.
-
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 Harvard Crimson article "Bush
Commissions Dunsterite". Note: Erik Sand '07 said
“Harvard has a great tradition of involvement with armed forces, and it’s
important to both the University and country that the tradition be renewed,
but if change doesn’t happen, we’ll still keep doing what we’re doing.”
-
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."
-
6 June 2007 Harvard ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony 2007.
-
6 June 2007 Remarks at the Harvard ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony 2007 by Stephen
Rosen, Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard.
-
6 June 2007 Remarks at the Harvard ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony 2007 by LTC Leo McGonagle,
Professor of Military Science at MIT.
-
7 June 2007 Harvard University Gazette article "Eleven
elevated to officer: ROTC proudly celebrates commissions". Note:
The father of Ensign Donald Coates '07 said of his son’s choice to enter the
military "This wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I’m proud that he’s
achieved what he wanted to. He had to get up at 7 a.m. to take the train
down to MIT while his roommates were still sleeping."
-
8 June 2007 Wall Street Journal editorial "Faustian
Bargain". Note: The Journal notes that former Harvard
president Lawrence Summers spoke at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony every year
of his presidency, yet this year neither acting president Derek Bok nor
president-elect Drew Gilpin Faust accepted invitations to attend.
"Faculties now say they object to the military's "don't ask, don't tell"
policy on gays, but the anti-ROTC hostility seems more owing to the
sentiments of the "antiwar" movement and other ideological academic causes.
Chastened by Mr. Summers's toppling, Ms. Faust is no doubt wary of upsetting
this constituency, if she is not a part of it herself."
-
8 June 2007 Video "MIT
Army ROTC Year in Review '06-'07".
-
14 June 2007 Boston Globe Op-Ed column "The
patriot and the Harvard president" by Brian Wright O'Connor '78.
Note: O'Connor recounts "an example of the political confrontation
needed to allow every patriot to serve in uniform". Charles V.
"Chuck" DePriest '77 "marched into Massachusetts Hall and sat in Derek Bok's
outer office until the Harvard president had no choice but to see him."
President Bok arranged for Harvard to cash DePriest's ROTC scholarship
check, but kept the ROTC program off campus and denied credit for ROTC
courses taken at MIT, despite the cross-registration agreement with MIT.
However, as Steven Peck '79 related to Advocates for ROTC, DePriest's
actions were only the first step towards allowing "every patriot to serve in
uniform". "DePriest was allowed to enroll secretly", relates Peck. "While he
was enrolled I was told cross registration couldn't be allowed" but after
Peck "found out half way through the year they let him in" and protested,
Peck became the second person to enroll in ROTC, and through these efforts,
cross-registering in ROTC at MIT became open to all Harvard students.
-
22 June 2007 Harvard Crimson article "After
Harvard Leaders' Absence, ROTC Supporters Fear Return to Icy Relations: Wall
Street Journal, student Republicans criticize Bok, Faust for failing to
speak at commissioning ceremony". Note: Former
President Lawrence Summers commented that while one can "disagree passionately
with the elected officials who bear responsibility for military policies on
issues ranging from the war in Iraq to gays in the military," these concerns
are not sufficient "not to support those who commit themselves to the
defense of our country." The article referred to the text of
Prof. Rosen's speech as being on "ROTC's Web site"; actually it is
here.
-
July 2007 Harvard Magazine article "Warriors".
Note: Harvard's alumni magazine covered the annual ROTC
Commissioning and noted "Lawrence H. Summers spoke at the event in each of
his years as president, but President Derek Bok did not attend."
-
6 July 2007 Boston Globe article "NU
dismissing faculty without advanced degrees". Note:
This article about Northeastern University provides context for the concern
among academics about credentials of ROTC faculty. The article
describes "a national trend" to have faculty with higher degrees and
research experience. Although this seems to run afoul of the
provisions about faculty appointments for ROTC professors in the ROTC
Vitalization Act of 1964, there may be a workaround to this problem.
The Globe article describes how after a communication studies faculty member
was fired and students protested, she was "rehired for her previous lecturer
position through Northeastern's School of Professional and Continuing
Studies, which does not have the same restrictions on credentials as the
regular undergraduate programs". Harvard's Kennedy School of
Government is another example of having non-traditional faculty appointments
for people with government or media experience. The Kennedy School's
National Security Program, which has retired military leaders as faculty,
may be a good home for Harvard ROTC faculty appointments.
-
11 July 2007 New York Sun editorial "Speaking
Veritas to Harvard". Note: The Sun quotes from the
remarks by Prof. Stephen Rosen at the Harvard ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony and notes that Rosen will serve as the senior
defense adviser in the Giuliani campaign.
-
20 July 2007 Marine Corps News article "MECEP
student spent five years in Corps before returning to Harvard".
Note: Talya C. Havice left Harvard Colleges after one year, served
in the Marines, and came back to finish her degree.
-
20 July 2007 Harvard Crimson "postcard" "There
Once Was a Base…" by Reva P. Minkoff '08. Note: A
Crimson editor is housed on a military base while working at Google and the
experience of having soldiers around her gets her "to think differently
about the military and military life".
-
22 July 2007 Harvard ROTC Aviation Award 2007.
Note: Harvard Navy ROTC graduate Danielle Thiriot '07 zoomed
into the sky on two flights in vintage east-block aircraft as winner of the
2007 Harvard ROTC Aviation Award.
-
7 September 2007 ROTC Cadets Get Petraeus Visit at Fort
Benning Ceremonies.
-
17 September 2007 Harvard Crimson editorial "A
Laudable Battle: The University should not shy away from military
scholarship". Note: The editors of Harvard's student
newspaper observe "For all our devotion to the values of academia, we hardly
study the war in Iraq and its ramifications .... Since the social uprisings
of the late sixties, Harvard has distanced itself from the military. The
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was banished from Harvard in 1969, the
same year as the student takeover of University Hall to protest the Vietnam
War. With it went the close ties between Harvard and the military that
defined the institution during World War II and even into the Kennedy
administration. While bringing ROTC back to campus should not be conflated
with studying war, both stem from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’
continuing apathy toward a more comprehensive study of national security ...
Harvard has a handful of war scholars and courses directly related to the
subject. But the topic is so vast and important to our nation’s immediate
and long-term future that we believe Harvard—and academia at large—should
devote more resources to its study and teaching. Otherwise, the University
will have abdicated an important part of its mission—to educate wise and
informed citizens." A
dissenting
opinion lists many courses about war at Harvard and suggests: "If you
intend to study war as a social, political, and cultural phenomenon, Harvard
can ably meet your needs. But if you’re still curious about how best to
crush the infidels, then take the T to MIT, or better yet, the train to West
Point."
-
18 September 2007 New York Sun editorial "Faust's
First Move". Note: The Sun notes the support for ROTC
by former Harvard president Lawrence Summers and suggests about incoming
president Drew Faust that "one of the things people will be watching for her
to say" when she is installed as president is "some words about the
responsibilities of a university to its country in a war against an enemy
determined not only to destroy Israel but also the rest of Western
civilization".
-
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."
-
29 September 2007 Boston Globe article "On
campus & in training: As the Iraq war continues, it's a challenging time for
area ROTC students". Note: The article describes
experiences of ROTC students in the Boston area, including a protest by the
City of Cambridge about military exercises.
-
29 September 2007 Boston Globe article "Controversy
at Harvard". Note: The Globe interviewed LTC Leo
McGonagle, Professor of Military Science at MIT, who said "Would I love to
see Harvard allow ROTC on campus? Absolutely. But if that's not going to
happen in the short term, that's OK because Harvard is producing some
fantastic Army officers right now." The numbers given in the article
for Harvard students are only for the Army program; others are in similar
Air Force and Navy programs. The Globe misquoted Paul Mawn, chairman
of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, about the
administrative fees paid to MIT. Those expenses are paid by an
independent privately managed fund, established in 1995, not connected to
Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
-
11 October 2007 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC
Guard To Greet Faust". Note: At the request of
Harvard ROTC students, Harvard President Drew Faust agreed to a color guard
of ROTC students at her inauguration. President Faust also said that
she would consider attending next year’s commissioning ceremony if she were
invited.
-
15 October 2007 Minding the Campus blog item "The
ROTC Is Not Invited At Harvard" by Anthony Paletta. Note:
The item points out that recent appearances by Harvard ROTC students at
Harvard events have come as a result of requests by the students.
-
18 October 2007 Morning Prayer
remarks by Prof. Harry Lewis at Harvard. Note: The
former dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences quotes from Romans
14:13 "that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his
brother's way" and opines on Harvard's gay-rights concerns about ROTC "I
don’t think Harvard’s stance on ROTC is morally tenable. We should not
attempt to remove the barriers facing some of our students by placing
stumbling blocks in the path of others... The issue is not bringing an
ROTC unit to Harvard. Units are merging today, not splitting. We should
normalize Harvard’s relations with MIT ROTC. Harvard ought to pay its bills
to MIT directly. It ought to bus our ROTC students as it buses our
volleyball teams."
-
November 2007 Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute) article "The
Few. The Proud. The (Harvard???) Marines". Note:
Veterans at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business
School report no hostility at Harvard these days - just a mixture
of appreciation, curiosity and indifference. "Harvard’s
Marines—and many other recent veterans as well—say they feel a special
obligation to try to bridge the civilian-military divide. “I’m the
only Marine in my [class] section, and I take very seriously my obligation
that I may be the only Marine people meet,” Captain [Maura] Sullivan says."
See also the December letter by Owen West '91 commenting on this issue from the perspective of
ROTC. Reprinted from Proceedings with permission; Copyright © 2007 U.S. Naval
Institute www.usni.org.
-
14 November 2007 Harvard Crimson Op-Ed "Stumbling
Blocks" by Harry R. Lewis ’68. Note: A member of the
Steering Committee of Advocates for Harvard ROTC and former dean of Harvard
college notes the appearance of an ROTC color guard at the inauguration of
Harvard president Drew Faust, writes "I don’t think Harvard’s stance on ROTC
is morally tenable. We should not attempt to remove the barriers facing some
of our students by placing stumbling blocks in the path of others. To
quote Democratic Congressman Barney Frank ’61 (Massachusetts), speaking
courageously some weeks ago on a related matter, “idealism that is empowered
by pragmatism is the way in which we make progress.”"
- December 2007 Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute)
letter in response to "The
Few. The Proud. The (Harvard???) Marines" by Owen West '91.
Note: West takes issue with the statement in the original
article that Naval ROTC
midshipmen "are as much at home at Harvard" as veterans who are graduate
students. He points out that the faculty has a "clear disdain" of ROTC
and that there was a
similar attitude from the university administration except during the term
of President Summers. Reprinted from Proceedings with permission; Copyright © 2007 U.S. Naval
Institute www.usni.org.
- 22 December 2007 New York Times article "Scholars
and the Military Share a Foxhole, Uneasily". Note: At
a conference about counterinsurgency co-sponsored by Harvard's Kennedy
School of Government, "Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the top American
commander in Iraq, was impressed with what he heard ... and on the spot
began assembling a team to revise the doctrine." As recounted in an
article in the US Naval Institute's Proceedings
magazine, Harvard's Kennedy School is a part of the university that is quite
receptive to the military.
2008:
- 11 January 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Faust
Faces Undergrads at UC Meeting". Note: Harvard
President Drew Faust was asked "whether she will attend the ROTC
commissioning ceremony" in June and the article characterized her response as
"unclear". The ambiguity may relate to arrangements not
being finalized yet, but since December there have been indications that
Faust had agreed in principle to attend the ceremony.
- 15 January 2008 Federal News Service transcript "The
Democratic Debate in Las Vegas". Note: Moderator
Tim Russert asked "There's a federal statute on the books which says that,
if a college or university does not provide space for military recruiters or
provide a ROTC program for its students, it can lose its federal funding.
Will you vigorously enforce that statute?" Senator Clinton said "Yes, I
will... I think that everyone should make available an opportunity for
a young man or woman to be in ROTC, to be able to join the military and I'm
going to do everything I can to support the men and women in the military
and their families." Russert followed-up by asking "Of the top 10
rated schools, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, they do not have ROTC
programs on campus. Should they?" and Clinton responded "Well, there
are ways they can work out fulfilling that obligation. But they should
certainly not do anything that either undermines or disrespects the young
men and women who wish to pursue a military career." To the same
question about ROTC Senator Obama responded "Yes. One of the striking
things, as you travel around the country, you go into rural communities and
you see how disproportionally they are carrying the load in this war in
Iraq, as well as Afghanistan. And it is not fair. Now, the volunteer Army, I
think, is a way for us to maintain excellence." Senator Edwards also
responded affirmatively but switched immediately to discuss veterans' issue.
None of the candidates mentioned the "Don't ask, don't tell" law cited by
these universities in banning ROTC.
- 7 March 2008 Comments at the MIT ROTC Tri-Service Military Ball,
Cambridge, MA "Trustworthy Leaders of
Character: Leading Foremost by WHO you ARE" by
Dr. Don M. Snider.
-
18 March 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Will
ROTC Return? Years after program's banishment from Harvard, debate over
ROTC's future continues". Note: The Harvard
Republican Club "approached the Harvard Democrats, with a proposal aimed at
addressing “areas in which Harvard falls short of providing an environment
of respect and encouragement of [its ROTC cadets’] service.” The
proposal’s seven original points were vetted down to four, with two
recommendations—one to allow recognition of ROTC coursework on the Harvard
transcript, another to encourage a faculty resolution to bring ROTC back on
campus upon the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”—narrowly passing in an
open vote, according to Harvard Democrats President Jarret A. Zafran ’09."
Harvard ROTC Association president Joseph M. Kristol ’09 described a
proposal for "rewording the description of ROTC in the student handbook,
which calls the program “inconsistent with Harvard’s values,” and paying for
cross-registration at MIT."
-
18 March 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Discipline,
The ROTC Way: For Harvard's burgeoning officers, training is meant to
resonate well beyond the classroom". Note: Harvard
students make up the largest university contingent in the Army ROTC unit
based at MIT, and numbers have not decreased despite the Iraq war and the
availability of other generous university financial aid.
-
18 March 2008 Harvard Crimson article "A
Crimson Call of Duty: Student Soldiers". Note:
Harvard ROTC graduates and other Harvard veterans describe their experiences
in Iraq. Joseph S. Linhart ’03 "said that people may consider Harvard
incompatible with the military—that those who enter the service are “wasting
their talent.” But he characterized the institution-building process as
“academic,” adding that people often think of the military as a “bunch of
dumb linemen running into each other,” when in fact, “it’s a very cerebral
and complicated game.” ... Peter H. Brooks ’06, who is still in Iraq with
the Marines, wrote in an e-mail that at this point in the war, much of the
military experience is in the peacekeeping and humanitarian realms,
requiring some political and cultural sensitivity that Harvard has helped
him gain.""
-
25 March 2008 Boston Globe Op-ed "A separate and unequal exercise" by
Harry Lewis '68
PhD '74. Note: The former dean of Harvard College, a
member of the Steering Committee of
Advocates for Harvard ROTC, argues that it is inconsistent for Harvard
to institute female-only gym hours to accommodate the desire for sexual
privacy of Muslim students but ban ROTC because of the federal "don't ask,
don't tell" law. His point is particularly relevant because one of the
main motivations for the "don't ask, don't tell" law was to protect the
sexual privacy of soldiers in shared living quarters.
-
28 March 2008 Department of Defense final rule "Military
Recruiting and Reserve Officer Training Corps Program Access to Institutions
of Higher Education". Note: These regulations implement the
2005 changes to the Solomon Amendment. It specifies that almost all
federal contracts and grants are prohibited to a school whose students
"cannot obtain permission from a covered school to participate, or are
effectively prevented from participating, in a unit of the Senior ROTC at
another institution of higher education." Unlike the provision about
establishing ROTC units, this provision is not dependent on a request by the
Secretary of Defense. This provision calls into question Harvard's
refusal to pay the ~$185,000 in fees for its students taking ROTC courses at
MIT.
Under a
1995 compromise the fees are paid for by Harvard alumni through a
secretive trust arranged by Harvard, but if such funds are not maintained
Harvard may need to reassess the 1995 decision.
-
18 April 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Faust
To Attend ROTC Event". Note: "University President Drew G.
Faust will attend this year’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC)
commissioning ceremony during Commencement, continuing a new precedent set
by her predecessor Lawrence H. Summers." According to a spokesman
Faust will be “part of the program”, but it was unclear whether she will be
following Summers' tradition of speaking at the event.
-
18 April 2008 First Army Helicopters at Harvard.
Note: Two Army Black Hawk helicopters landed at Harvard's
Soldiers Field to airlift ROTC
cadets of the Paul Revere
Battalion to their training destination at Ft. Devens.
-
19 April 2008 The White Rhino Report Blog item "Black
Hawk Up - History Made at Harvard". Note:
Coverage of the landing of the First Army
Helicopters at Harvard.
-
23 April 2008 Harvard Crimson editorial "Faust's
Prerogative: Harvard should bring back ROTC, but not before the end of
“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”". Note: The Crimson commends
President Drew Faust for agreeing to be part of the ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony in June, and calls for the restoration of ROTC if the "Don't ask,
don't tell" law is "ended". It also suggests "When President Faust
speaks at the commissioning ceremony this June, we hope she will seize on
this important moment—a moment in which she will likely have the ear of
high-ranking military officials as well as media—to draw attention to the
disgusting nature of this policy. Faust ought to specifically criticize
“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and call for it to end."
-
29 April 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Dems
and Republicans Unite on ROTC Bill". Note: The
undergraduate council urged Harvard to list on transcripts ROTC courses
taken at MIT, even though no credit is given. The council also urged
continuation of the annual ROTC Commissioning ceremony, and the Crimson
reports that President Faust "has said that she will be speaking at the
commissioning ceremony this June". The Crimson also refers to Andrew
D. Fine ’09 as saying that "Harvard should pressure the military to drop the
“don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy", but DADT is a federal law that can
only be changed by Congress.
-
30 April 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Faust
To Address ROTC Cadets". Note: President Faust will
speak at ROTC Commissioning in June and said that "while she had not yet
written her speech, she planned to say that she hoped “every Harvard student
had the opportunity to serve in the military.” "
-
2 May 2008 Harvard Crimson column "Why
Harvard Hates America: Faust is right to rain on ROTC’s parade" by Adam
Goldenberg ’08. Note: Goldenberg asserts that ROTC "doesn’t
sound like a whole lot of fun" and is "glory-free self-sacrifice",
ironically appearing the same day as
an article about
ROTC students flying over Harvard in helicopters. Goldenberg also
writes that "military officers now being educated at Harvard and elsewhere
should rightly have their service tinted by the discrimination of DADT, at
their commissioning and elsewhere."
-
2 May 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Riding
With the Paul Revere Battalion: ROTC experience includes helicopter
ride-along and Meals Read to Eat". Note: "We took off
slowly, flying over the intramural fields and crossing the river, past
undergraduate Houses and Memorial Hall on our way out of Cambridge."
See also photos here.
-
5 May 2008 Harvard Crimson column "Honoring
Their Service: Campus leftists should not play politics with ROTC" by
Christopher B. Lacaria ’09. Note: "DADT has been hotly
debated for quite some time, both on campus and in American society at
large. No political position—no tacit countenancing of DADT—would be implied
were President Faust not to speak of the matter."
-
20 May 2008 Wall Street Journal column "Why
Harvard Harasses the Military" by William McGurin. Note:
McGurin wrote that Harvard President Faust speaking about the "Don't ask,
don't tell" law at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony on 4 June would
mean for the ROTC students that "in their first moments as new officers,
they will be told by the leader of their university that they serve an
institution that isn't, well, quite worthy of Harvard." See
letters
on 31 May.
-
26 May 2008 Wall Street Journal "Journal
Editorial Report". Editorial page editor Paul Gigot, columnist
Bill McGurn and deputy Taste page editor Naomi Schaefer Riley discuss the
upcoming Harvard ROTC Commissioning ceremony. Speaking of Harvard
President Drew Faust, Riley said "I think someone should call her bluff.
Does she really want a lot of more Harvard students taking up arms? I would
be surprised if she sort of acknowledged that."
-
31 May 2008 Wall Street Journal letters about William McGurin 20 May column
"Why
Harvard Harasses the Military". Note: Anthony K. Obst
'67, an ROTC graduate and father of ROTC graduate Larry Obst '01, notes that
"the military has created regional ROTC centers which service students from
many schools, including Harvard. So it's unlikely that the military will
want to return to its earlier more expensive and manpower intensive model
for ROTC units, and return to Harvard's campus."
-
1 June 2008 Harvard Crimson article "At
Harvard ROTC Event, Faust Still Plans To Criticize 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell':
'Wait to see what the speech
sounds like,' Faust says of much-watched ROTC commissioning address".
Note: Speaking of the ROTC students, Faust told the Crimson "I
have deep respect for these students and I want to express my respect for
them... But I also want to make clear that I wish all students had the same
opportunity, the same right to serve". The initial version of the
story gave the day of ROTC Commissioning incorrectly; it is Wednesday 4
June. Also, "don't ask, don't tell", is a federal law, not "the
military's policy".
-
3 June 2008 Harvard Crimson Op-ed "Hate
the Policy, Not the Program" by Derek Flanzraich ’10. Note:
Flanzraich writes: "The Faculty of Arts and Sciences should pass a
resolution reversing their position and welcome ROTC back to Harvard’s
campus. At the same time, they must also push every other Ivy League
University to join them in issuing a statement publicly condemning “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell.”". He also states that military recruiting on camps
is banned. Although this was true in recent years, Harvard reversed its ban
shortly after the 6 March 2006 Supreme Court Decision in
Rumsfeld
v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc. (No. 04-1152),
which upheld the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment tying federal
funding to permitting military recruiting and ROTC.
-
4 June 2008 "Harvard ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony 2008".
-
4 June 2008 "Remarks
at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony" by Harvard President Drew
Faust. Note: President Faust told the ROTC graduates "I
celebrate you on this important day... I wish that there were more of you".
She spoke of the history of universities and the military in advancing
equality and participation and said, without giving specifics, "These are
principles we must continue to honor and strive to extend". Audio
here.
-
4 June 2008 Remarks at the Harvard ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony 2008 by LTC Leo McGonagle, Professor of Military
Leadership at MIT and leader of the Army ROTC program for Harvard students.
-
4 June 2008 Remarks at the Harvard ROTC
Commissioning Ceremony 2008 by
LT General Tad Oelstrom, USAF, (Ret), Director of the National Security
Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
-
4 June 2008 Harvard University Gazette article "Five
graduate to service: Faust expresses ‘profound appreciation’ for ROTC grads".
-
5 June 2008 Harvard Crimson article "In
ROTC Address, Faust Quietly Criticizes 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'".
Note: The Crimson focuses on President Faust's line "I wish
that there were more of you" as being about inclusion of gay students in
ROTC. However, it also echoed words of Wall Street Journal editor
Naomi Schaefer Riley who
asked
about Faust "Does she really want a lot of more Harvard students taking up
arms? I would be surprised if she sort of acknowledged that."
-
5 June 2008 Boston Globe article "Faust
criticizes military's ban on gays". Note: The Globe
observed that "Faust unmistakably conveyed yesterday that her opposition in
no way diminished her admiration for military service". See
letter on 11 June.
-
5 June 2008 New York Sun column "Harvard
President Salutes Newly Commissioned Military Officers: 'I wish that there
were more of you' Faust Tells Five" by Set Gitell. Note:
Gitell writes: "For a
little less than a hour yesterday Harvard dedicated itself to honoring those
graduates who have opted to serve America as members of the military... A
patriotic address from the university's president, Drew Gilpin Faust,
punctuated the ceremony... Some feared before the speech that she
might engage in a full-throated denunciation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Her
comments came in a somewhat vague, nuanced, and respectful fashion that left
Harvard's most passionate advocates of military service happy."
-
7 June 2008 Weekly Standard column "The
Few, the Proud: Harvard ROTC's five new officers" by Dean Barnett '89.
Note: Barnett considers President Faust's statement about ROTC
graduates "I wish that there were more of you", juxtaposed with an allusion
to advancing gay rights, and notes that "taking her words at face value, one
wonders whether she truly anticipates that the removal of the "Don't
Ask/Don't Tell" policy would trigger greater participation. Given the
percentage of heterosexual students who join ROTC, one would mathematically
project the number of homosexual participants to be zero unless Harvard's
gay population has a greater eagerness for ROTC participation than the
straight population."
-
8 June 2008 Harvard ROTC Aviation Award 2008.
Note: Michael J. Arth 08 took flights in two vintage east-block
aircraft as winner of the 2008 Harvard ROTC Aviation Award.
-
11 June 2008 Boston Globe letter "Harvard
and the ROTC" by Wayne L. Johnson. Note: Responding
to a
5 June Boston Globe article "Faust
criticizes military's ban on gays", a retired Navy commander with the
Judge Advocate General's Corps points out that Faust did not explicitly
mention gays and that the ban on open homosexuality in the military is
federal law, not military policy.
- September 2008 Harvard Magazine letters "Matters
Military" by Note: Commenting on the absence of
veterans among those with Harvard leadership positions, Henry Nuzum ’99
observes "Ivy Tower prefers perfect abstinence to uncertain sway over an
imperfect fight", and suggests for Board of Overseers and Harvard Alumni
Association elections "Consider electing a vet or two in the future, who
might eventually lead a re-integration of ROTC back on campus."
-
2 October 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Alumni
Org Calls For Return Of ROTC". Note: The
American Council of Trustees and Alumni
sent letters to the governing boards of Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Brown and
Stanford calling on them to reconsider their bans on ROTC. "Paul E.
Mawn ’63, the chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC and a retired Navy
captain, said in an interview yesterday that ACTA “may not understand what
the realistic target is” and that the goal should be official recognition" by
the Harvard Corporation, "not the opening of a ROTC branch at
Harvard. “The reality is that there are so few students at ROTC
anyway, so tomorrow if Harvard begged and pleaded the Pentagon to bring it
back on campus, they wouldn’t,” Mawn said. “What has evolved around the
country is core sites like MIT that service several different schools. MIT
has the critical mass and good facilities and classrooms for the courses and
drilling and other activities. There is no critical mass at Harvard.”".
Mawn called upon Harvard to pay the overhead fee for Harvard students taking
ROTC courses at MIT, currently paid by the alumni-funded "Friends of Harvard
ROTC Trust". See response
letter on 22
October.
-
22 October 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Obama
Win Could End ROTC Battle". Note: A Harvard Crimson
news analysis suggests that "if Obama takes office on Jan. 20 and succeeds
in rolling back the policy, Harvard would see its main reason for banning
ROTC disappear."
-
22 October 2008 Harvard Crimson letter "Formally
Recognize ROTC" by Paul E. Mawn '63. Note: The Chairman of
Advocates for Harvard ROTC responds to a 2 October
article and
makes clear the group's position that the Harvard Corporation should
"formerly recognize the ROTC programs which provide valuable leadership
training to Harvard cadets and midshipmen. Such formal recognition should
lead to greater participation of Harvard students in ROTC programs and the
eventual physical return of the ROTC units to the Harvard campus."
- November 2008 Harvard Magazine article "Coming
Out at Harvard". Note: During a celebration of the
25th anniversary of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, "Some attendees
expressed dismay at the extent to which the University administration has
thawed toward ROTC".
-
11 November 2008 Marquette Tribune article "ROTC
wants in at Harvard: School's funding of group ended in '92".
Note: "When ROTC was thrown off Harvard's campus around 1970, it
was still recognized by the school, with scholarship money allocated to the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Harvard students could join
ROTC there. When it was officially derecognized in 1992, the money was no
longer allocated to MIT. "I think it's blatantly illegal," [Paul] Mawn
[chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC] said.
"Since '92 they just collected the money and kept it entirely themselves."
A second statement in the article about ROTC being "thrown off campus" in
1992 is an error by the newspaper. ROTC was already off campus; in
1992 a university committee
recommended restrictions on ROTC-related payments to MIT. Also,
Mawn did not call for any changes in yearbook policy since these were
achieved already during the Summers administration.
-
13 November 2008 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard
Veterans Tell Stories of War: In recognition of Veteran's Day, Harvard ROTC
association hosts four former military officers". Note:
One of the officers, Seth W. Moulton ’01, said “When you come from a place
like Harvard, you have some advantages but some handicaps... They respect
the hell out of you, but they are concerned you have no common sense”.
(The photo caption referring to Advocates for Harvard ROTC is an error,
brought to the attention of the Crimson).
-
29 November 2008 Parade Magazine article "The
Fight For ROTC". The article notes that "Although more than 600
colleges in the U.S. allow ROTC programs on campus, Harvard, Yale, Columbia,
Brown, Tufts, Stanford, and the University of Chicago have maintained the
bans they began in protest of the Vietnam War... “The seven
schools who exclude ROTC produce many of our leaders, yet their students
have the least contact with the military,” says Sean Wilkes (Columbia
University ‘06), chair of Advocates for Columbia ROTC. "
2009
- 3 February 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Faust
Addresses UC Meeting". Note: Harvard's President told
the Undergraduate Council that “To get official recognition, a group cannot
have any exclusionary rules ... I look forward to the day when
we can change our position on ROTC on campus”.
- 17 February 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Petraeus
To Address ROTC Commissioning Ceremonies at Harvard, MIT:
Former top U.S. general in Iraq will
speak to cadets in early June". Note: The
article asserts that "The Harvard commissioning ceremony, set for June 3,
has generally not drawn significant interest in years past". This is a
fair description of the size of the local audience, but the event is much
noticed nationally, as indicated by coverage in the New York Times (here)
and Wall Street Journal (here,
here,
here
and here).
- 25 February 2009 Boston Globe column "Free
speech at Harvard" by Scot Lehigh. Note:
Harvey Silverglate HLS '67 and
Robert Freedman
'62 are running as petition candidates for Harvard's Board of Overseers.
"Both men think Harvard should allow the Reserve Officers Training Corps
back on campus on the grounds of student choice."
- 3 - 4 April 2009 conference "Ivies
and the Military: Toward Reconciliation". Note: The
conference was organized by Lukas Filler and Raz Mason, students at Harvard
Divinity School. Videos of many presentations are
online.
- 7 April 2009 Huffington Post column "Ivies
and the Military -- Toward Reconciliation (Harvard Administration Blows an
Opportunity)" by Frank Schaeffer. Note: Schaeffer
reports on the "Ivies and the Military --
Toward Reconciliation" conference at Harvard Divinity School and
observes: "The consensus of our diverse panel was that neither the military
nor the Ivies have the luxury of continuing to ignore - let alone disdain --
each other. Our military desperately needs highly educated leaders in this
complex interconnected world, and our top schools desperately need an
infusion of selfless values.... The lesson the Ivy League teaches has
become: I am the most important person in any room. The lesson the United
States military teaches is: the person standing next to me is more important
than I am."
- 8 April 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed "Harvard
and the Marines: Why not give our officers the best education?" by
Joseph Kristol and Daniel West. Note: Two graduating
Harvard students note that "Harvard today happily pays for future bankers to
take accounting courses at MIT, but refuses to pay for aspiring military
officers who take ROTC courses." They call upon Harvard's President
Drew Faust to welcome ROTC back to Harvard "Perhaps she will be inspired to
show this leadership as she joins Gen. David Petraeus in recognizing the
ROTC graduates at our commissioning ceremony in June." See
letters
on 14 April.
- 9 April 2009 Boston Globe op-ed "Ivies and military could learn a lot
from each other" by Frank Schaeffer. Note: Schaeffer
reports on the "Ivies and the Military --
Toward Reconciliation" conference at Harvard Divinity School and
observes that "the military needs highly educated leaders in this complex
interconnected world. And the top schools need an infusion of selfless
morality". See 14 April
letter and
letter.
- 9 April 2009 Boston Herald column "Harvard
won’t surrender its hypocrisy" by Michael Graham. Note:
Graham contrasts Harvard's hosting of foreign leaders involved in terrorism
to its unwillingness to pay overhead costs for ROTC courses that Harvard
students take at MIT.
- 12 April 2009 MetroWest Daily News column "Harvard's
ROTC pioneer" by Brian W. O'Connor '78. Note:
O'Connor describes how Charles V. DePriest '77 became the first Harvard
student to do ROTC after the program was terminated in 1969. However,
as Steven Peck '79 related to Advocates for ROTC, DePriest's
actions were only the first step towards allowing Harvard students to do
ROTC. "DePriest was allowed to enroll secretly", relates Peck. "While he
was enrolled I was told cross registration couldn't be allowed" but after
Peck "found out half way through the year they let him in" and protested,
Peck became the second person to enroll in ROTC, and through these efforts,
cross-registering in ROTC at MIT became open to all Harvard students.
- 13 April 2009 Military.com item "Ivy
League Tuition Waived". Note: "Columbia University School
of General Studies, founded in 1947 in response to military veterans
returning from World War II, will provide eligible student-veterans with a
50 percent tuition waiver beginning August 1 through the Yellow Ribbon GI
Education Enhancement Program, part of the post-9/11 GI Bill. After the
matching grant is provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the
entire cost of education is expected to be covered."
- 14 April 2009 Wall Street Journal letters "Harvard's
Anti-ROTC Policy Punishes the Wrong Group". Note:
Responding to the 8 April
article
by Joseph Kristol and Daniel West, the letters call on Harvard not to punish
the military for the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.
- 14 April 2009 Boston Globe letter "Perhaps
another barrier to campus entry" by Janna Jackson. Note:
Responding to Frank Schaeffer's 9 April
op-ed, Jackson protests the lack of mention of the "Don' ask, don't
tell" law (though Schaffer mentions that in the
longer version of his exposition on the Huffington Post).
- 14 April 2009 Boston Globe letter "Low
blow, and misfire, directed at elite institutions" by Scott Lajoie.
Note: Responding to Frank Schaeffer's 9 April
op-ed, Lajoie notes that other Ivies
such as Cornell have ROTC (though Schaffer mentions the low overall
participation of Ivies in the
longer version of his exposition on the Huffington Post).
- 20 April 2009 Washington Times article "Reconciling
the Ivies and the military: Conferees aim to find common ground".
Note: The article describes the "Ivies and the Military --
Toward Reconciliation" conference at Harvard Divinity School and quotes
Harvard professor Diane Moore as calling for universities and the military
to get to know each other better, saying "My own education, partially here at
Harvard, in the entitlement of an Ivy League institution, gave me an
arrogance that I wish had been more challenged while I was here".
- 21 April 2009 Washington Times editorial "The
long crimson line". Note: The Times salutes the
upcoming appearance of General David Petraeus at Harvard's ROTC
commissioning ceremony and notes the irony that otherwise at Harvard "ROTC
students have been relegated to second-class status, banished from the
campus in the name of diversity."
- 21 April 2009 Boston Globe op-ed "Leadership,
Petraeus style" by Paula D. Broadwell. Note: "In
paying tribute to Harvard veterans at a Kennedy School Forum tonight,
General David H. Petraeus will underline the importance of adaptive leaders
in today's complex national security environment." He promotes a style
reminiscent of academics, "a "flatter" hierarchical structure that empowers
subordinate leaders to think outside the box, take initiative, challenge
assumptions, and even question authority".
- 21 April 2009 Appearance by General David Petraeus at Harvard's Kennedy School Forum. Note: He illustrated his model of heirarchy by citing
a sign he saw at an outpost, reading “In the absence of guidance or orders,
figure out what they should have been and execute aggressively!”. He also made it clear that "you have to be careful . . . it is great to flatten [the organization] for information, but there does need to be a hierarchy when it comes to people pushing recommendations up, pushing policy decisions up . . . you can't shove aside a subordinate organization and just take it over."
- 21 April 2009 Remarks by Maura Sullivan HBS
'09 when introducing General David Petraeus at Harvard's Kennedy School.
- 21 April 2009 Wicked Local Cambridge article "Praise
and protest for Petraeus in Cambridge". Note: "Since
1900, 1,200 Harvard graduates have died in military conflicts, said Harvard
student and Iraq War veteran Maura Sullivan. Former service members make up
9 percent of the Kennedy School and 5 percent of the business school, she
said. To applause, Sullivan suggested Harvard reinstate its ROTC
program after the school cut all ties during the Vietnam War."
- 22 April 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Petraeus
Honors Young Veterans". Note: General David Petraeus spoke
at a Harvard Kennedy School forum, to an audience at Harvard's Center for
Public Leadership, and at a dinner honoring student veterans attending
Harvard's Business School, Law School and Kennedy School. At the first two events there was a Harvard ROTC color
guard.
- 22 April 2009 Christian Science Monitor article "Petraeus:
What I learned in Iraq, and how it applies to Afghanistan: The US general
credited with turning around a bleak war effort spoke yesterday to Harvard
students, who forgave the one ‘blemish’ on his record: a PhD from Princeton."
Note: The article has a detailed account of General Petraeus'
speech at Harvard, and several helpful links, including to Petraeus' PhD
thesis. As of the day of the article, one link, to a graph of the
casualties in Iraq, is an earlier version of the one shown in the talk.
- 22 April 2009 Survey on ROTC by the Harvard
Republican Club. Note: This contains the text of the
questions of the survey sent by email to all Harvard undergraduates on 22 to 23
April.
- 23 April 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Students
Push for ROTC Recognition". Note: The students were
asking for Harvard to be more supportive of ROTC, including reforming the
current system under which the cross-registration fees for courses at MIT
are paid by the autonomous alumni-funded "Friends of Harvard ROTC Trust", an
arrangement that former-president Lawrence Summers
described as
"uncomfortable" and "unorthodox".
- 24 April 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Panel
Discusses ROTC Challenges". Note: "The students also cited
several other concerns about Harvard’s refusal to recognize ROTC, including
the fact that Harvard revokes the financial aid offers for students who
accept ROTC scholarships. Panelist Christi E. Morrissey ’10 said that this
policy has forced some students to leave ROTC due to financial
considerations." See
letter on 7
May.
- 27 April 2009 Harvard Crimson editorial "Support
Service: The University can take steps to better support ROTC participation".
Note: Harvard's student newspaper recommends that "the University
should make it easier for ROTC students to cross-register at MIT by covering
cross-registration fees and allowing military-science courses to appear on
transcripts. Harvard should also improve financial-aid policy so that ROTC
grants do not preclude students from receiving Harvard funds."
- 29 April 2009 Harvard Kennedy School Citizen article "Reinstating
the ROTC at Harvard". Note: Kennedy School Student
Government President Ben Polk said "I firmly believe that Harvard should
reinstate ROTC. There is no more honorable form of public service than the
military, and the students that are brave enough to put their lives on the
line deserve Harvard’s unequivocal support."
- 3 May 2009 Boston Globe article "Faust
wrote to authorities". Note: Harvard President Drew
Faust "sent a sharply worded letter last month to Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates criticizing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and
protesting the discharge of Army Captain Anthony Woods, a 2008 Harvard
Kennedy School graduate and a gay Iraq War veteran." He was
"discharged in December after coming out to his commanding officers. He is
now running for Congress".
- 7 May 2009 Politics Daily article "Is
Harvard Smart Enough to Listen to its Students?" Note:
The article ponders the implications of an
email survey sent by the
Harvard Republican Club to all undergraduates in which "62 percent said they believed Harvard
should "officially recognize" ROTC on their campus".
- 7 May 2009 Harvard Crimson letter "The
Money Surrounding ROTC" by Sally Donahue. Note:
Responding to a 24 April news
story, the
director of financial aid at Harvard College explains that Harvard's denial
of financial aid to many students receiving ROTC scholarships is application
of a policy that extends to "all other sources of outside awards".
- 8 May 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Poll
Results Favor ROTC Recognition". Note: The
email
survey sent by the Harvard Republican Club to all undergraduates found that 62% of
respondents favored Harvard recognition of ROTC. This result "could help facilitate
transfer of course credit for ROTC classes taken at MIT, allow financial
support from Harvard for cross-registration, and mean the removal of
language in the student handbook that says military and ROTC policies
excluding openly gay people are “inconsistent with Harvard’s values.”"
In contrast to a 2008 survey at Columbia, where the
outcome was split, the Harvard survey did not focus on establishing an
ROTC program on campus.
- 13 May 2009 Harvard Crimson editorial "An
Unfounded Claim: Harvard Republican Club’s poll revealed interest, but
little more". Note: Discussing the
email survey on ROTC by the Harvard Republican
Club, the Crimson opines "A substantial self-selection bias and a low
response rate show that this poll can tell us very little about opinions
towards ROTC on campus".
- 15 May 2009 Chronicle of higher Education article "ROTC
and the Future of Liberal Education" and sidebar "Repairing
the Breach Between Academe and the Military" by Donald A. Downs.
Note: Downs, a professor of political science, law, and
journalism at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, argues that knowledge
of the military is crucial in the education of nonmilitary students and the
subsequent ability of these students to make decisions relating to the
military.
- 19 May 2009 CNN item "Banned
from Harvard". Note: "Joe Kristol, a graduating senior and
marine cadet, says it’s time for Harvard to change. “I think that what
we’re looking for is the college to separate the issues and be able to
recognize and support ROTC on the one hand; on the other hand do whatever
they want to protest policies they may not agree with, but not to punish the
students and use them as their tool to make that political statement.”"
- 20 May 2009 Harvard Crimson op-ed "Morality
and Conditional Support" by Jenny Zhang. Note: Zhang
argues that the Harvard Republican Club
email
survey on ROTC should have included an additional option “Yes, I support
official recognition, but only after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
- 23 May 2009 CNN video "Harvard
University Still Bans 'ROTC' Now For New Reason". Note:
CNN interviews ROTC students Joe Kristol '09, Christi Morrissey and Shawna
Sinnott (transcript
here).
- 1 June 2009 Harvard Crimson column "Taking The Long Way: After years of
discord, will Harvard and the military finally make peace?" by Paras D.
Bhayani. Note: A Crimson staff writer observes that
"Sometime in the recent past—and perhaps as a result of the Sept. 11
attacks—prevailing non-faculty sentiment at Harvard seems to have shifted
strongly in favor of the military."
- 2 June 2009 Wall Street Journal column "How
Hillsdale Beats Harvard: The Ivy school sells out its 'principles.'" by
William McGurn. Note: McGurn contrasts Harvard, which
excludes ROTC because of the "Don't ask, don't tell" law but permits
military recruiting because of the money involved, with Hillsdale College,
which gave up federal money rather than be forced to count its students by
race and sex. See
letter
on 20 June.
- 2 June 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard
Sets Tone for Future of ROTC: Ban on ROTC continued despite efforts to
establish unofficial campus presence". Note:
Following the de-certification of ROTC at Harvard in the late 1960s and the
opening up of a cross-town opportunity at MIT in the 1970s, Andrew C.
Deardorff ’84 "formed the student club “Friends of ROTC” in 1983. According
to Deardorff, the club may have been the first ROTC support group on campus
since Harvard broke ties with the armed forces.... opposition groups sprang
up in response to the newly approved Friends of ROTC club. The student
groups Enemies of ROTC and Opponents of ROTC were approved by the Committee
on College Life within two weeks of the approval of the Friends of ROTC.
“We were trying to support Harvard’s policy of not having recruiters on
campus,” said Jonathan E. Caws-Elwitt ’84, then vice president of the
Enemies of ROTC. “We wanted to represent the other perspective that we are
against the ROTC presence, and we came up with this stupid name, and I
regret the choice of words.”" ROTC commissioning in 1984 was very informal;
three graduating Army ROTC students "gathered in front of the John Harvard
statue in Harvard Yard wearing gray Army uniforms and were commissioned in a
small informal ceremony in the presence of two of the MIT program’s
officers. [Robert Carey ’84] said he remembers standing in front of the John
Harvard statue while Major General Joe [Ambrose] pinned stripes on the young
graduates’ uniforms a few hours after an official ceremony had been held at
MIT. No Harvard faculty or administrators were present and attendees
included only friends and family."
- 3 June 2009 Harvard ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony 2009
- 3 June 2009 Remarks at Harvard ROTC
Commissioning by GEN David H. Petraeus.
- 3 June 2009 Harvard University Gazette article "Harvard
To Participate in Yellow Ribbon Veterans Education Program".
Note: At the Harvard ROTC Commissioning ceremony, President Drew
Faust announced that Harvard will provide "substantial assistance" under the
Yellow Ribbon Program. It is not clear whether this matches the
full ride being provided under this program by Columbia.
- 3 June 2009 Harvard Law School statement "Harvard
Law School will provide tuition for up to twelve veterans next year under
federal Yellow Ribbon Program". Note: Harvard Law
School will provide up to 12 veterans full tuition and fees under the
federal government’s new
Yellow Ribbon Program. "Harvard College and the University’s other
graduate and professional schools have also agreed to participate in the
program, but the Law School’s contribution per student will be the largest."
- 3 June 2009
Harvard President Drew Faust's remarks at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning
Ceremony.
- 3 June 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Petraeus
Speaks to ROTC Grads". Note: The article
discusses Gen. Petraeus'
speech and notes of a
speech by Harvard's president "Unlike last year, when Faust criticized
the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell”—which bars openly gay
people from service and has been cited in recent years as the reason ROTC
remains off campus—Faust did not comment on the controversial policy
yesterday."
- 3 June 2009 Harvard University Gazette article "At
ROTC commissioning, Faust touts idea of ‘soldier-scholar’: Gen. Petraeus
offers advice: ‘Stay humble’". Note: The Gazette
estimated the crowd as "about 4,000", though the Boston Herald's
estimate was "about 500".
- 3 June 2009 Harvard Magazine article "Leadership
Tips from a "Soldier Scholar"". Note:
"as the audience waited for the ceremony to begin, the
Advocates for Harvard ROTC distributed a newsletter reaffirming their
goals: formal recognition of ROTC by the Harvard Corporation; a tri-service
ROTC office annex on campus; and increased participation of Harvard
undergraduates in ROTC."
- 3 June 2009 Video:
General Petraeus at
Harvard ROTC.
- 3 June 2009 Video
2009 ROTC Commissioning Ceremony - President Drew Faust.
- 3 June 2009 Remarks at Harvard ROTC Commissioning
by Darnell Whitt '59.
- 4 June 2009 Boston Herald article "Gen.
David H. Petraeus encourages Harvard ROTC grads". Note:
The article describes Gen. Petraeus'
speech and relates that "retired Navy Capt. Darnell N. Whitt II, class
of 1959, in his introduction, called on Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust
and Petraeus to work together to restore ROTC programs at Ivy League
universities such as Harvard, which halted ROTC in the 1960s."
The Herald estimated the crowd as "about 500", though the Harvard University
Gazette's
estimate was "about 4,000".
- 4 June 2009 Forward Movement blog item "10-Minute
Leadership Course" by Jules Crittenden. Note: A
Boston Herald reporter and blogger describes Harvard ROTC Commissioning and
the high points of Gen. Petraeus' speech.
- 20 June 2009 Wall Street Journal letter "This
Yellow Ribbon Is a Real Benefit" by Eric Powell. Note:
Responding to a 2 June
article
about ROTC and Harvard, Powell notes that elite universities that distance
themselves from ROTC have embraced the
Yellow Ribbon Program under which they provide financial support to
veterans that is matched by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- 13 August 2009 Washington Times article "Harvard, ROTC face off: Poll finds students back end to '69 ban". Note: Joe Kristol '09 said "Harvard will pay for my non-ROTC roommate to take accounting, a course obviously intended for professional training, but not for me to take naval science, which I think is ... important for my professional training". The article also cites a poll result favoring ROTC; the poll was carried out by the Harvard Republican Club. The article also includes photos of Advocates for Harvard ROTC chairman Paul Mawn with Gen. David Petraeus (here) and with Medal of Honor Recipient Captain Thomas Hudner (here).
- 13 August 2009 Edge Boston article "Will Harvard Allow ROTC On Campus Despite DADT?". Note: The article discusses the controversy between including ROTC and gay rights at Harvard and concludes that "America’s steady, if somewhat slow, progress toward full equality for GLTB citizens might one day make the issue moot by erasing the essential conflict between the university’s inclusive policies and the military’s anti-gay ban", referring to the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.
- 23 August 2009 Boston Globe article "Coming home: Kit Parker, 43, a US Army major and Harvard biomedical engineering professor, returns to campus after finishing his second tour in Afghanistan." Note: Parker was asked how he feels about Harvard's ban on ROTC and replied "The dirty work of maintaining a democracy is every American’s business. By not having ROTC, we are not making a statement that we are willing to earn our First Amendment rights that we as academics vigorously consume."
- 24 September 2009 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Enrollment Up Nationwide: Harvard numbers stagnant despite national rise". Note: "In 2006, Harvard students made up 15 out of the 49 Army ROTC students participating in the MIT program...This year, Harvard students make up 15 out of 86." The article discusses longstanding issues between Harvard and ROTC, but doesn't explore issues such as financial aid policies that may account for the recent divergence between numbers for Harvard and other colleges.
- 27 September 2009 Boston Globe article "ROTC’s ranks surge with new recruits: Sense of mission, scholarships drive trend". Note: Army ROTC enrollment is up 26% from the recent low in 2005-6, during the Iraq war. There has been a 75% increase in the number of ROTC scholarships but Norwich University president Richard Schneider, a Vietnam veteran and retired rear admiral in the Coast Guard Reserve said "This isn’t driven by money. It’s driven by a deep commitment to the republic." At Norwich, the number of freshmen with Army ROTC scholarships jumped more than threefold this year, to 87 from 27. Norwich is unusual in that the university has a special fund to pay room and board for ROTC students, in addition to tuition and fees paid for by the military. Nationally, 51 percent of ROTC students now receive federal scholarships.
- 21 October 2009 Harvard Law School "News Spotlight" "Battle-tested soldiers bring records of service to Harvard Law School". Note: Due to Harvard Law School contributing the maximum amount under the Yellow Ribbon Program and the federal government matching Harvard's contribution, the veterans are getting all tuition and fees fully paid. One of the veterans is Elliott N. Neal '05, who did ROTC as a Harvard undergraduate. No similar "full ride" arrangement is available for pre-service ROTC students.
- 31 October 2009 Harvard Republican Oasis blog item "FYI: ROTC, NYT, DADT, and HRC". Note: The Harvard Republican Club notes the mention of its email survey about ROTC in the 1 November New York Times article and says the survey "showed that if the issue were put to a vote — as it was at Columbia — ROTC would likely return to campus. The HRC looks forward to co-sponsoring a randomized, scientific poll this year with a partner organization. Any takers?"
- November 2009 Harvard Magazine article "Above and Beyond: The University's Medal of Honor recipients are memorialized". Note: The article describes the upcoming ceremony on 11 November at which the plaque honoring Harvard's Medal of Honor recipients will be unveiled, and notes that Harvard has more recipients than any other college other than West Point and Annapolis.
- 1 November 2009 New York Times article "The R.O.T.C. Dilemma". Note: Discussing Harvard's attitude towards the military and gays, President Drew Faust said “Trying to maintain two values — nondiscrimination and national service — is very complicated ... It has us all tied in knots. There are contradictions. We make these sometimes awkward arguments that are less than pure consistency. Why do we do x and not y? Why do we have the helicopters? Why do I appear at the commissioning? There are enormous complexities and contradictions. We wind up creating compromises that are not philosophically consistent. The way to resolve these inconsistencies is to permit gays and lesbians to serve in the military.” The article notes: "Harvard will not pay the $150,000-a-year cross-registration fee that M.I.T. charges to have Harvard students take military science courses there. But university staff members are used to raise that money from wealthy alumni sympathetic to R.O.T.C. And Harvard accepts about $1 million a year from the military in the form of scholarships that cover the cost of tuition for cadets and midshipmen." As a result of such "knots", the number of students in ROTC at elite colleges remains low. Taylor Giffen, a Yale Air Force ROTC cadet who graduated in June, said “They’d see me in uniform, and ask, ‘Hey, are you in a play?’ ”
- 3 November 2009 Wall Street Journal column "Harvard's Medals of Honor" by William McGurn. Note: Harvard alumni determined that the university has the highest number of Medal of Honor recipients outside the service academies. "For many members of the Harvard community, the medals of honor awarded 10 of our own probably seem as distant and foreign as reports of the Roman legions," says Mr. Mawn, who is the chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, a co-sponsor of next Wednesday's event. "By honoring these people, we hope to bring their stories to life, to awaken awareness for the long Crimson line of service, and to inspire a new generation of Harvard students to answer the call." Within hours of publication of this column, the alumni heard of two other MOH recipients, including BG Charles Edward Phelps, in the Harvard Law School class of 1853. See 27 November letter.
- 4 November 2009 ACTA's Must-Reads item "Harvard and the military" by David Azerrad. Note: In the context of the 11 November ceremony at Harvard unveiling a plaque to Harvard's Medal of Honor recipients, David Azerrad notes that "continued refusal to permit students to perform military service on campus -- service that helps preserve the cherished freedoms that all members of the campus community enjoy -- seems neither fair nor wise."
- 8 November 2009 Boston Herald editorial "Harvard’s slow change". Note: The editorial discusses the 11 November ceremony honoring of Harvard's Medal of Honor recipients, and discusses Harvard's ambivalence about ROTC. "We agree that gay men and women should be allowed to serve. And more Harvard-trained officers might be able to provide a little extra push toward that end. Harvard’s governing boards have full authority to set policy on ROTC and they should reverse the prohibition."
- 10 November 2009 Boston Herald article "Harvard boasts lengthy Honor roll". Note: After publicity of Harvard having many Medal of Honor recipients, families and alumni brought to light 6 more recipients, for a total of 16, more than the known total for any school other than West Point and Annapolis.
- 10 November 2009 Jules Crittenden "Forward Movement" blog item "Harvard Yard". Note: Crittenden discusses the 11 November ceremony honoring Harvard's 16 Medal of Honor recipients and observes "It is Harvard’s loss, that by refusing to allow ROTC classes on campus for political reasons, the university cuts itself off from that arena of American public life."
- 11 November 2009 Harvard University and Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization program for A Service Commemorating Medal of Honor Recipients. Note: This is the program that was handed out at the event.
- 11 November 2009 Veterans Day remarks by Harvard President Drew Faust. Note: Honoring the 16 Medal of Honor recipients she said "We at Harvard are proud to have been a part of the lives of these remarkable Americans, proud to recognize and claim them as our own."
- 11 November 2009 Associated Press article "Harvard pays tribute to Medal of Honor winners". Note: Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr., appearing at the event to honor Harvard's 16 Medal of Honor recipients, said "How lucky we are as a country to have those who not only believe in the values and ideals this country stands for, but are also willing to fight for them."
- 12 November 2009 Boston Globe article "Tributes and trepidation". Note: The article describes Harvard's Medal of Honor ceremony and includes photos of the plaque and color guard.
- 12 November 2009 Boston Herald article "Harvard’s Medal of Honor alumni feted at ceremony". Note: Harvard President Drew Faust said of the university’s role in producing national leaders, “We at Harvard are proud to recognize these heroes and proud to claim them as our own. . . . Let us work to ensure that the wisdom we imbue is not just wisdom of the mind, but wisdom of the heart, the courage that these men represent.”
- 12 November 2009 Harvard Crimson article "Military Alumni Paid Tribute At Ceremony: Medal of Honor recipients honored at Memorial Church". Note: Benjamin B. Wilcox ’13
said “most Harvard students aren’t aware of the commendable achievements and sacrifices past Harvard students have made for our country in the military... We should be proud of this—it is inspiring.”
Andrew P. Howe ’12 said that he was “honored to be part of a university that pays so much tribute to service.”
- 12 November 2009 Harvard Crimson article "At HBS, Veterans Day Means Thanking Classmates". Note: "In class discussions, [Christina D.] Hruska said, the military voices bring a unique perspective that students with different backgrounds appreciate. “Everybody stops. You could hear a pin drop,” Hruska said of when her fellow veterans speak. “Their experiences are in stark contrast to what everyone else has done.”"
- 12 November 2009 Harvard Gazette article "A bell tolls for bravery: Ceremony recognizes Harvard’s Medal of Honor heroes". Note: "Faust is the daughter of McGhee Tyson Gilpin, who as a World War II U.S. Army intelligence officer was wounded in 1944 and awarded the Silver Star for valor."
- 12 November 2009 Harvard Magazine article "A Veterans Day Salute". Note: The article add information on 6 more Medal of Honor recipients whose history came to light after identification of the first 10.
- 13 November 2009 AlterNet column "The Pentagon's Long-Term Plan to Get Back on Campus" by Michael Schwartz. Note: The writer, a professor of sociology at Stony Brook University, discusses a 1 November New York Times article about ROTC that Schwartz calls "chilling" because it gave voice to possible benefits of an ROTC presence at elite colleges. Schwartz writes that "The most profound distortion is that it fails to mention that the pressure for new ROTC chapters originates in the military itself". However, as university officials will attest, the main pressure comes from students and alumni who think their university should offer opportunities for military service, and from political leaders, notably in recent years Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, while military leaders have generally refrained from getting involved in this controversial issue. Schwartz complains that the NYT article "failed to undertake even rudimentary investigative reporting, which would have revealed this larger context" of supposed pressure by the military and "made sure to interview military leaders, college administrators, faculty who support ROTC". In fact, a core element of the NYT article was an interview with Harvard's president explaining why she is opposed to welcoming ROTC. Schwartz also claims that the military wants ROTC programs so as to "gain routine access to rank-and file students, who can potentially be encouraged to enlist as non-officers, where the real shortage lies." However, recruitment programs for non-officers are run entirely separately from ROTC and such recruitment rarely, if ever, co-locates with ROTC programs.
- 14 November 2009 Weekly Standard article "Harvard's Warriors:
Honoring the Medal of Honor recipients". Note: Jules Crittenden attended the ceremony at Harvard honoring its Medal of Honor recipients and observed "It was like a fleeting glimpse of an alternative world: the greatness of the past and what might be in the future, brought together for a moment at Harvard University last week... Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust, a military historian whose father was wounded in combat and decorated for bravery in World War II, stood to pronounce Harvard's own heroes "the finest exemplars of all Harvard students and graduates who have served their country since its earliest days." Despite Faust's praise, the military is not a field in which Harvard encourages its brightest minds to contribute and test themselves... Today, while most of America has embraced the volunteer military that has fought a long, hard war against a proven and persistent threat, Harvard continues to hold ROTC at arm's length."
- 19 November 2009 Armchair General article "Harvard Remembers Its Distinguished Military Veterans – Without a Fight!" by Caspar W. Weinberger, Jr. Note: Weinberger, son of the late secretary of defense, observes "the University is much more likely now to have a Nobel Peace Prize winner than a distinguished military award. Of course, students might take a cue from their own Teddy Roosevelt who did indeed win both."
- 22 November 2009 Rhodes Scholarship Winners' Biographies. Note: One of the winners was Roxanne Bras, an ROTC student who graduated from Harvard and was commissioned in June 2009. "She is currently a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in
Germany, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School and the U.S. Army Air Assault
School. Roxanne is a Truman Scholar and marathon runner, and General David Petraeus
has been her mentor since her early days in ROTC at M.I.T. At Oxford, she plans to do a
graduate degree in international relations and military policy."
- 27 November 2009 Wall Street Journal letter "Honoring 16 Brave Sons of Harvard" by Paul E. Mawn. Note: The chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC writes to describe how after a 3 November WSJ column about Harvard's Medal of Honor recipients, "we were contacted by the relatives of Harvard alumni who earned the Medal of Honor, which allowed me to validate a grand total of 16 Medal of Honor recipients from Harvard (an increase of six from what we knew the previous week)" in time for the ceremony on Veterans Day.
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