Harvard links ROTC return to end of ‘don’t ask’

[unhappycamper]

Harvard links ROTC return to end of ‘don’t ask’
By Tracy Jan
Globe Staff / September 23, 2010

Harvard University, which expelled ROTC four decades ago, will welcome the military training program back to campus only when the ban on openly gay and lesbian service members is repealed, the university’s president said yesterday.

Harvard’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, speaking the day after the US Senate declined to take up a measure that would have repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ policy, said vestiges of antimilitarism on campus dating to the Vietnam War are largely gone and she would now welcome the opportunity to “regularize our relationship’’ with the armed forces.

“We are very much looking forward to the end of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ’’ Faust said. “It will be a very important moment to us when that happens.’’

Faust’s comments on the university’s relationship with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps came during a wide-ranging discussion with reporters and editors at the Globe, kicking off a day of events at which she sought to highlight the university’s contributions to the city of Boston.

During the interview, Faust reiterated Harvard’s commitment to developing a campus in Allston and said she expects her predecessor, Lawrence H. Summers, to prove to be an extraordinarily popular professor upon his return from the Obama administration to Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in January.

[_ed_]

1. Why?

Why does Harvard ban the military (those who are duty-bound to follow the executive branch's orders) and not the actual members of the executive branch who enacted the policy? Does Harvard ban Pres. Clinton from speaking since he enacted DADT? Can the members of Congress who wrote the law speak at Harvard?

And, I'm sure all the silver spoon Harvard kids are just dying to join ROTC instead of the cushy hedge funds, law firms, and congressional staffing jobs in their future.

[Scooter24]

2. The issue is more than just an outright ban...

If ROTC wanted to put up a branch near Harvard I don't think anyone would object. The issue is that without academic credit or corporation standing, the courses or work done at ROTC would not count towards any degree offered by the university and will just add to the students existing schedule.

And it's not just the President of Harvard who you would have to convince, as her powers are limited. To restore academic credit and corporation appointments for ROTC instructors, you will need to get a majority vote from the Harvard faculty and probably the consent of the Harvard Corporation.

The military will not establish a ROTC branch at Harvard without academic credit or a corporation appointment.

[Meeker Morgan]

3. Well OK, it's a good statement, but very weak really.

For one thing, it has nothing to do with the reason they expelled ROTC in the first place.

For another, I wouldn't expect ROTC to be real big at Harvard these days anyway. ROTC might not come in anyway.