Dartmouth pres. kicks ROTC off campus

Dartmouth University President James Freedman said last month that he wants to kick ROTC off-campus as soon as possible because the program discriminates against homosexuals. Freedman made the statement in response to a February 28 faculty vote which proclaimed that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on sexual orientation conflicts with Dartmouth's nondiscrimination policy. The move comes only a month before the Committee to Review the ROTC Arrangement at Penn plans to release a decision on the future of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps here. John DeCani, the committee's chairperson, said the news from Dartmouth may indirectly affect their decision. "We're looking at what all the other universities are doing, and we're trying to get some advice from them," said Graduate School of Education Professor Kenneth George, one of the three professors on the committee. English Professor Peter Saccio, who initiated the near unanimous voice vote at Dartmouth, said more than 100 faculty members attended the meeting. Saccio said he could not predict whether the Dartmouth Board of Trustees will vote to eliminate ROTC, but he said that the president's statement should influence the board's decision. Since the late 1980s, ROTC programs have sparked controversy at universities nationwide because of a Department of Defense policy that prohibits homosexuals from military service. At the University, the University Council passed a resolution in 1990 demanding the removal of ROTC by June 1993. In April 1991, the Faculty Senate passed a similar resolution. No action has been taken by the administration. Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson named the committee chaired by DeCani to look at options, including removing the program entirely. George said a number of other schools are taking the same steps. Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology voted against ROTC last year, but the school's provost, Mark Wrighton, decided to wait for the military to adopt a more concrete policy. "We have about a year and a half to go," Wrighton said in a press release. And after a faculty vote in 1992, Cornell University Provost Malden Nesheim sent a letter to former Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney urging him to change the policy. However, Cornell spokesperson Sam Segal said that as a land-grant school, Cornell cannot eliminate the program. "While it conflicts with our own policy, we're not in a position to try something that maybe a fully private school could," he said. At Dartmouth, however, the student assembly recently voted to keep ROTC on-campus primarily due to the scholarship money the program provides. George said the money ROTC offers is an issue that the committee is looking at. "There's certainly enough [ROTC students] that we would worry about scholarships [and] I certainly think the University has an obligation to pick up [their grant]," he said. Other options that the committee is considering include separating the military and academic elements of ROTC and moving the program to a nearby school.