ROTC review panel urges policy changes

The Committee to Review the Status of ROTC at Penn will recommend that the University establish an arm's length agreement with the Reserve Officers' Training Corps in a report this week. The document has been complete since May, but was not released because some committee members were afraid the report would not get the attention it deserved. The Committee, formed last fall, reviewed several options ranging from maintaining the status quo -- where ROTC has a full presence on campus -- to terminating the program. The proposed arms length arrangement would maintain ROTC's presence on campus but withdraws six benefits the University awards the program. Under the arms length arrangement: ·students would no longer receive credit for ROTC courses; ·program directors would not receive faculty privileges; ·the U.S. Department of Defense would have to rent building space currently provided free of charge by the University; ·secretarial support provided by the University would be limited to University matters; ·all University publications that mention ROTC would specify that ROTC is an outside activity and that the University disapproves of the program's discriminatory practices and policies; ·commissioning activities would not take place on University property and the University would not recognize ROTC cadets and midshipmen at graduation. If the University can not negotiate an arm's length agreement, the Committee recommends that the University pursue a consortia arrangement with other Philadelphia schools. Under this option, one school would host the program and other schools could participate. Administrators will discuss the report at the University Council meeting Wednesday in an attempt to help University President Judith Rodin and Provost Stanley Chodorow reach a final decision concerning the Reserve Officer Training Corps' future on campus. "I would be surprised if any of the views brought up at the meeting were ones not mentioned in the report," Chodorow said last week. "The report really seemed to cover all the options -- but I have to give people that chance." The committee's decision on ROTC revolved around more than just the Defense Department's discriminatory practices, officials said. Last year, the Defense Department paid the University $1.53 million in ROTC scholarships for the 101 students enrolled, many of whom could not attend the University without that support. Because ROTC scholarships are not need-based -- and University financial aid is -- University officials estimate that the loss of the program will only cost them around $300,000. The University currently spends about the same amount on ROTC-related expenses. The arrangement could affect the University in other areas though. For instance, the Defense Department awarded the University more than $13 million in grants, according to the report. And while the grants are separate from ROTC funding, some have said that the Defense Department might withdraw all support if the University changes its relationship with the military. Captain Michael Tollefson, who served on the Committee, said the University should not make a decision solely based on short-term benefits. In the long-term, the Defense Department's policies could change, he added. And if this does happen, the Committee recommends that the ROTC unit should then resume its current status. Tollefson said, however, that adopting an arm's length arrangement could prove an irrevocable decision. "One could make the argument that if the University decides that ROTC can no longer be a guest on this campus that it would never come back," Tollefson said. The issue of ROTC on campus has been ongoing since 1990, when University Council questioned the program's status for the first time. The body passed a resolution in that year recommending that the University remove ROTC from campus if the U.S. Department of Defense's exclusion of homosexuals from the military had not changed by June 1993. Defense Department policy did not change by the deadline. Instead of removing ROTC from campus, Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson established the Committee to evaluate what courses of action the University could take. Currently, homosexuals that serve in the military are not allowed to openly acknowledge their sexual orientation or engage in homosexual acts, which the Committee says violates the University's non-discrimination policy.