U. will not make changes to ROTC program

The U.S. Department of Defense will not agree to a new arrangement for the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps and the University will not move to change the relationship on its own, Provost Stanley Chodorow announced at yesterday's University Council meeting. Earlier this year, the secretary of the Navy told Chodorow that Naval officials would not accept a new arrangement for ROTC. Council had asked the provost to seek a new agreement with ROTC because the program violates several University policies against discrimination. The military does not allow gays to remain in its service if they reveal their sexuality. But Chodorow's announcement yesterday means there will be no change in the University's arrangement with either ROTC program. Bob Schoenberg, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Center at Penn, said yesterday that by not acting against ROTC, the University is sanctioning discrimination. But Chodorow said yesterday that Monday's meeting with leaders of the U.S. Army's ROTC program was his last. "We are now at the point where nothing is to be gained by negotiating any further," he said. The University will offer financial aid to any ROTC member who leaves the program because he or she is gay, the provost said. He also said the core issue in the ROTC dispute is the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. "Penn is committed to doing what it can to change the policy," he said. "It is unjustified and unjustifiable." Currently, the University provides Army and Navy ROTC with free office space and funding for secretaries and office supplies. Students who are members of Air Force ROTC participate in the program at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. In June 1994, Council recommended that the provost negotiate with the Defense Department for one of three alternate arrangements. But it also warned against ending the current relationship if an accommodation could not be reached. Chodorow explained that he looked into merging the Army program with those at other area schools after Army officials turned down Council's first two recommended options. Both Drexel University and Temple University expressed interest in hosting a consortium program with Penn, as Council recommended, but the Army turned this idea down as well. Chodorow said he investigated a recently enacted law that would deny Defense funding to any university that acts unilaterally to remove ROTC from its campus. But he said the law would not apply to the University if it acted against the program, because it had tried to negotiate another solution. Communications Professor Larry Gross, an outspoken critic of ROTC and the administration's handling of the issue, said the negotiations were bound to fail from the very beginning because the alternative to a new agreement was the status quo. Schoenberg agreed with Gross about the University's bargaining position. "The way the negotiation was construed by the administration, there was no reason for the military to give anything," he said. Schoenberg added that he still thinks the University should institute an "arms-length agreement" by removing its financial support for the program, revoking the faculty status of ROTC employees that gives them certain benefits. Also at the Council meeting, Chodorow discussed the proposed judicial charter. "It looks like the charter is going down to victory," he said. Three out of four undergraduate schools have approved the charter. The faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science will vote on the code later this week. Several participants at the meeting also commented on the plans to replace The Book Store with a new Barnes and Noble superstore to be constructed at 36th and Walnut streets. Book Store employees will have to reapply for their jobs and be interviewed by Barnes and Noble before the company assumes management of the store in July. Betty Thomas, speaking for the A3 Assembly, said The Book Store's employees have been left in the dark about the change. She said the employees want administrators to explain their options in an open meeting. University President Judith Rodin responded that Barnes and Noble would employ more people than The Book Store currently does. She also said the University would offer training sessions in resume writing and interviewing skills to prepare Book Store employees for their application to Barnes and Noble. And Marie Witt, an assistant to Vice President for Business Services Steve Murray, said the University will give Book Store employees more details about what kind of salaries and benefits packages they might receive from Barnes and Noble within several days.