Gay community criticizes ROTC status quo decision

ROTC members argue the experience is 'invaluable' When Provost Stanley Chodorow announced that the Reserve Officers Training Corps would remain on campus, he pledged he would try to provide equivalent financial aid to students who leave or are eliminated from ROTC because of sexual orientation. But many members of the University community are questioning the implications of allowing ROTC to retain its current status, saying it directly violates the University's anti-discrimination policy. Bob Schoenberg, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Center at Penn, said he is "deeply disappointed by the decision to allow ROTC to remain on campus status quo." Schoenberg explained that several committees and University Council have indicated since 1990 that allowing ROTC to remain on campus under the current arrangement is not acceptable. Council recommended an "arms-length" agreement, which would require the University to charge ROTC rent for its office space and withdraw its funding for office supplies and secretarial staff. Schoenberg said the military had no reason to budge on its decision to require full University support for ROTC since Penn had not even considered the option of removing the program from campus altogether. "The administration claims that government funding was never at risk nor was it a factor in their deliberations," Schoenberg said. "I believe that money was in fact the bottom line and the administration felt it could not risk losing Department of Defense funding in order to abide by its stated values." Schoenberg commended Chodorow's agreement to look into whether the University might be able to withhold certain privileges from ROTC students and faculty without breaching its contract with the military. But he also said the indignities suffered by students cannot be remedied. He cited the example of Peter Laska, a former University student who was unable to graduate because the Navy kicked him out for being a homosexual. The University would not release Laska's transcript because the withdrawal of Navy funds put his bursar account in arrears. Laska said he was humiliated by the experience, and that not being able to graduate from Penn had a detrimental effect on his life. Although the University recently apologized to Laska, Schoenberg said Laska was "emotionally scarred for life." "What this all comes down to is that the University is sanctioning discrimination which is in violation of its own principles and policy," Schoenberg added. College senior Terry O'Connor, a member of the University's ROTC program, said she was glad the program will remain on campus, but that she does support people's right to protest the Defense Department's policy governing homosexuals. "It's not going to change the government policy if the administration removes ROTC from Penn," O'Connor said. Engineering senior Jody Smith ended his contract with ROTC because he did not want to enter the Navy after graduation. But Smith maintains that the experience he had in ROTC was invaluable. "I learned about discipline, organization and what it means to have an honor code," Smith said. "It's really in the best interest in the United States government to have an ROTC program located at an Ivy League school." Smith added that he would also not have been able to attend the University without an ROTC scholarship because he was not eligible for financial aid, but could not afford to pay his own way through college. But College junior Rob Faunce, a member of the University's gay community, said the provost's decision outraged him. Faunce said he feels that the University is sanctioning anti-gay discrimination by not changing ROTC's status. "I think the University is underestimating the power of the gay community at Penn," Faunce said. "There's a lot of wealthy, gay and progressive alumni who won't want want to invest in a University who treats homosexuality this way." College of General Studies senior Anthony Putz, former co-chairperson of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alliance, said the real issue surrounding the ROTC ruling is that it weakens the power of the discrimination policy. "Once you condone discrimination, it's a problem for the community at large," Putz said. The Rev. Beverly Dale, director of the Christian Association, said she believed the University planned the announcement of the ROTC decision at the busiest time of the year for students, preventing them from having time or energy to react to the decision and its implications. "The provost couldn't come up with a viable solution to the ROTC problem, so he did nothing," Dale said. "But now it's up to the students to step in and make sure that their civil rights are not being comprised."

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