Law School to allow military recruitment

The school decided it had to deal with the military's anti-gay policy for a year. The military will be able to recruit Law students on campus this year, despite the Pentagon's anti-homosexual regulations. Law School professors voted yesterday to allow military recruiters in for a year, caving in the face of a federal law threatening the school with loss of financial aid unless it lets the military on campus. The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" regulations violates the Law School's own anti-discrimination policy. But the Association of American Law Schools allows member schools to have military recruitment on campus if it is done in an "ameliorative" fashion -- though it never explained what "ameliorative" meant in that context. Penn's Law School Faculty/Student Career Planning and Placement Committee was assigned the task of navigating through the AALS' bylaws and proposing a position for the school. Committee members said the impending loss of student financial aid forced them to recommend that the school "make an exception to its anti-discrimination policy" and permit military recruitment on campus for a year. "We realized how much money would be lost," said first-year Law student Rachel Lasky, who is on the committee. "There was almost no possible way to get around allowing the military in." Second-year Law student and committee member Nicole Sciara added that it would be "very irresponsible for the committee to take such a big financial step" that would have negatively affected many students. After a "strenuous" three-hour discussion yesterday, Law School faculty members adopted the committee's suggestions, partly due to the burden losing government funding would place on financially-strapped students. "It's very unfortunate we've been put in this position," Law School Dean Colin Diver said. "I believe any discrimination is wrong, and the school has got to try to deal with the large financial problem and other consequences as soon as possible." The faculty also approved a memorandum expressing "its repugnance at the government's efforts? to coerce educational institutions into permitting the military to recruit on campus despite the moral opposition of those institutions to the use of their facilities and services by organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation." Diver added that in order for Armed Forces recruitment to remain on campus beyond a year, the Law School would need to adopt a change in affirmative action regulations. The school will organize another faculty/student committee to investigate the issue further and suggest alternatives to combat the possible loss of government aid in the near future. The student committee members said they felt the effects of the military recruiter presence would be limited, and did not foresee military recruitment prompting more law students to become Judge Advocate Generals. "I think the students choosing military careers will do so whether or not recruiters come to campus," Lasky said.