ROTCs Are Booming On University Campuses

ROTC enrollment officer Michael Pope, left, speaks with Kaitlyn Benitez-Strine, 17, at Stanford University. (Dave Getzschman / For the Los Angeles Times / April 29, 2011)

Once A Campus Outcast, ROTC Is Booming At Universities -- L.A. Times

Helped by the recession, more active recruiting and a sea change in student perceptions of the military, ROTC programs on college campuses are thriving. And some elite schools like Stanford and Harvard are welcoming ROTC back for the first time in decades.

Reporting from Palo Alto -- On an early May morning 43 years ago, fire swept through Stanford University's Navy ROTC building, destroying a structure that had been damaged in another suspicious blaze just two months earlier.

No arrests were ever made in the two arson fires, but they came at a time of angry, sometimes violent demonstrations against the Vietnam War on college campuses nationwide. Those protests often targeted the closest symbol of the U.S. military, the Reserve Officers Training Corps — with more than 200 campus ROTC units reporting vandalism during that war.

Flash forward to a much different time.

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More News On University ROTCs

The return of the ROTC -- New York Post
Yale announces return of ROTC after 4 decades -- AP
College ROTC remains unchanged -- The Dartmouth
Yale ROTC On Deck -- Courant editorial
Will your college student get lured in by ROTC? -- L.A. Times opinion

After 40 Years The ROTC Returns To Harvard

Terry Scott, the Navy's top sailor in 2005, addresses ROTC students at MIT / Wikimedia

After Harvard, Schools Weigh ROTC Return -- Military.com

BOSTON -- Harvard University prepared to officially welcome the military back to the nation's oldest college Friday as eyes turned to other elite campuses that are also considering lifting their bans now that Congress has voted to allow gays to serve openly in the military.

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus are scheduled to sign an agreement that will establish the Naval ROTC's formal presence on campus for the first time since the Vietnam War era, the university announced Thursday. Other campuses, including Columbia and Yale, are discussing whether to follow suit.

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More News On The ROTCs Returning To The Ivy League Schools

Harvard Signs Agreement to Officially Recognize Naval ROTC -- Harvard Crimson
As Harvard welcomes back ROTC, other elite schools may follow -- Christian Science Monitor
Harvard's ROTC reversal a sign of changing campus -- Boston.com
Harvard welcomes US military back to campus -- AFP
Harvard welcoming ROTC back to campus -- Washington Post
Harvard Says It Will Allow the R.O.T.C. to Return -- New York Times
ROTC Back at Harvard After Skipping Class For 40 Years -- Time
ROTC to Return to Harvard -- Time

With The Abolition Of DADT, Will ROTCs Be Permitted To Return To Ivy League Universities

Demonstrators listen to a speaker during a Don't Ask, Don't Tell protest in Washington Photo: REUTERS

Ivy League Schools To Reinstate Military Groups Following Repeal Of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' -- The Telegraph

Ivy League universities that have banned military groups from campuses since the Vietnam War are to welcome them back after the Senate voted to end the policy excluding open homosexuals from serving in uniform.

Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) units were excluded from leading universities amid student protests against the Vietnam War.

Since then, their return has largely been dependent on an end to the 1993 policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which meant that gays and lesbians could serve but had to hide their sexual orientation.

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More News On ROTCs Returning To Ivy League Schools

Ivies moving toward restoring ROTC -- Politico
The Ivy League Makes Peace with ROTC -- The Atlantic
‘Don’t ask’ repeal could ‘lighten task’ for Stanford’s ROTC committee -- the Stanford Daily
DADT repeal may pave way for ROTC return -- Yale Daily News
Gays in the Military, ROTC back on Campus? -- William Kristol, Weekly Standard

Is The ROTC Coming Back To Elite Colleges?

Is ROTC Poised For A Comeback At Elite Colleges? -- Time Magazine

Shawna Sinnott spent the last four years performing a balancing act: she took courses for her self-designed major at Harvard, practiced her jazz number for the Miss Massachusetts Pageant, and woke up at 4:30 a.m. three days a week for Navy ROTC training across town at MIT.

She was one of 11 Harvard graduates commissioned into the Armed Forces this May in a ceremony on campus that some see as easing tensions between the university and the military. Harvard is one of several elite colleges that do not formally recognize the Reserve Officers Training Corp, which trains students at hundreds of schools but is not recognized at most of the Ivies and other top-tier universities because the military violates their anti-discrimination policies. However, these schools' opposition to ROTC, which started on many campuses during the Vietnam War, could soon change if Congress repeals the federally mandated policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT).

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My Comment: This ban is so much from the 1960s .... and with most administrators in Ivy League Schools being from this time .... rescinding this ban will still have a long way to go, even with repealing DADT.