Defense Business Board on Implementing ROTC Programs at Top Tier Schools

20 November 2003 Defense Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: The participants in the Defense Business Board meeting discussed "implementing ROTC programs at top tier schools". Dov Zakheim mentioned the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and said "I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and he is extremely interested ... We would like to get on the campus at Harvard. The President of Harvard has showed an interest in this." Bill Carr raised the possibility of restoring ROTC at Yale, citing the difficulty of Yale students traveling to ROTC programs at other colleges. He also discussed the tradeoff between getting top tier cadets and paying the high cost of ROTC scholarships to top tier schools. The group recommended to "approach Harvard's President first and if successful, then approach Yale, Columbia and Brown".

Columbia: FrontPage Magazine

9 May 2003 FrontPage Magazine column "Graduation Present: It's Not 1968 at Columbia Anymore" by Ron Lewenberg.

Columbia: WSJ Best of the Web Today

21 April 2003 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today "Harvard Hangups" by James Taranto. Comment: Taranto notes the 973 to 530 student vote for ROTC at Columbia and observes how times have changed.

Columbia: Spectator "High Turnout Decides CC Student Council Election"

17 April 2003 Columbia Spectator article "High Turnout Decides CC Student Council Election". Comment: Towards the end of the article is results from "a referendum asking if the University should prohibit the ROTC from having a chapter at Columbia". By a vote of 973 to 530, students favored allowing ROTC. The students do not have an official say in the decision.

Columbia: Spectator Letter to the Editor

10 April 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC Program Would be Valuable to Columbia Community" by Eric Chen. Note: This is a response to the 8 April Pulizzi column.

Columbia: Spectator "Don't Question or Doubt the ROTC"

8 April 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Don't Question or Doubt the ROTC" by James Pulizzi. Note: See response letter on 10 April.

Columbia: Spectator Letter to the Editor

8 April 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC at Ivy League Will Improve Diversity of Military" by Sean Wilkes CC '06.

Columbia: NYT "Professors Protest as Students Debate"

5 April 2003 New York Times article "Professors Protest as Students Debate". Comment: The article mentions the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and the response to ROTC at Princeton. "When Gary J. Bass, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton, asked his class on "Causes of War" how many students were in R.O.T.C., two raised their hands. The rest applauded."

Columbia: Specttor "Military Intelligence"

3 April 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Military Intelligence" by Brian Wagner. Comment: Wagner dissects the anti-ROTC arguments made at a Columbia College forum.

Columbia: NYT "Future Soldier, Life on a Liberal Campus"

2 April 2003 New York Times article "For a Future Soldier, Life on a Liberal Campus Can Be a Battle".

Columbia: Spectator "Panel Speakers Link ROTC to War With Iraq"

1 April 2003 Columbia Spectator article "Panel Speakers Link ROTC to War With Iraq". Comment: One student argued for not having ROTC cadets on campus because, she said, members of the armed forces are trained to "evaporate dissent". Another "condemned the entire U.S. military as racist, lamenting what she called disproportionate numbers of low-income people of color serving in the military's rank-and-file". The ROTC program that serves Columbia graduated an ROTC cadet named Colin Powell, who faced no glass ceiling in his advancement in the military and beyond.

Columbia: FrontPage Magazine

6 March 2003 FrontPage Magazine article "The Pro-America Campus Movement".

Columbia: Spectator Letter to the Editor

3 March 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "Opinion Article's ROTC Arguments Fail To Convince" by Michael Noble, CC '05.

Columbia: Spectator Letter to the Editor

28 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "ROTC Curriculum Does Not Match Ivy League Standards" by Merlin Chowkwanyun, CC '05.

Columbia: Spectator "Collateral Damage"

27 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Collateral Damage" by Yoni Appelbaum.

Columbia: Spectator Letter to the Editor

24 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letter "Spectator Needs to Maintain Higher Journalistic Standards" by Eric Gutman, SEAS '03.

Columbia: Spectator "The Truth About ROTC"

20 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "The Truth About ROTC" by Sean Wilkes.

Columbia: Spectator Letters to the Editor

14 February 2003 Columbia Spectator letters "Articles Fail to Accurately Cover Campus ROTC Debate" by Shane Hachey, GS '04 and "CU Should Support Student Participation in the Military" by Jeff Sult, TC '03.

Columbia: Spectator "The Myth of Anti-Military Bias"

13 February 2003 Columbia Spectator column "The Myth of Anti-Military Bias" by Merlin Chowkwanyun. Comment: Chowkwanyun argues that the military, more than Congress, is responsible for the 1993 Federal Law mandating the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy for the military.

Columbia: Spectator Letter to the Editor

5 February 2003 Columbia spectator letter "'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Shows Military Still Needs Reform" by Ross McSweeney, CC '02

Columbia: Spectator "ROTC Return Proposals Provoke Activist Criticism"

3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator article "ROTC Return Proposals Provoke Activist Criticism".

Columbia: Spectator "Senate Reaches Solution for Censorship Concerns"

3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator article "Senate Reaches Solution For Censorship Concerns". Note: This article also discusses ROTC: "[Columbia President] Bollinger was also asked for his opinion on bringing ROTC back to Columbia, more than 30 years after it was banned from campus during the Vietnam War. Bollinger said he did not have a strong opinion in either direction and would welcome a discussion of the issue."

Columbia: Spectator "ROTC and Opportunity"

3 February 2003 Columbia Spectator Op-Ed "ROTC and Opportunity" by Jennifer Thorpe.

Columbia: Spectator "Rangel's Wake-Up Call"

29 January 2003 Columbia Spectator column "Rangel's Wake-Up Call" by Eric Chen. Comment: Representative Charles B. Rangel called for a return of the military draft because a "disproportionate number of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent." It turns out he was wrong about the racial mix of the military but he may be correct about the mix of economic backgrounds. Chen points out that the best way to rectify this imbalance of economic backgrounds is to restore ROTC at elite universities.

Columbia: Kalamazoo "Threat of war aids revival of ROTC"

11 January 2003 Kalamazoo Gazette article "Threat of war aids revival of ROTC". Comment: ROTC cadets in uniform sometimes report awkward moments on campus. One recounts "People come up and give you hugs".