Advocates For Columbia ROTC: March 2004

Monday, March 29, 2004

Senate Passes ROTC Task Force

29 March 2004 Columbia Spectator article "Senate Passes ROTC Task Force". Note: Columbia is setting up a committee to look into the restoration of ROTC.

Friday, March 26, 2004

University Senate Minutes

26 March 2004 Columbia University Senate minutes "Proposal to bring ROTC back to Columbia".

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Proposal to Return ROTC to Columbia’s Campus

21 March 2004 "Brief: Proposal to Return ROTC to Columbia’s Campus" by Advocates for Columbia ROTC and Students United for America. Note: The document is also on the Web site of the Columbia University Senate.

Advocates for ROTC

is an umbrella group for organizations that promote an atmosphere supportive of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps on college campuses.

ROTC was active at all major universities in the United States until the Vietnam War, when it was de-certified by some colleges amid anti-war sentiment. Students at these colleges can take part in ROTC programs at other colleges and receive ROTC scholarships. Although much of the anti-military sentiment of the 1960s has waned, opposition to ROTC continues, centering around the "don't ask, don't tell" law about homosexuality in the armed forces passed by Congress in 1993 and signed into law by President Clinton.

ROTC is a core part of the nation's military training, producing more officers than the Service academies. At colleges without ROTC, students are growing up separated from some of the most important leaders of the future. Gen. David Petraeus, the military commander in Iraq, stresses that ROTC "is very important for our Army and our country" and that many ROTC graduates are "true national assets". President George W. Bush said "It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible". Both the country and the universities will benefit from having more such leaders.

Advocates For Columbia ROTC