Advocates For Columbia ROTC: October 2006

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Doing Our Part in a Time of War

24 October 2006 Columbia Spectator article "Doing Our Part in a Time of War" by Eric Chen. Note: One of the main leaders of the ROTC and veterans movements at Columbia wonders whether to re-enlist or stay in civilian life after graduation.

Friday, October 20, 2006

LGBT Groups Create Community, Should Also Focus on National Issues

20 October 2006 Columbia Spectator letter "LGBT Groups Create Community, Should Also Focus on National Issues" by Sean Wilkes, CC '06. Note: A recent ROTC graduate discusses an article focusing on the atmosphere for gender identity at Columbia and urges activists to focus on national issue too, such as changing the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Discussion of Citizenship and Military Service at Columbia University

11 October 2006 Columbia University event Discussion of Citizenship and Military Service at Columbia University. Note: Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer, co-authors of AWOL: the Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service—and How It Hurts Our Country talked and answered questions at Columbia

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