Advocates For Columbia ROTC: Princeton

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Friday, September 19, 2008

Will Ivy League Embrace R.O.T.C. Again?

19 September 2008 Christian Science Monitor article "Will Ivy League Embrace R.O.T.C. Again?". Note: The article notes that although it is unlikely that many Ivy League graduates would enter ROTC programs, "the impact on the military, and on the East Coast elite that still struggles with military service, would be enormous".

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Obama and McCain v. Ivy League

13 September 2008 Wall Street Journal editorial "Obama and McCain v. Ivy League". Note: The Journal described the boos in the audience at the 11 September presidential candidate forum when Senator McCain called for lifting the ban on ROTC at Columbia and the "silence when crowd favorite Mr. Obama (Columbia '83) called the ban "a mistake"". The editorial asked "if a bipartisan rebuke on ROTC is enough to shame Columbia and the other Ivies into changing their dishonorable act". See letters on 27 September.

ROTC and the Ivies: The presidential candidates agree that the de facto ban by elite universities should end

13 September 2008 Washington Post editorial "ROTC and the Ivies: The presidential candidates agree that the de facto ban by elite universities should end." Note: The Post observes that "the restoration of ROTC at the Ivies might help reconnect two important American subcultures -- elite academia and the military officer corps -- that have grown apart"

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Why McCain, Time, and Obama Are Wrong About ROTC

11 September 2008 ObamaPolitics.com blog item "Why McCain, Time, and Obama Are Wrong About ROTC". Note: Wilson, author of Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest, points out the lack of parallelism between Columbia's hosting of an appearance by Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Columbia's decision not to host ROTC programs since one involves speech and the other involves setting up an educational program. He suggests alternatives for reconciling university norms with the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964. An ROTC program at Princeton already implements many such approaches.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Military Academy

18 January 2007 The New Republic column "Military Academy" by Anthony Grafton. Note: A Princeton professor notes that Princeton has more connections to the military than many other elite colleges, and recommends that "We who teach young men and women need to know more about what we ask some of them to do on our behalf and what it takes to do their jobs".

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