ROTC Returns to the Ivy League
On Friday, April 1, the University Senate at Columbia University voted in favor of supporting the return of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) to Columbia. ROTC programs were ousted from Columbia in the late 1960s, during the campus unrest related to the Vietnam War. This vote comes on the heels of a similar decision by Harvard University to authorize the return of ROTC programs to its campus and other Ivy League institutions may follow suit. While the roots of this separation go back to the cultural ferment of the 1960s, in recent years the issue of gays in the military has been a prime one with respect to the return of ROTC programs to campuses that have policies against discrimination against gays and lesbians. The recent repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy has opened the door for universities that have such policies and that interpreted them to preclude allowing ROTC programs on campus to allow ROTC programs to return.
In my view, this is an excellent development. The return of the US military to Ivy League universities will be a salutary experience for both institutions. For too long, many of America's college students at academically elite institutions have lacked interaction with peers who have chosen to serve in the military after graduation. This has lead to an unfamiliarity that can manifest itself in indifference to or even contempt for the military. This is bad for civil society, particularly if one expects the students at such universities to serve as leaders in society later in life. Also, it has discouraged many highly qualified young people from joining the military, and while our military has prospered over the past forty years, any removal of good human capital from the armed services is not something to cheer for. Further, in an era in which concerns about student loan debt and a possible higher education bubble weigh heavily on the minds of young people, the creation of more avenues for affordable higher education should be encouraged.
Speaking personally, I did not participate in ROTC in college and I did not attend an Ivy League school as an undergraduate, though I graduated from one for law school. I received my bachelor's degree from Rice University, which is an academically competitive school that has an ROTC program. In my experience, having ROTC students as part of a university community adds a lot to the culture and marketplace of ideas on a college campus. Issues of war and peace aren't so distant or theoretical when your roommate (or you) may be serving overseas after graduation, and this helps push back against some of the inevitable frivolousness of youth. Further, ROTC programs at elite universities send the signal that public service in the military is a worthy career path, and that becoming an investment banker or corporate lawyer isn't the main path to success and leadership.
Inevitably, there will be those who are against this development. The New York Times article cited above quotes a former Weatherman who lives near Columbia as saying, "The U.S. armed forces are a blight on the planet. I don’t support soldiers — I think they’re war criminals. So obviously, I’m against R.O.T.C. coming back." And one can find those on the right who are critical of ROTC at Ivy League campuses for other reasons. I suspect that those who hold such views are, thankfully, very much in the minority. Bringing ROTC programs back to Ivy League universities is a beneficial thing for many reasons, including the fact that doing so may help Americans do something we should have done a long time ago - grow up and put the cultural battles of the 1960s behind us.