COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Harassment of Military Recruiters Sparks Lawsuit at College
Matt Purple, CNSNews
August 06, 2007
A conservative youth group has filed a lawsuit aimedat the University of California-Santa Cruz, arguing it should lose
federal funding because it allowed military recruiters to be harassed
and forced off campus by student protesters.
The Young America's Foundation (YAF) accused the school of violating
the Solomon Amendment, which requires colleges to allow military
recruiters access to their campuses to be eligible for federal aid.
If successful, the lawsuit -- filed against Defense Secretary Robert
M. Gates to compel him to enforce the Solomon Amendment -- would deny
UC-Santa Cruz $80 million in funds.
In 2005 and 2006, military personnel attended campus job fairs to
provide information and to enlist students. Both times, the military
recruiters were driven from the campus by angry protesters, which
reportedly included both students and faculty.
In 2007, the military recruiters opted out of the job fair.
William Perry Pendley, president of the Mountain States Legal
Foundation, told Cybercast News Service that the school consistently
allowed the recruiters access to the campus, but he said the school
took no appropriate action to deal with the protesters and enforce the law.
"There's certainly action that the university can take," Pendley
said. "They can make it clear to students and faculty members that if
they prevent military recruiters from appearing and if they interfere
with the university's ability to comply with federal law, they'll be expelled."
According to the Solomon Amendment, a college is denied federal money
if it prohibits or prevents "the Secretary of a military department
... from gaining access to campuses, or access to students (who are
17 years of age or older) on campuses, for purposes of military
recruiting in a manner that is at least equal in quality and scope to
the access to
campuses and to students that is provided to any other employer."
Because the other corporate representatives were allowed to stay on
the Santa Cruz campus while the military recruiters were forced to
leave, the university is in violation of the Solomon Amendment and
should have funding pulled, said Pendley.
He compared this case to those of students who openly violated Title
IX, which prohibits school athletics from discriminating on the basis
of sex, and said that the outcome in such a case would be different.
"Students who don't comply with Title IX will be expelled. It's as
simple as that," said Pendley.
Pendley had previously tried to bring the case to the attention of
the Department of Defense, which is charged with enforcing the
Solomon Amendment.
In 2006, he wrote a letter to former Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, urging him to take action against the school, but Pendley
never heard back from Rumsfeld, and the government declined to take any action.
Two volatile encounters
Military recruiters first experienced problems at a UC-Santa Cruz job
fair in April 2005. Attended by 60 employers, the event was quickly
disrupted by a throng of rowdy anti-war protesters who chanted,
shouted, and banged on windows.
Protesters who infiltrated the fair reportedly surrounded the
military recruiters' tables to prevent other students from viewing
their literature. After an hour, the recruiters left the event.
A similar protest occurred at the 2006 job fair, and one person was
arrested. A recruiter's car was reportedly vandalized. The recruiters
again left the school, and they declined to attend the 2007 job fair.
The school responds
Despite the pending lawsuit, a UC-Santa Cruz spokesman said the
school had done nothing wrong - that all rules and regulations had
been applied and followed.
This "administration has consistently strived to uphold protection
for everyone's First Amendment rights, including the right of
students to discuss job prospects with all prospective employers at a
career fair and the right of individuals or groups to hold a legal
and nonviolent protest," Tim Stephens, a UC-Santa Cruz public
relations officer, told Cybercast News Service.
"The campus has consistently complied with all requirements of the
Solomon Amendment," said Stephens. And "standard campus judicial
process was followed to investigate whether students violated the
campus code of conduct and to take appropriate disciplinary action," he said.
The participation of faculty in the protest was investigated, said
Stephens, but "the campus is not aware of any allegations of
violations of the faculty code of conduct."
When asked to describe these judicial and investigative processes, he
declined, saying that such procedures were confidential.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen material relevant to the work of Eugene, Oregon’s Committee for Countering Military Recruitment that we think may be of use to others individuals and groups with similar goals.
Because our web site is public, personal comments about the articles and (frequent) corrections of reporters’ errors are also not included. If an article interests you, we encourage you to return to the Counter-Recruitment List Serve and put the article’s headline into the search line, which should bring up (often wise and useful) commentary and corrections. If you do not belong to the List Serve, it can be found at counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles on this site are posted without profit to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposed.