COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Students vote to ban military from campus
Andrew Pierce, Telegraph
March 8, 2008
Students were condemned by their university yesterday after voting tosever all links with the military.
The students' union at University College London (UCL) passed a
motion attacking the Government for "waging an aggressive war
overseas" in Afghanistan and Iraq.
To the dismay of the university management, it also prohibited the
military from setting up recruitment stalls at freshers' fairs. The
students also voted to break off links with the Officer Training
Corps, which recruits up to half its number from universities up and
down the country.
The union motion, passed by a majority of 80 votes to 50, said: "This
union believes that because the British military under the Labour
Government is currently engaged in an aggressive war overseas, for
the union to use its resources to encourage students to join the
military or participate in military recruitment activities at this
time would give political and material support to the war."
A spokesman for UCL scorned the vote and said there was no question
of the ban being applied. "This vote was taken by the student union
and refers to union premises and events only.
"It has no implications for any activities held on the main campus of
UCL, or sponsored by the university," said the spokesman.
The vote will fuel the debate over the treatment of military
personnel after servicemen and women from RAF Wittering in
Cambridgeshire were ordered not to wear their uniforms in nearby
Peterborough after reports of verbal abuse.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman described the vote at UCL as deeply
disappointing. He said: "Universities play an important role in
raising awareness among young people about the important work our
Armed Forces do and we enjoy a good relationship with most
universities. However people view specific military operations,
everyone should be able to respect the brave and professional job our
Armed Forces perform."
Patrick Mercer, a Tory MP and former infantry commander, said: "
These students are deeply misguided. They are insulting the men and
women who fight for their freedom and the democratic rights of our society."
The vote at UCL follows similar ones at Goldsmiths and London School
of Economics, both part of the University of London.
A spokesman for the National Union of Students said it was not aware
of any other unions placing bans on the military. They were routinely
imposed by student unions in protest at the ban on homosexuals
serving in the Armed Forces. But since that was lifted in 2000 most
have reversed their position.
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