COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: JROTC/ROTC
Bush Condemns Schools Without ROTC Programs
ames Hohmann, The Stanford Daily
May 21, 2007
STANFORD, Calif. - Only two Stanford University seniors, including Diana Clough, will be commissioned into the Army through the Reserve Officers's Training Corps (ROTC) this year. Decades ago, dozens would sign up to serve. But during the brouhaha over Vietnam in the early 1970s, the University's Faculty Senate banned ROTC detachments from forming on campus.So for four years, Clough has needed to find a way to Santa Clara University - about a 30-minute trip, each way. When she couldn't drive her freshman year, she depended on others to get to drills, labs and training sessions. As an older cadet, now the leader of the Santa Clara battalion, she has tried to make it more convenient for younger participants to attend required programs.
Bush said that students at schools without ROTC live "a split existence - where your life as a cadet or midshipmen is invisible to most of your fellow students."
Clough said that the president's speech writers met with her before Thursday's White House ceremony in the East Room.
"I felt like he was talking about me the entire time, which is really insane," Clough said. "The fact finders asked us if we get credit and commute to the school."
Based, at least in part, on the conversation with Clough and cadets at other elite schools, the President's speech explicitly criticized universities like Stanford for not allowing ROTC chapters on campus.
"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," Bush said to applause. "To the cadets and midshipmen who are graduating from a college or university that believes ROTC is not worthy of a place on campus, here is my message: Your university may not honor your military service, but the United States of America does."
Jeff Wachtel, special assistant to President John Hennessy, said that the university's ban on ROTC and its policy of not accepting credit for ROTC classes at other schools does not mean that administrators or the community-at-large do not support the cadets.
"ROTC is often overlooked as a form of government service," he said. "We're very interested in training the leaders of tomorrow not just for private sector jobs but also for work in the public sector."
Wachtel said that Hennessy and professor William Perry, formerly a U.S. secretary of defense, held a lunch in the fall to honor ROTC students on campus.
He added that any change in the current policy would need to be sanctioned by the Faculty Senate.
"People have talked about it informally," he said, "but there hasn't been any formal movement."
Clough said that the university misses out on "a vital chance to influence the student leaders of tomorrow."
"Stanford is really into producing future leaders in every area, but they don't include the military, which is interesting considering the times we're in," she said, noting that national leaders like former Secretary of State Colin Powell got their start in ROTC programs.
Lt. Col. Shari L. Corbett, a professor of military science at Santa Clara University and commander of the ROTC detachment, said that California is considered a growth region by the ROTC. But she said for a school like Stanford to get a chapter, students would need to demonstrate enough interest in committing to military service.
"To get a program," she said, "you have to [have] enough people that add to the mission."
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