ROTC Marches to Hunter
By Keith Mitchell, News Editor
A new federal act could enable the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to enter the Hunter College community. This past spring the 104th Congress passed the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1997. Besides continuing the further deregulation of the telecommunication industry, the act also denies funds to colleges and universities which “prevent federal military recruitment on campus.” This includes grants from the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education especially used for financial aid.
The act also requires that schools provide personal information about students including name, address, telephone number, age, level of education and major. The only institutions exempted from this act are colleges and universities that have “a long standing policy of pacifism based in historical religious affiliation” or are prohibited for any reason by state law or court order from allowing the ROTC on campus.
According to a report written by a sub-committee of the Hunter College Senate to President David Caputo, the committee “supported full compliance with the law.” However the sub-committee did make several proposals to the President. These include the autonomy of student publications on whether they accept advertising from the ROTC, that the ROTC pay for using Hunter College facilities for meetings, that students sign a waiver before the school releases any personal information and a public notice as to whether or not the ROTC signs a statement of non-discrimination. In the past, the ROTC was prevented from recruiting on campuses due to the military’s previous ban on gays and lesbians.
The development of the ROTC was based on the pulling of governmental purse strings. In 1862, the Land Grant Act gave tracts of public land to state colleges if they gave military training to male students. After World War I, the ROTC was able to expand to 2,000 high schools (in the form of the Junior ROTC) and universities. It was during the Vietnam War that the ROTC was forced off of some campuses, particularly those of the CUNY system.
