Colleges, ROTC Confront Gays in Military Issue : Education: Clinton’s policy may set the two interests on a collision course over the officer training program. At stake is an attempt to balance academic freedom and the armed forces’ readiness plans.
From the halls of Ivy League Princeton to the sunny campus of the University of San Diego, a new academic debate is slowly taking shape.
President Clinton’s policy on gays in the military--known colloquially as “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue”--is sparking discussions over ROTC, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Many believe that these discussions will spill over into the classroom, the boardroom and the academic senate this year as universities begin looking at the overall ramifications.
What if a ROTC professor notices that one of his students regularly reads the Advocate, a gay magazine? In the event of a military investigation, could an English teacher be required to turn over an essay from a ROTC student that details his or her homosexuality? How can a university rationalize its support of non-discrimination policies on campus, yet allow the ROTC to discriminate against gay ROTC students?
Such questions of academic freedom are unlikely to be resolved until the Department of Defense clarifies its policy and enforcement plans. But faculty, students and various academic groups across the nation are gearing up for a lively year.
In the last few years, more than 150 institutions of higher education across the country have adopted policies forbidding discrimination against homosexuals on campus, setting them on a potential collision course with the ROTC, which must follow the new policy.
Already, a number of faculty senates have approved resolutions asking their boards of trustees to evict the ROTC unless it stops violating the non-discrimination policies that cover every other aspect of university life.
At Princeton University, faculty members will soon vote on a proposal calling for the removal of an Army ROTC program because they believe the new policy inhibits the free exchange of truthful information on campus.
Locally, UCLA has been a front-runner in the debate. In 1990, Chancellor Charles E. Young sent a letter to the secretary of defense, voicing “direct concern” over discrimination against homosexuals by ROTC units housed on college campuses.
This May, UCLA’s academic senate approved a resolution that advocated abolition of the ROTC because its policies violate the University of California’s non-discrimination policy. In July, after Clinton announced the new policy, demonstrators organized by UCLA students marched from the Federal Building in Westwood to the ROTC building on campus, chanting their opposition to the ROTC and “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The debate is even hitting more conservative campuses, such as the Catholic-run University of San Diego. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has spurred Joe Colombo, an associate professor of religious studies there, to draft a motion he hopes to take before the academic assembly this fall asking the university to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy.
Watching closely over these developments will be conservative groups, whose members say they are prepared to launch counter-protests as pro-homosexual rights and anti-ROTC demonstrations unfold.
“Conservative groups are going to be watching it, they’re going to be ready to participate in the dialogue that moves the issue forward,” said Jeff Muir, a program officer at conservative Madison Center for Educational Affairs in Washington, which oversees a coalition of 70 right-of-center campus newspapers.
The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps commissions college graduates to become military officers, providing top recruits with four-year scholarships of up to $8,000 annually or 80% of their college tuition, whichever is higher. About 60,000 college students serve in Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC units across the country.
Already, the ROTC has stopped asking potential recruits during pre-application interviews if they are gay. Under the new policy, which takes effect Oct. 1, only blatant homosexual conduct can trigger an investigation, although the definition of such behavior remains fuzzy.
Many gay and lesbian activists claim that ROTC officials are treading lightly because they are aware of the sentiment against them. “They don’t want to do anything to invite unfriendly review,” said a former ROTC cadet from UCLA who is gay. “They’re going to be real, real careful before they do anything to violate a student’s academic freedom and spark a test case.”
The issue is a nettlesome one even for the staunchest advocates of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” who also strive to balance academic freedoms with military values.
“Obviously as an institution of higher learning, we’re also interested in developing the thought processes of our students by encouraging the flow of information,” said Maj. Keith Trohoske, a spokesman for the United States Military Academy at West Point.
“Quite frankly, I would offer you that the possibility does exist somewhere of a chilling effect due to homosexual orientation,” Trohoske said. “I can see how some people can feel that they are limited.”
On the other hand, Trohoske added, “it’s no different than if you were on a scholarship. The restriction is you have to maintain a B average or you lose the scholarship.”
ROTC officials are also circumspect. James F. Tynan, a spokesman for the Air Force ROTC headquarters in Washington, said he might be concerned about academic freedom if he were a student. “As far as we’re concerned, academic freedom is vital. But first and foremost is the ability to provide prime military leaders. Our first concern is readiness.”
Department of Defense spokesman Lt. Col. Doug Hart calls the fears of students and educators unfounded and does not believe that the new policy will affect academic freedoms on campus.
Hart said that reading the Advocate or writing an essay about homosexuality would not trigger a probe unless a gay cadet submitted the essay to an ROTC professor. But, he cautioned: “The actual directives that will give the outline to the new policy are not even written yet. But when you’re talking academia, there’s nothing to be concerned about.”
The military’s view is that those who join the ROTC are expected to abide by its rules, whether that means wearing their uniforms, keeping their hair a certain length or not engaging in homosexual behavior.
But many gay ROTC recruits say it is impossible to keep up the facade. Consider Steven C. Gonzalez of Palms, who as a teen-ager was so enamored of the military that he considered applying to West Point or Annapolis. Instead, he joined the Army ROTC as a UCLA freshman.
Gonzalez found the program rewarding, but it forced him to lead a double life. No one knew he was gay. At social functions, he found he had to act “wildly, vociferously heterosexual” to avoid falling under suspicion. When another cadet remarked that he did not see why gays were prohibited from the ROTC, Gonzalez winced but kept his mouth shut while other cadets jeered.
Gonzalez, 24, left the ROTC voluntarily after the first year. In the end, it was the loneliness that drove him out. He was tired of the internal conflict and not having friends to speak freely with. The day he quit, he crossed Bruin Walk to the gay and lesbian student association and announced that he was gay.
The former ROTC student said keeping his secret was more difficult than he had imagined, even on a college campus as big as UCLA. He believes that “don’t ask, don’t tell” does not change anything. He would still be afraid.
“In theory, I could go into a class and say whatever I wanted, so long as I didn’t say I was gay,” Gonzalez said. “But it’s a calculated risk. You’d look around and say: ‘Is this a small class, is there anyone I know?’ That has a stifling effect on speech.”
Ironically, many gay activists on campus prefer the military’s old approach, saying that at least then they knew where they stood. Now, the gray areas make it trickier for gay recruits to navigate their college years, especially when one wrong move could mean expulsion from the ROTC and loss of the scholarships that in many cases provide the ticket to higher education.
The new policy caused Steven Greene, an assistant professor of psychology at Princeton, to start an electronic bulletin board this summer to discuss the issue. “The freedom of expression issue really scares the hell out of me,” he said. In June, he wrote a letter to Princeton’s president arguing that the prohibition against “telling” creates a chilling effect on campus and could make gay students in the ROTC fearful of speaking up during class discussions about the poet Walt Whitman, who was gay, or about debating the biological basis of homosexuality.
Gays concede that it will be difficult to get the ROTC off campuses, especially at land-grant schools where military training is mandated by the state laws that set up the college system. Schools that did not succeed in ousting the ROTC during the tumultuous Vietnam War years also may find it hard to do over sexual orientation. But some believe that framing the issue in terms of free speech rather than gay rights may draw broader support.
“Academic relationships are based on trust and confidence, within which students and faculty speak freely and assume they’re beyond government surveillance,” said Robert O’Neil, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School and director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression. “The great fear for the ROTC policy is that it would make everyone a spy--students, faculty, even a physician at the campus health center.”
Even Muir, of the conservative Madison Center, agrees that “don’t ask, don’t tell” could violate academic freedoms. “I agree it’s a legitimate issue. You don’t want military people rifling through professors’ notes,” he said. “But I just don’t see it happening that often.”
