President Bill Clinton announced Monday his policy on gays in the military, leaving the future of ROTC at Dartmouth hanging in doubt.
The Trustees announced in 1991 that Dartmouth would discontinue its Army Reserve Officer Training Corps if the military's ban on homosexuals was not lifted by April 1993, in order to reconcile the military rules with the College policy of equal opportunity and non-discrimination.
Days before the Trustees' winter meeting this year, Clinton gave Defense Secretary Les Aspin a July 15 deadline for drafting an executive order to lift the ban. In hopes that this could allow ROTC to remain, the Trustees decided to wait one more year before making a decision.
Clinton's compromise with Congressional leaders ends the half-century ban but seeks to keep the armed forces' gays in the closet with strict regulations governing open acknowledgment of their sexual orientation.
Late Monday night fliers were posted around campus denouncing Clinton's plan.
In Congressional hearings Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned the Defense Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff, in attempts to work out exact meanings for the ambiguous regulations.
A conplete lifting of the ban would have guaranteed a future for Dartmouth's ROTC program. Based on the statements made by the Trustees in 1991 and 1993, it seems the Board could justify a decision to keep ROTC or remove it.
Trustee Chair John Rosenwald '52 told the Valley News this week that the issue would be on the Board's agenda in November. There are three Trustee meetings before the Board's April deadline.
In their original statement the Trustees emphasized that College policy "confirms that Dartmouth will not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in its programs."
They said they would discontinue ROTC if "the Defense Department's policy prohibiting homosexuals from serving in the military has not been changed."
This February the Trustees again asked that the policy prohibiting homosexuals be lifted.
"We are encouraged by President Clinton's support for a change and by the decision of the Congress to examine the matter fully," said I. Michael Heyman '51, the Trustee chairman at the time.
"There is a reasonable chance that, within a year, the bar to service by homosexuals in the military will be lifted so that we can continue Army ROTC for Dartmouth students without interruption," he said.
"The Trustees continue to stand behind Dartmouth's equal opportunity policy," Heyman said. "We also support ROTC, but we will discontinue it if, over the coming months, the efforts by President Clinton and others to eliminate the bar to homosexuals are unsuccessful."
When the Trustees extended their deadline, the Coalition for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns predicted Clinton might lift the ban with a policy qualified with regulations they consider discriminatory.
The Coalition consists of gay and straight faculty and staff, and has more than 100 members.
The group has not discussed Clinton's new policy, but co-chair Susan Ackerman, a religion professor, offered her personal opinion on the decision facing the Trustees.
She said Clinton's policy is a small improvement. "But once a soldier is enlisted, it seems to me the situation is no better for a gay or lesbian soldier than before."
"A gay or lesbian who announces their sexual orientation would be subject to discharge," she said. "Certainly, heterosexuals are not told they have to be celibate during their entire military career."
"This would apply to students in ROTC. If they didn't keep quiet about their sexual orientation, they would be subject to an investigation and if it was found that they acted on their sexual orientation they would be kicked out of the program," she said.
"That's a clear cut case of discrimination," Ackerman said.
Ackerman said Clinton probably had no choice in the matter since he faced opposition from military leaders. But she said that had no bearing on the question facing Dartmouth.
"What the Trustees have said all along was that if we are to keep ROTC, the military policy has to come in line with Dartmouth's policy of non-discrimination," she said. "It seems obvious to me that it does not."
"We cannot have a Dartmouth ROTC program and a non-discrimination policy on the same campus," she said. "My conclusion would be that ROTC has got to go."
The ROTC program trains students to become junior officers with command over enlisted personnel when they enter the army. Students who accept scholarships must commit to eight years of service in some combination of active and reserve duty. Scholarships pay up to 80 percent of Dartmouth tuition for three or four years.
The Army program has been available to students in some form since the Korean War, except for four years during the Vietnam War when the faculty voted to end it.
After 1975, students could participate in ROTC at the University of Norwich. In 1985 the Board decided to bring the program to the Dartmouth campus despite a faculty vote against the proposal.
The College maintained a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation but in an addendum gave precedence to federal law and military policy in the case of ROTC. After a committee established by President James Freedman recommended the addendum be removed, the College in 1991 established a new, single equal opportunity policy.
Government Professor Emeritus Laurence Radway said he was sorry the program is again in jeopardy."I think the military needs graduates from places like Dartmouth. It's good for them and good for the country."
