The Board of Trustees voted over the weekend to keep the Army's Reserve Officer Training Corps, but admitted the program discriminates against homosexuals.
The Trustees' statement, released Saturday, said the Board wished to preserve the opportunity for students to participate in ROTC but also pledged to work to change the military's policy toward homosexuals.
By keeping the program, the Board overrode recommendations by the faculty and College President James Freedman to eliminate ROTC because of its discriminatory policies.
But the Board's statement supported their claim that the military's current policy concerning homosexuals is still discriminatory.
"The so-called 'don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue' policy enacted by Congress in 1993 places Dartmouth and other institutions of higher education in an unacceptable situation," the Trustees wrote in their two-page statement. "This policy forces Dartmouth, as well as other colleges and universities, to make an unconscionable choice as to which students they wish to deprive."
Members of Dartmouth's gay and lesbian community expressed outrage at the decision, which some have called a betrayal of the College's principles and of its support of gays and lesbians.
A student-organized demonstration to denounce the Board's vote is scheduled for this afternoon at 12:30 in front of Parkhurst Administration building.
In 1991, the Board said it would discontinue ROTC in two years if the Pentagon did not change its policy prohibiting gays from serving in the military. Encouraged by President Bill Clinton's election and his efforts to revise the guidelines, the Board voted last April to grant a one-year extension.
The College's Equal Opportunity principle states: "Dartmouth does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or status as a disabled or Vietnam era veteran in its programs, organizations and conditions of employment or admission."
Although this policy was adopted in 1991, Dartmouth has prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation since 1985.
But the Board's statement said the vote to keep ROTC should "in no way be read as altering the College's policy of non-discrimination against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation."
Before the 1993 changes to the military policy, some homosexual Dartmouth students could not participate in ROTC.
On September 12, 1991, then-Chairman of the Board I. Michael Heyman wrote in a statement that the Trustees object to the Pentagon policy because "certain Dartmouth students and applicants for admission would not be able to participate in the program."
Under the new "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy homosexuals can participate in ROTC as long as they do not reveal their homosexuality. The application to join the military no longer asks about a candidate's sexual orientation.
"Sexual orientation is considered a personal and private matter, and homosexual orientation is not a bar to service entry or continued service unless manifested by homosexual conduct," states the policy, written by then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin in July, 1993.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences said the current Pentagon policy violates the College's equal opportunity clause because homosexuals cannot openly display their sexuality without fear of being removed from the program. Its Feb. 28 motion urged the Board to kill the program.
When Chairman of the Board E. John Rosenwald emerged from a closed executive session in Parkhurst Hall Saturday he said the decision followed a "long and anguished process."
"The Trustees believe that American society is in a period of transition that will ultimately lead it to embrace full and equal participation of homosexuals in the military," the statement says. "The Trustees now commit Dartmouth College to help push the transition forward."
The Trustees said the College will try to influence federal policy by "pressing administration officials, members of Congress and the military leadership," working with other schools and filing amicus briefs in court challenges to the Pentagon policy.
But others questioned how effective the College can be at affecting changes in national policy.
"If the President of the United States can't move the Pentagon, Dartmouth College isn't going to be able to either," English Professor Peter Saccio said.
Saccio said Rosenwald, Trustee Ann Fritz-Hackett, Dean of the College Lee Pelton and interim Provost Bruce Pipes spoke with him, S. T. Shimi '94, a co-chair of the Dartmouth Gay and Lesbian Organization, and Renee Risingsong, a co-convenor of the Coalition for Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns, after the three-hour executive meeting on Saturday.
Saccio called the meeting "an act of courtesy," but added, "they didn't defend, they didn't explain, they just presented it."
Neither the Trustees nor Freedman, who is also a Trustee, would comment about the statement and College Spokesman Alex Huppe said "the statement stands for and by itself."
Religion Professor Susan Ackerman, a former co-convenor of the Coalition for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns, said the Trustees' decision sends a message to the homosexual community that they are not as important as other groups on campus.
"The ultimate message from the Board to the gay and lesbian community is that, 'your place on this campus is ultimately not as important to us and is not something we're willing to sacrifice for,'" she said.
