Committee Ignored ROTC Bias

When the Academics Committee voted last week, 11-2, to recommend that the Undergraduate Council call on Harvard and the military to bring Reserve Officer Training Corps back to campus, they did not debate the fact that the military discriminates against gays and lesbians, members said last night.

"There was really no discussion on the issues of homosexuality or constitutionality," said Lori Outzs '91, who chairs the committee. She added that the debate centered on how bringing the military to Harvard would provide more scholarships for ROTC students.

Outzs said that many committee members did not really understand the complex issues involved with ROTC when they voted to send the resolution to the council.

"I think that the committee realized their ignorance and lack of full understanding," she said.

But she added that she was unclear whether the resolution was sent with the committee's recommendation, and that sending the issue to council was a way of monitoring student opinion on the subject.

"The resolution came forward as a way to [discover] student opinion," she said.

Opponents of the resolution--which the council approved Sunday night--charged that the motion violates the council constitution which prohibits the body from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

The United States armed forces do not allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military.

Last week's committee vote came within days of the 20th anniversary of the siege of University Hall, during which more than 400 students occupied the building to insist that Harvard sever all ties with the military training organization.

Some committee members said the political climate had changed so much since then that a reversal of the 1969 changes was appropriate--despite the symbolic importance of the anniversary.

"Students at Harvard today are more mature--able to look at the substance of issues rather than the symbolism," said Joel D. Hornstein '92, one of two ROTC students who proposed the council resolution.

Outzs said she thought that the week of the anniversary was a perfect time to raise the ROTC issue.

"We decided it might be a good time to bring it up because people were thinking about it," Outzs said. "It was a time when students actually cared about it. We wanted students to debate it," she added.

Origins of the Issue

But amid the council's resounding approval of the measure, committee members offered conflicting stories on how the resolution was introduced, and on what role--if any--Harvard administrators played in planning the resolution.

David R. Golob '89, who chaired the Academics Committee when the resolution was suggested last semester, said that the idea came from Hornstein.

He added that the bill's two cosponsors were persistent, despite the fact that "I warned [them] that there might be more of a response than we imagined."

Hornstein and the other sponsor, ROTC student Scott Frewing '90, both said that several times while they were writing the proposal they expressed their reservations to the committee, saying they thought the resolution might encounter too much opposition.

But both added that the Academics Committee was so supportive of the idea that most members encouraged them to proceed with the resolution.

Council Chair Kenneth E. Lee '89 also said that he might have originally forwarded the idea to the committee himself. "It's not my personal issue," he said. "It's very possible that I threw [the issue] out in response to ideas from [someone] else."

Once the idea was planted, Hornstein and Frewing "spoke with Dean Jewett at length a number of times," according to Golob. Both sponsors said they met with Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 before they presented the resolution to the committee.

"Jewett was very happy that [student representatives] were coming to see him," said a council member who asked to remain anonymous.

"Dean Jewett advised [the sponsors] on the formal aspects of the resolution and in deciding whether or not it is possible," the student added.

"He said that he and other members of the administration wanted ROTC to come back on campus," the student said of Jewett. "He wanted to know what students thought. He didn't want to do it if a large number of students were opposed to it."

Outzs said Jewett said that a proposal to bring back ROTC might have trouble gaining approval from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), which must approve the decision if any action is to be taken.

She added that Jewett expressed concern about finding space for ROTC, determining whether ROTC officials would be given faculty positions and granting academic credit for ROTC courses.

Jewett was out of town and unavailable for comment, according to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III.

President Derek C. Bok said in an interview yesterday that, if the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approved it, he would support bringing ROTC back to Harvard.

Anti-ROTC activists said they were upset that the administration may have even implicitly given support to the program.

"It horrifies me that a dean seems to have thrown all of his bigoted weight on top of lesbian and bisexual and gay students," said Joseph H. Cice '88-89, co-chair of the bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students' Association.

"I saw students crying after the meeting," Cice said. "Believe me, they are loving people whose raging anger the dean will have to deal with," he added.