Harvard Development Office Had Role in ROTC Funding, Alumni Say

The University has had a heavy hand in funding the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at MIT through a legally separate entity called the Friends of Harvard ROTC Trust, though Harvard has not officially recognized or funded the program since the early 1990s, according to alumni and members of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC.

While Harvard has not publicly supported the Trust, alumni say that the Harvard Alumni Affairs & Development office and individuals at Harvard originally helped to create the Trust and have assisted in coordinating significant donations since.

Additionally, donations given to the Trust are counted as a gift to the University, “as if they had given to Harvard,” said Michael Segal ’76, a member of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC.

The Trust was created under the auspices of Boston law firm Choate Hall & Stewart to shoulder the overhead costs of ROTC at MIT, where Harvard students participating in ROTC currently train. Its creation followed a Faculty Council vote in 1994 that prohibited Harvard from paying for costs associated with the program while “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”—the military policy that banned gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military—was in place.

Following the December repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” University President Drew G. Faust signed an agreement with the Navy to recognize ROTC last month.

The repeal will not be implemented until it goes through a certification process that is slated to conclude later this year.

According to the Trust’s most recent tax filing, in fiscal year 2009 the Trust paid MIT $136,344.

“Harvard was definitely involved,” Segal said. “The Harvard alumni people were involved and they helped in facilitating of the setting up of this fund.”

Two or three prominent alumni have donated to the Trust, covering the yearly costs which range from about $130,000 to $160,000, depending on the number of students enrolled in the ROTC program.

“The Trust is just a vehicle for handling the money to ensure that MIT gets its fair share allocation,” said Chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC Capt. Paul E. Mawn USNR (Ret.) ’63.

Though Harvard has not been directly involved, Mawn said, the “whole thing was a wink-and-a-nod process.”

Segal said that Harvard may have felt compelled to offer institutional support to the Trust because the University has continued to accept scholarships awarded to ROTC participants by the federal government.

The money associated with the program “sort of flows in and out,” Segal said.

In 2002, then-University President Lawrence H. Summers told students he felt the funding arrangement for ROTC was “unorthodox” and “uncomfortable.”

The alumni who have donated to the Trust have remained anonymous to many members of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC, said Warren M. Schur ’69.

The donors to the Trust have likely requested anonymity in part because of anti-military sentiment, said Malcolm Hill ’59, who serves as the president of the alumni fund of the Advocates—a separate fund related to ROTC.

“There’s still substantial amount of anti-ROTC feeling among those folks who make up the of the grand glorious Harvard alumni,” Hill said.

The two trustees of the Trust, Harold J. Keohane ’60 and Charles A. Cheever ’90, declined to comment.

According to Segal, several years ago the founder of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC, David Clayman ’38, suggested to the Harvard Corporation that they create an endowment that would fund ROTC costs. The Corporation said it would consider helping the Trust to set up an endowment, but Segal said he does not know what happened to the plans.

Clayman passed away a few years later.

The future status of the Trust has been called into question by the recent recognition of ROTC.

While Mawn said he imagines that the Trust “is just going to evaporate,” its fate remains unclear.

The Harvard Alumni Affairs and Development office did not respond for comment yesterday.

—Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.