Columbia ROTC Update

Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, sent an E-mail to students in regards to reinstating ROTC on campus:

In the e-mail, Bollinger called Columbia “open for robust discussion and debate.” He reminded students that “in 2005, the University Senate voted overwhelmingly against formally inviting ROTC onto campus,” largely because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

In the case that ROTC is again rejected, President Bollinger apparently has a built-in justification for it not getting through:

The president suggested that Columbia should respect the Senate’s decision, while noting that a change in the school’s policy might be ineffective because “the Department of Defense (DOD) has, for its own fiscal reasons, instituted a policy of aggregating small numbers of ROTC students in urban areas into pooled programs on a limited number of campuses.” Because only five Columbia students are enrolled in ROTC, the DOD might continue to host its regional programs only at Fordham and St. John’s universities.

To the credit of some of the student leaders they have addressed this issue by wanting to specifically discuss adding the Naval ROTC:

Although Bollinger stressed that students can participate in ROTC on other campuses, student leaders have said they want to deal specifically with NROTC because, unlike other branches of ROTC, it is not available to Columbia students.

OYE Comment: Columbia has maintained the bizarre position of "we won't stop discriminating against those that want to join The Military until The Military stops discriminating against gays wishing to openly serve".

Operation Yellow Elephant has repeatedly documented the absurdity of the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy and we will continue to push until gays can openly serve. Yet, what we are wondering is this: has it occurred to anyone at Columbia that if they have some of their own inside The Military and possibly within the Pentagon that future decisions on allowing gays to openly serve may be influenced by someone that was commissioned from their campus?

Lastly: If you have the patience to tolerate a jackass' perspective on this debate please read ROTC Get Out, Stay Out! Obama Wants You to Serve Imperialism.