Repeal of Gay Ban Opens Door to ROTC Return at Top Schools

Dec. 22, 2010— -- Repeal of the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian service members may mean the return of Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs to several top private U.S. universities after being banned for decades.

ROTC, which prepares students to become military officers upon their graduation, had been a fixture on many of the nation's campuses until the late 1960s and early 1970s. But deep opposition to the Vietnam War and, later, to the "don't ask don't tell" policy spurred some schools to push the military out.

Now as President Obama signed a repeal of the policy into law Wednesday, at least four elite universities have begun high-level discussions and convened working groups to consider ROTC's return.

"I look forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard's full and formal recognition of ROTC," said Harvard University president Drew Faust in a statement. "I am very pleased that more students will now have the opportunity to serve their country."

At Yale, where ROTC was expelled in 1969 after faculty voted to revoke credit for military courses, university president Richard Levin said the school will reach out to the Pentagon to determine if the military has interest in returning.

"Yale is eager to open discussions about expanding opportunities to students interested in military service, and we will be discussing this matter with the faculty of Yale college in the spring semester," he said in a statement.

A return to campus would make it easier for students interested in military service to pursue training while completing their studies. Currently at Yale and other schools without on-campus ROTC, students who want to participate have to travel to neighboring universities, which is often burdensome.

Allowing ROTC to operate on-campus would also facilitate integration the nation's top students into military leadership roles and potentially broaden connections between military decision-makers and other high-profile alumni from the elite schools, advocates say.

"The alternative is a civil-military divide, and you get situations like people who've trained in Ivy League institutions or places like Stanford who are represented in leadership of the country but who don't have friends in the military, or they don't know enough about the military to manage it properly, or just have discussions about military-related issues," said Michael Segal, founder and director of Advocates for ROTC, an umbrella group promoting the return of the military program to top colleges and universities.