Faculty at Wisconsin Choose to Ban ROTC

A day after Harvard's student government ended a six-month controversy over the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), the faculty at the University of Wisconsin passed a resolution banning ROTC from campus unless it ends its discriminatory policies against gays and lesbians.

Meeting in full session for the first time since 1970, Wisconsin's faculty senate, led by Professor of Sociology and South Asian Studies Joseph Elder and Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy Claudia Card, approved the resolution, 386 to 248, Monday. The resolution, which was introduced in the spring of 1988, would ban ROTC from campus in May 1993 unless ROTC agreed to allow gays and lesbians to join.

Monday's vote sends the issue of ROTC on campus to the Wisconsin Regents Board, which determines policy for the university system. Board member Ruth Clusen said the 17-member board, which governs all 26 University of Wisconsin campuses, will probably discuss the issue in February.

During the debate, Elder and Card, who co-chair the Faculty Against Discrimination in University Programs (FADIUP) group, spoke out against the discrimination. Jordan Marsh, a member of the Wisconsin Student Association (WSA), also spoke at the faculty meeting by a special arrangement.

But ROTC's liaison, law professor Gordon Baldwin said, "the proponents of change are shooting themselves in the foot...There is no question of law here, the policy is allowed."

Baldwin and other supporters say that the university, which was founded under the Land Grant Act of 1862, may face a legal battle if it bans ROTC. The Land Grant Act provided start-up money for state schools but stipulated that the schools offer military instruction.

In addition, ROTC supporters--including Gov. Tommy G. Thompson (R-Wis.)--say terminating the program would seriously affect students who are dependent on scholarships, as well as those who hope to pursue a military career.

Elder said Monday's vote ended a chain of events that began a decade ago.

In May, 1979, the faculty senate decided not to accept ROTC's discriminatory policies. The Board of Regents approved that resolution but failed to take any action against ROTC on the University of Wisconsin campuses.

In 1986, an ad hoc committee proposed a three-part solution. Under the recommendation, the university would use political pressure to change the military's policies toward gays and lesbians. If that failed, the university would try legal action. And as a final option, the university would sever its ties with ROTC.

Last year, the faculty senate--not meeting in full--accepted the first two recommendations, but not the third. So last spring, Elder filed another petition requesting a full faculty meeting to reconsider the third option.

Currently, 440 students are involved in the ROTC program at the University of Wisconsin, 155 of them on full scholarships.