CSUN Faculty Vote Would Ban ROTC

Saying the military’s exclusion of avowed homosexuals violates campus anti-discrimination policies, the faculty at Cal State Northridge voted overwhelmingly Thursday to kick Reserve Officer Training Corps programs off campus.

It was only the second time since the Vietnam War era that a faculty has sought to bar ROTC from a U.S. college campus. A special faculty congress at the University of Wisconsin voted in December to discontinue ROTC, but that vote was overturned in February by the university’s Board of Regents.

CSUN President James W. Cleary must endorse the decision before it becomes final.

“The armed services are practicing the last legal form of discrimination in this country,” CSUN religious studies professor Howard Happ said. “It does not become this university . . . to continue this program.”

Current military policy, reaffirmed earlier this year by the U.S. Supreme Court, excludes gays and lesbians from the armed forces. Although homosexual students may enroll in ROTC classes, they may not receive ROTC scholarships or commissions to serve in the military after graduation, Col. George Pehlvanian said.

The CSUN faculty vote of 44 to 15, with two abstentions, was greeted with loud applause by a cadre of students who attended the meeting. They said they hope the decision will send a message to politicians that the military’s policy is unfair.

“To hear my professors in there voting ‘Yes’ gave me a warm fuzzy,” said Ted Comerford, an English major.

Comerford said he was an ROTC student at CSUN before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. He said he was discharged two years ago for openly admitting his homosexuality. Now he is a co-director of the campus’ Gay and Lesbian Alliance.

ROTC cadets who attended the meeting said they were disappointed with the faculty decision.

“I don’t think that they’ve solved any problems today,” said cadet Steve Burrow, a senior business major. “Maybe someday the military’s policy will change--we can only hope it will--but for right now that’s the way it is.”

The faculty decision will be forwarded to Cleary, who said he has already asked state university attorneys to review the legal implications of the action.

“I have to be assured that it’s not a decision that carries risk in terms of impacting on another part of the university,” he said after the meeting.

Cleary has 30 days to decide whether to affirm the faculty recommendation. He acknowledged that he usually rubber-stamps faculty decisions. However, three university vice presidents--who are also faculty members--were among the minority voting against the ban.

The ban approved Thursday would allow current students to complete their studies, but would remove ROTC Air Force classes from the campus and delete mentions of Army and Navy ROTC programs--which CSUN students attend on the UCLA campus--from the CSUN college catalogue.

Currently 42 CSUN students participate in Air Force, Navy or Army ROTC programs, spokesmen for the three branches said. Eleven of them receive ROTC scholarships that cover tuition and books.

The CSUN Lesbian and Gay Alliance objected to a proposed expansion of Army ROTC last year, prompting a review of the entire program by a faculty subcommittee.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, students protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War urged an end to campus ROTC programs. More recently, several colleges and universities have re-evaluated the program because of the alleged discrimination.

Harvard University voted to return the program to campus earlier this year; regents for Northern Illinois University are considering a proposal to drop ROTC courses.