Looking for a Few Good ... Well, Anyone

Lt. Christina J. Wilson staffed a quiet outpost Thursday: the Navy recruiting site for USC law school students.

Just before noon, she was sitting in a suite at the Radisson Hotel across from the law school, amid 16 empty chairs.

“It’s a little lonely,” acknowledged Wilson, an attorney with the Navy’s Office of the Judge Advocate General.

Whether military recruiters should have full official access to students at top law schools has sparked renewed debate around the country. Proponents say that the military should have the same freedom to recruit as other employers. Critics support restrictions because they contend that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays and lesbians is discriminatory.

During a one-day visit by Air Force and Navy recruiters at USC on Thursday, many law students largely shrugged off the issue.

Turnout for the recruiters was light. Wilson said only four students dropped by, although they appeared interested in a Navy career.

The other military representative, Maj. Michael Waters of the Air Force Reserve, had the names of 10 students on his sign-up sheet. But four of those showed up only to drop off letters protesting the military recruiting.

Torrey Cope, a third-year law student and an activist with the school’s Gay & Lesbian Law Union, was among those who presented Waters with a protest letter. Cope said his concerns should not be considered “an anti-military thing.” Rather, he said, the students are protesting the government threat to cut off millions of dollars in federal funding to universities that prevent military recruiters from participating in official on-campus hiring programs. Many law schools, including USC, began slapping restrictions on the military in the early 1990s over the “don’t ask, don’t tell” issue -- only to restore full recruiting access in recent years due to federal financial pressure.

Overall, the protest at the law school was muted. Along with delivering the letters, Cope and other students set up a table in the USC law school lobby to distribute pins to supporters of their cause. One of the pins displayed both an American flag and a flag representing the colors of the rainbow, a gay pride symbol.

Conservative students initially expressed concerns that USC administrators supported those criticizing federal policy. However, Matt Park, a conservative student leader, said he and others were placated after USC Law Dean Matthew L. Spitzer sent out an e-mail indicating that he would not wear one of the protest pins and that he would not take sides.

Park added that he didn’t think the light turnout of students for the military recruiters should be interpreted as a political statement. Most students at the top 20 law schools, he said, “are going to go corporate” rather than into public service.

The military recruiting debate was reignited in November when a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled in favor of a group of law schools and scholars contesting the so-called Solomon Amendment. The law requires schools that receive federal funds to provide equal access to military recruiters.

Harvard and Yale have reimposed restrictions on military recruiters since then, but USC has continued to provide regular access, awaiting clarification of the appeals court ruling. The Bush administration is widely expected to seek a review of the issue by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson contributed to this report.