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Return ROTC To Ivy League Elites

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 30, 2008

Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, acting commander of U.S. Central Command, marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by addressing ROTC cadets at the University of South Florida.

That same day, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain spoke at New York's Columbia University, which banned the Reserve Officer Training Corps from campus in 1969.

Both candidates asked Columbia to allow ROTC's return, but the Wall Street Journal says the suggestions were met with childish boos.

Most Ivy League schools kicked ROTC off campus during the Vietnam War. Only Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania have since allowed its return. If students at Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Brown want to participate in officer training, they must do so at a nearby university and forego college credit.

About three years ago, Columbia was asked to allow ROTC back on campus, but its president, Lee Bollinger, said the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy constituted discrimination and so stood firm.

USF's cadets should be proud that their university understands the need for college graduates to serve this nation in the armed forces.

And by continuing to ban ROTC from campus, Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Brown are failing their country.

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