Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 13:47:07 -0500
From: Michael Castleman <mlc67@columbia.edu>
To: opinion@columbiaspectator.com
Subject: ROTC

To the Editor:

I was dismayed to read today's staff editorial regarding the ROTC
program ("Bring Back ROTC", February 3). The editorial demonstrates a
clear lack of understanding of the program, and an almost willful
naïveté about its ability to reform the military.

Comparing ROTC at Columbia to a pro-choice advocacy organization at a
more conservative school is a misleading comparison. ROTC is not a
military advocacy organization or a course of academic studies about the
military: it is the military itself, and it serves to train its cadets
to be more effective killers and leaders of killers.

The argument is then made that having ROTC on campus will allow students
to engage and debate with the military. ROTC proponents are able to
recite a long list of "liberal" institutions where their program is
already present. Indeed, as your editorial points out, some 60% of
military officers already come from the ROTC program. If these masses of
officers and potential interactions have been unable to "reform" the
military, it is at best unclear how adding a few more officers from
Columbia would suddenly change the whole system.

Further, many ROTC cadets join not for a learning experience but because
they wish to take advantage of the financial benefits. To this end, ROTC
ought to be treated no differently than any other off-campus job or
internship in which students may take part in order to pay their
tuition. Currently, Columbia's policy is not to grant credit in such
cases.

The University should not grant control over any of its academic
programs to any external body, and especially not to the military. ROTC
should not be invited to return to campus.

Michael Castleman, SEAS '03