University Council members voted overwhelmingly to kick the University's two ROTC units off campus yesterday, but President Sheldon Hackney refused to act on the Council's recommendation and deferred a decision on the issue indefinitely. The resolution, which passed Council 27-6, recommended the removal of the Reserve Officer Training Corps units in June 1993 because they violate campus non-discrimination codes by not allowing homosexuals to participate in the program. But Hackney said he hopes to keep ROTC on campus and, instead of kicking the units off campus, encourage the Defense Department and lobby Congress to change the Pentagon policy which excludes homosexuals from serving. ROTC members in military attire and several members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance sat silently during the meeting, which was marked by strict protocol and almost no discussion on this or any other issue. Some audience members left the meeting after it was clear that the moderator would keep strictly to time limits and not allow significant debate on the issue. In his report before the resolution was discussed, Hackney said he has consulted with officials from other schools whose students use the ROTC programs at the University. In the brief debate of the resolution, several Council members indicated that they felt it was important that action be taken now on the issue, rather than waiting as the president has said he will. "It is not very often that the University has a clear opportunity to prove the principles that separate us from other institutions," Mathematics Professor Peter Freyd said. After a only few minutes of comments, which were primarily rehashing of old arguments for removing ROTC, the moderator stopped discussion and called for the vote. Council members almost unanimously passed the resolution. The six votes against the resolution were almost all from Undergraduate Assembly members. Other business included a presentation by the chairs of the Committee to Diversify Locust Walk and discussion of the campus master planning framework. Locust Walk Committee Co-Chairpeople Kim Morrisson, the vice provost for University Life, and David Pope, a material sciences professor, each summarized parts of the report, which was issued last month, and explained how they feel it will improve the Walk. In the final segment of the meeting, Robert Zemsky, the University's chief planning officer, made a presentation on a perspective for campus master planning which he said should give a 30 year perspective. Zemsky discussed briefly the various planning districts in which the University plans to build. Most of the attention on growth will focus on the southeast sector of the campus -- near the Civic Center and the riverfront. "We need to acquire the Civic Center," Zemsky said. Zemsky also drew amused smiles from Council members when he spoke of the University's poor planning in some sectors in the past. "I don't believe there is a master plan," Zemsky said. "We adopt it on Monday, amend it on Tuesday, ignore it on Wednesday, and forget it by Sunday."
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