Hackney looks to local college heads for ROTC advice

President Sheldon Hackney solicited advice and suggestions from local college officials about how to handle the campus debate about ROTC's policy of excluding homosexuals. Nearly all of the institutions answered through correspondence this semester in a cautious and limited manner, neither suggesting the removal or outright retention of the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Hackney has said in University Council meetings that he would lobby through various channels for changes in the ROTC policy. Hackney wrote in September to presidents or other officials at the local institutions whose students are cross-enrolled in Naval or Army Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University. In addition, Hackney has received at least one unsolicited letter. U.S. Rep. Peter Kostmayer (D-Pa.) wrote to Hackney last month commending his "willingness to use friendly persuasion" in changing the policy, but advising the University to take action before 1993. Assistant to the President Nicholas Constan said that officials from most of the local colleges and universities took a middle of the road approach. "Nobody said, 'Get rid of [ROTC]. We don't care,' " Constan said. "There was no one who said, 'Keep [ROTC] in spite of everything.' " "Most people could sympathize with the dilemma, but realized some of their students would not be served if there was no ROTC here," Constan added. Many of the officials offered to help change the policy through lobbying members of Congress, but no one said specifically, "Let me get in touch with so-and-so," Constan said. The debate about ROTC's discriminatory policy has been a constant part of recent University Council meetings over the last two semesters. University Council in October approved almost unanimously a recommendation to remove the two campus units in 1993 if the Defense Department policy excluding homosexuals is not changed. Most of the presidents who responded to Hackney's letter said this month that they did not want to make public what they told him. Drexel University President Richard Breslin said that because his campus, which has Naval ROTC, is also in the midst of a similar debate on the issue, he did not offer his personal opinions to Hackney. Breslin said he told Hackney that he felt revealing his personal stance would cloud the discussion on his campus, which borders the University on the east. Drexel's provost recently began discussions with the faculty about how to deal with the discrepancy between their nondiscrimination policy and the ROTC policy. "We have concerns about it," Breslin said. "Obviously we are going to address it." Bryn Mawr College President Pat McPherson said she offered her support and help to Hackney in her September response. McPherson said yesterday that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has, on several occasions, seemed embarrassed about having to defend the Pentagon's policy, and suggested that he might appreciate actions on the part of colleges and universities. Particularly in the wake of significant participation by women in the Persian Gulf War, McPherson said the traditional arguments used to exclude various groups from the military have lost their validity. But because Bryn Mawr is a small institution founded on Quaker principles, including non-violence, McPherson said the school has never and will never have their own ROTC program. Bryn Mawr students are free to participate in ROTC at other schools, and McPherson said that if the University no longer has a program, students may go elsewhere. Approximately four Bryn Mawr students participate in ROTC programs at the University and other local schools each year, McPherson said. "We do not suggest any course of action to our students," she added. LaSalle University President Brother Patrick Ellis declined to comment. 54 students from LaSalle are cross-enrolled in ROTC at the University. The other schools with students enrolled in programs at the University are Glassboro State University, Rutgers University's Camden campus, Swarthmore College, St. Joseph's University, Temple University, and the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. Kostmayer wrote to Hackney after reading about his decision to lobby for change through Congress or through the Pentagon. In his October 21 letter, Kostmayer urges Hackney to "disallow the ROTC from using university facilities for discriminatory purposes" if he does not succeed in changing the policy through lobbying efforts. "For the Department of Defense to countenance this policy is reprehensible, for one of America's great institutions of learning to sustain it is worse," the letter states. Kostmayer's spokesperson Mike Burke said earlier this month that the congressman wrote to Hackney because he has a particular interest in the issue of discrimination against gays and lesbians. "The policy of the military has been unconscionable in his eyes," Burke said. "They should have been thrown off yesterday." Currently, not enough universities have spoken against the policy for it to make a difference, Burke said. He said that while there is a chance that Congress will take up the issue, not enough congressmen feel as strongly as Kostmayer. "There is always a chance, but the policy is not wildly unpopular here," Burke said. Hackney also extended his correspondence to include one letter to Cheney last fall, and another in September 1991, both urging the secretary to reconsider the policy. Defense Department officials said earlier this month that an assistant secretary of defense responded to the letter, but would not reveal the content of the response.

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