In a divided vote Wednesday, Arts, Sciences and Engineering (AS&E) faculty members chose to note the successful completion of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program on cadets' final transcripts.
The decision to recognize ROTC cadets' service was partially prompted by the December repeal of the policy barring openly homosexual individuals from military service, informally known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), according to Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser.
The transcript proposal, which passed with 41 votes in favor and 29 against, was the first time faculty members had even debated issues regarding ROTC since 1969, when the campus ROTC program was ended during the Vietnam War, according to Glaser.
"I think this is an excellent outcome and a way for the university to recognize the importance of ROTC and the hard work and challenges that our students are engaging by participating in ROTC, as well as their really extraordinary public service," Glaser, who serves as the university's ROTC representative, said.
The measure, which was passed by the AS&E Educational Policy Committee (EPC) last month before being sent to a full faculty vote, is not retroactive and will only be noted on the transcripts of students graduating this semester and beyond.
The successful completion of the ROTC program will now be recorded in the notation section of students' transcripts, where other academic honors and extracurricular activities, such as internships, are recorded.
"We are not treating it differently from any other exceptional extracurricular activity or award," Glaser said, adding that the vote marked a step forward in the recognition of cadets' academic accomplishments.
"We were treating it differently by not including it," he said.
Another proposal calling for transcripts to note ROTC classes each semester as general participation, as opposed to in the notation section, failed overwhelmingly, according to Glaser.
According to that proposal, the ROTC course would have been listed similarly to how to those non−credit classes taken by students in the B.F.A. program and graduate students in Occupational Therapy appear on their transcripts.
Tufts cadets do not receive credit for the classes they take as part of ROTC, a majority of which they take at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Glaser attributed opposition to the second, failed proposal to an amendment tagged on to it at the previous faculty meeting. The amendment would have granted students who wanted to remove the notation from their transcript the ability to request it. There was a fear that this would start an unwanted precedent of altering transcripts, he said.
"Many people feared that it would lead to a legitimization of removing things from the transcript," he added.
Associate Professor of Political Science Malik Mufti voted for the failed resolution despite these concerns, he said.
"I thought the more explicit the recognition of ROTC the better, but I didn't feel as strongly about this proposal as I did the first, and it went down pretty one−sidedly,"
Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Sam Wallis, who supported a Senate resolution that passed last month calling for the implementation of both proposals, acknowledged that the amendment regarding removal of the notation could diminish the integrity of students' transcripts. He was, however, disappointed that the second proposal did not pass.
"I don't think it was framed correctly," Wallis, a senior, said. "I don't think all the faculty who voted on it had a full understanding of the implications of the proposal."
The approved proposal cited a desire to demonstrate the university's support for the national DADT repeal.
"There is no question this happened because of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and President Barack Obama's request that universities rethink their position on ROTC," Mufti said.
Professor of Physics and Astronomy Gary Goldstein voted against both proposals. He said that while Congress did pass a law repealing DADT at the end of last year, he is skeptical the military will actually change its policies.
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell is still in effect; it hasn't been changed and given the current culture in the Congress, it's likely it won't be changed," Goldstein said. "We have inadvertently supported, by putting on our students' transcripts, a discriminatory program."
Many proponents of the successful proposal said that the notation of ROTC participation on cadets' transcripts provided due recognition of the public service commitment made by those preparing to serve in the military.
"I voted in favor of it because I felt that as an institution that prides itself on engaged citizenship, we should acknowledge one of the noblest forms of public service," Mufti said.
Goldstein disagreed, noting a fundamental difference between his definition of public service, and that of some of his colleagues.
"[Military service] is hardly public service as we usually know the meaning of public service," Goldstein said. "Especially at Tufts, where we have the Tisch College of Active Citizenship, to call ROTC and the military engaging in public service is to do a disservice to the ethical standards embodied in the words ‘public service.'"
Those in favor of the second proposal argued that putting ROTC participation on cadets' transcripts each semester alongside their Tufts classes makes potential employers, for example, aware that the student is simultaneously engaged in other ROTC coursework, according to Wallis.
"It puts Tufts courses in the context of the other two [ROTC] courses the guys are taking," Wallis said.
Goldstein noted that as Tufts does not grant academic standing in its curriculum to courses taken through ROTC, they have no place on students' transcripts.
He added that students engage in other non−credit activities that do not get recognized on transcripts and that ROTC should be no different.
"There are many things that our students do that take a lot of time and effort and if it is something you want future employers to know about, you put it on your CV," Goldstein said. "It doesn't have to be on your transcript."
Professor of Child Development Richard Lerner, who voted in favor of both proposals, felt that students' transcripts were incomplete without the record of their ROTC participation.
"The transcripts are to list the accomplishment of students during their time at Tufts, and this is a point of distinction," Lerner said. "It's part of telling the story of what the person did during their time at Tufts."
Lerner said that the approved proposal was only part of the university's obligation towards honoring its students dedicated to national service through the military.
"I think that this sort of service should not only be designated on the transcript, which seems obvious, but it should be something for which Tufts as a community expresses their gratitude and pride," he said.
