Harvard University earlier this month agreed to officially recognize the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) on its campus for the first time since the Vietnam War era in response to the government's repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy.
Harvard University President Drew Faust signed an agreement on March 4 with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to extend recognition to the group, after a long disconnect between Harvard and the military dating back to the 1960s.
The pact provides official recognition for the naval branch of the ROTC (NROTC), but is symbolic of the improved relationship between Harvard and the military.
Though students at Harvard had been allowed to participate in the program in the past, alumni donations, rather than the university, previously funded Harvard's ROTC branch, according to Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser, who serves as Tufts' ROTC representative on campus.
The university now will directly support the ROTC program and allow students to attend classes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), something that Tufts has done all along, Glaser said.
"Here at Tufts, we pay a fee to MIT so that our students can participate. We help pay for the overhead and the salaries and such with our own university monies," he said. "So basically Harvard is now going to be doing what we're doing, which is officially sponsoring ROTC."
Harvard's refusal to officially recognize ROTC in the past mimics policies at other peer institutions that have used nondiscrimination clauses in their respective constitutions to justify denying ROTC's official sponsorship for years.
Glaser had personal reservations about Harvard's previous policy, saying that while it was justified, it inhibited students from pursuing military service.
"I'm delighted that DADT has now gone away. I think that's the right decision, and I'm very happy about it because I think that it was discriminatory," Glaser said. "On the other hand, I have a lot of respect for the military and the students who wish to serve in the military. … I think that the military has a lot of opportunities and has been a vehicle for social and racial progress in this country."
Senior Tomoaki Takaki, an ROTC cadet at Tufts, is happy with the new arrangement at Harvard.
"It's always nice to see that schools are appreciating the value of ROTC in general," Takaki said. "It's bringing up a discussion about military service at these universities."
Harvard ROTC cadet Christopher Higgins, a senior, said the university's previous lack of official sponsorship of ROTC wasn't representative of the historical connection between Harvard's students and the military.
"It was just a really unfortunate circumstance," Higgins told the Daily. "Harvard has a tradition of sending sons and daughters off to fight the nation's wars … but unfortunately the politics of the last 40 years have created this unnecessary gap between Harvard and the military. Thankfully, that's all in the past, and that tradition is being restored."
Glaser and Takaki agreed that centralizing ROTC academic classes at MIT while keeping the majority of the physical training aspect of the program at Tufts continues to be a sensible practice.
"The military wants to consolidate all the schools in one place — it is their decision to do it that way," Glaser said. "It doesn't make sense to have small units on every little campus in the Boston area."
The arrangement, Takaki said, brings together ROTC students from across universities.
"Obviously, it would be easier if there was something at Tufts, but I actually like it the way it is because it gives us the chance to interact with people from Harvard, MIT and Lesley," he said.
Higgins said Harvard's decision marks a significant symbolic change.
"The big challenge is getting more Harvard students to choose the military," Higgins said, pointing out that just three members of his class are going into active service.
According to Higgins, hundreds of Harvard graduates per year used to go into the armed services, and Harvard has the most recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
"We [have] to restore that. That's really the next challenge," Higgins said.
Takaki said the politics surrounding DADT have not affected the level of respect he receives at Tufts.
"Even if they've had other views, I've only ever gotten polite respect from the university as a whole," Takaki said. "A lot of times the maintenance staff would stop me tell me stories about how they're connected to the military. I've just found it's a really great community."
