On Friday the Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the esteemed and level headed David Ellwood, joined the deans of eight other schools of public policy in urging Congress to repeal the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy which forces homosexual military personnel to serve in silence.  The repeal has been, in many ways, a foregone conclusion for many of us who have served over the life of this odd and in many ways misguided policy. 

 

It is right that the Department of Defense and Congress come together to formulate a measured and appropriate end to this now out of date law.  Friday, the House voted to move towards repeal.  So now that Congress has made the first major steps to ending DADT and DoD is studying the departure of the rule, it is time that Harvard repeal its own ill conceived exclusionary policy against the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

 

Recent straw polls of students at the university have shown a strong majority of students support reinstating ROTC and even the Student Labor Action Movement which protested in the past against military recruiting on campus has stated they will not oppose a return of the organization once 'DADT' is gone according to a recent editorial in the student run Crimson paper. http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/column/stubborn-things/article/2010/2/19/rotc-mawn-dont-harvard/

 

As a military student at the Kennedy School as part of the class of '07 I was greeted with overwhelming support and respect for my career choice and experiences.  At the time I was one of the few multi-tour Iraq veterans on campus and was constantly invited to speak on panels and conferences about what I had seen and my view on the issues.  I was never once questioned on my intelligence or the value of my input to the academic environment.

Under the leadership of David Gergen and the Center for Public Leadership we began a program recognizing the veterans of Harvard and the speakers panel we hosted that year with five veterans was standing room only in the JFK Jr. Forum.  Again and again it has been emphasized by the leadership of the university how the richness of the military experience and service to the nation provides an important part of the fabric of the school. It is a tradition that existed long before today's arguments bogged down in national policy.

 

After all, it is easy to forget that the Memorial Church smack in the middle of the Yard has the following inscription over the south entrance to the Memorial Room "In grateful memory of the Harvard men who died in the World War we have built this Church."  Its official description: "The Memorial Church is the church for Harvard University, dedicated on Armistice Day 1932 in memory of those who died in World War I, a gift of the alumni to the University. Memorials have been added to remember those who have died in the wars since."

 

It is far past time for Harvard to make any more excuses to exclude students who desire to serve their country as some sort of lower academic form.  Forcing them to attend ROTC classes at MIT while President Faust hypocritically attends their commissioning ceremony must end. 

 

My cynical side tells me that the faculty will simply come up with another excuse why ROTC is innappropriate for the rarefied academic standards they uphold.  But my hope is that with our nation embroiled in war and a time of deep need for the best and brightest to serve that the greater good and true traditions of the university step forward past the ridiculous radicalism of the Vietnam era.

 

My hope is the next letter published by the Dean will be calling for the end to the exclusion of ROTC and a return to the grand tradition of military service that Harvard has supported since its founding in 1636.

 

Frederick Wellman '07

Presidential Scholar/Public Service Fellow

Center for Public Leadership Fellow

Lucius N. Littauer Fellow