The U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps at Dartmouth, in conjunction with the Norwich Military Academy, comprises one of the oldest vestiges of the ROTC itself, being formed early in this century between the two schools.
However, recently, the Trustees of the College vote every year whether to end the program at Dartmouth since it conflicts with the theory of equal opportunity: acts of homosexuals and bisexuality are not permitted in the Army's ranks.
I will not look at the role of homosexuals and bisexuals in the military, as that is a separate though related issue: as a student here, I am concerned with the very survival of the ROTC.
First, the Army will not wait for Dartmouth The five or six officers that we produce yearly is not enough to make a three-million person institution turn around and say "Oh -- well ... it's Dartmouth we're talking about ... let's change our national policy!"
The issue of homosexuals in the military will not be resolved at this level because we want it to be. It is a national issue involving enlisted men and millions of others. Is the place to seek change at the level of the Dartmouth ROTC? No.
What we are left with is a certain attitude that seems a little selfish. I am on decent terms with the individuals who oppose the ROTC, but still I see a trend in their thinking that amounts to "If we can't have it, then nobody can."
This is wrong. If gays and lesbians complain that they cannot be in the ROTC, they are mistaken. The paperwork contains no reference to sexuality whatsoever. There is no set of obstacles that will prevent a gay cadet from entering the program and going through the ROTC program at Dartmouth, from getting a scholarship or from gaining a post as an officer in the military.
The discrimination that happens past this point is a serious issue, but to blame the ROTC is awkward and unfair.
What pains me the most is that I am acutely unaware of any member of DaGlo who has seen his or her desire for a military career crushed. In fact, one spokesperson for DaGlo said "I couldn't give a flying fig [about the military]."
On the other side of things are men and women who have done an act of commission: they chose a profession of arms for at least four years. Some have done it for the money, some for love of the military and a few for both.
These cadets, who come to Dartmouth in small numbers year after year, go on to do a job that at its very basic involves risking one's life, and it is not an illusion: no other profession has getting your dead body dragged through the streets and pissed on as a realizable end. And yet these people have chosen to do it.
What DaGlo is trying to do is take this opportunity away. Dartmouth is need-blind, so it is not like somebody absolutely needs a big Army scholarship to matriculate here and cannot get it because they are gay or bisexual. What's even more is that the whole premise is false: they are still eligible for the Army's money anyway.
I am looking for a person who is gay and wanted to join the ROTC but couldn't. But there aren't any. I am sure this person would not stay in hiding, because he of she'd make an excellent martyr. He'd also be fascinating to talk to. Finally, the person would not be turned down from the program if he applied, which would be very embarrassing for the cause.
A proviso of course would be that he could not copulate during training, as nobody else can either.
In the end, we cannot blame DaGlo for pursuing a course of categorical equality: it's in their interest, and as humans they deserve the utmost in equal rights and opportunities.
But in the meantime, their efforts are misplaced and hamfisted. They are taking an issue that they appear not to care about too ardently about in the practical sense of becoming cadets, and seeking to remove opportunities from those that care greatly.
Along the way, they are targeting the wrong group -- a small ROTC that will give them money and let them train anyway -- in order to get at the U.S. Army, which will not even flinch at their actions in the midst of more pressing issues in Africa and Washington.
The ROTC stands to suffer casualties from a DaGlo success: about six to 10 prospective cadets a year lost and denied an opportunity to serve. DaGlo will gain nothing -- for then nobody will be able to join the military from Dartmouth. Finally, what is practically at stake for DaGlo is one gay cadet every few years.
I am a philosophy major and believe in morality and ethics and the absence of pragmatism in judgment, but there are limits.
The Army ROTC is part of my Dartmouth and I want it to stay that way.
