A draft of a Student Assembly report to the Board of Trustees argues the Reserve Officer Training Corps program does not violate the College's Principle of Community and Principle of Equal Opportunity.
The 13-page preliminary report also cites student opinion polls supporting the ROTC program as another reason why the program should continue.
The Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on the future of the ROTC program at their Spring meeting, which will take place during the weekend of April 15.
In 1991, the Trustees announced that Dartmouth would discontinue ROTC if the military's ban on homosexuals was not lifted by April 1993 because it violated the College's Principle of Community and Principle of Equal Opportunity. But last winter the Trustees voted to postpone the deadline until Congress had a chance to consider President Bill Clinton's plan to lift the ban.
The Principle of Equal Opportunity states "Dartmouth does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or status as a disabled or Vietnam era veteran in its programs, organizations and conditions on employment and admission."
In conflict with the Assembly's report, will be reports submitted by the faculty of arts and sciences and the Coalition for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns. Both groups are demanding the elimination of ROTC.
At a faculty meeting last month, professors voted almost unanimously to approve a motion urging the Trustees to end the College's ROTC program.
Their motion said ROTC was still inconsistent with the College's equal opportunity principle despite the Congressional compromise passed last summer that requires homosexuals serving in the military to keep their sexual orientation and practices quiet.
But the Assembly's draft report states "it would seem the needs of homosexuals are being met, and that they are allowed to serve in the military without having to be untruthful" under the new congressional policy.
"'Don't ask, don't tell' has achieved a level of openness in the military not previously seen regarding the issue of homosexual military personnel," the report stated.
The report also states, "To remove ROTC would run contrary to the College's 'need blind' admission policy, and would fly in the face of any ideology which bars discrimination based upon economic status.
"This would be a discriminatory action which would increase the number of obstacles that a financially disadvantaged prospective Dartmouth student faces, violating any principles of Community or Equal Opportunity," the report stated.
Assembly president Nicole Artzer '94 said she was unsure about the manner in which the argument is presented in the preliminary report.
The Executive Committee "has expressed concern over the fact that what is stated in the report is not consistent with what the Assembly used when it passed the motion," she said. "It is absolutely a draft."
Assembly Vice President Steve Costalas '94 said the Assembly will submit the final report in written form and that Artzer would most likely give a verbal summary of the report to the Trustees.
Susan Ackerman, religion professor and last year's co-convenor for the coalition, said she is concerned with how the Assembly is viewing the College's Principle of Equal Opportunity.
"What concerns me so much is that by allowing this program to exist we seem to be saying that our principles aren't really principles at all," she said. "I believe that the Student Assembly has learned this and sees no contradiction in having this principle and ROTC."
Ackerman said ROTC participants who are already receiving financial aid from the College have their ROTC scholarship money deducted from their College package.
The report will be reviewed and possibly revised by the Executive Committee of the Assembly on Sunday.
