GSA Position Statement on ROTC
November 1, 2005

          With the recent discussion in the Student Assembly and the College's administration surrounding the Reserve Officer Training Corps' (ROTC) scholarships, the Gay Straight Alliance cannot be silent. The Dartmouth Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) student organization cannot support the existence of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at Dartmouth College.
          In 1991, Dartmouth's Board of Trustees "announced that, 'if by April 1993 the Defense Department's Policy prohibiting homosexuals from serving in the military has not been changed despite such efforts by Dartmouth and others, Dartmouth will with reluctance discontinue its Army ROTC program for students admitted after the class to be matriculated in September 1993.'"i Then, three years later, on April 16, 1994, after the passing of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, the Board of Trustees decided that "Dartmouth should continue its participation in the Army ROTC program. The Board also decided that Dartmouth should make concerted efforts to change the federal policy discriminating against homosexuals in the military."ii
          It is now 2005 and nothing has been changed. If the ROTC is to remain on campus we demand that the Board of Trustees follow through on their promise to fight the discriminatory Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Furthermore, the Dartmouth GSA would like to work with the Board of Trustees to make this political action a definite reality. Dartmouth College has the ability to be a leader in the fight for this change instead of just maintaining a contradictory status quo. The Board of Trustees needs to stop finding loopholes to continue a discriminatory program here on campus that blatantly targets a specific minority group.
          The ROTC program, by the Board's own admission, discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. The decision to maintain the ROTC program by the Board of Trustees, President Wright, Dean Larimore, and Student Assembly, therefore, is a flagrant violation of the Dartmouth Equal Opportunity clause. The College must work to protect the rights of all minority groups here on campus and not just a select few.

I. Under the United States government's ongoing policy on gays in the military, ROTC still discriminates against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) students. Homosexuals serving in the military are forbidden to reveal their sexual orientation, and may be discharged for violating this rule. Under this policy, ROTC plainly denies entry to openly GLBT students. As such, the ROTC program violates Dartmouth College's Equal Opportunity clause to the Principle of Community (Student Handbook, p. iii), which states in part:
  "Dartmouth College is committed to the principle of equal opportunity for all its students, faculty, employees, and applicants for admission and employment. For that reason Dartmouth does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or status as a disabled or Vietnam era veteran in its programs, organizations, and conditions of employment and admission."  

The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program is a flagrant violation of this clause because it discriminates against openly GLBT students. The decision by Student Assembly, President Wright, and Dean Larimore to support/maintain the ROTC program at Dartmouth is very frightening to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty, staff, and administrators because it establishes a precedent for College violation of the Equal Opportunity clause as it applies to sexual orientation.

II. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students may participate in the ROTC program only if they remain "closeted," hiding their sexual identity. They are not permitted to reveal their identity, or to engage in homosexual practices, even when they are not on base. No similar requirements exist for heterosexuals. They are allowed to reveal their sexual orientation, and to engage in heterosexual practices when they are not on base. Thus, the U.S. military, including ROTC, maintains two different and unequal codes of conduct, one for heterosexuals and another for homosexuals. This is also effectively violates Dartmouth College's Equal Opportunity clause.

III. The choice to remain "closeted" is not a healthy one for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Being "in the closet" contributes to feelings of guilt, loneliness, and isolation. These feelings often lead young homosexual people to commit suicide. By insisting that homosexuals who wish to participate in the ROTC remain "closeted," the program and, by extension, the College do great psychological damage to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students.

IV. Dartmouth College's support for the ROTC program sends an insulting message to gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. In the eyes of homosexual students, by continuing to allow ROTC to operate at Dartmouth, the College implies not only that discrimination based upon sexual orientation is an acceptable practice in our society, but also that gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people are inferior to heterosexuals. For people who grew up internalizing such messages, Dartmouth's support for the ROTC adds insult to years of injury.

V. Dartmouth's support for the ROTC program also sends a message to heterosexual students. Through its complicity in the ROTC's discrimination against homosexuals, the College effectively tells heterosexual students that they too may discriminate based upon sexual orientation. As a result, students feel free to discriminate against homosexuals. This is evidenced by the exclusion of the Gay Straight Alliance or other GLBT-related groups on campus from the discussion of this contentious and very relative issue.

          The administration puts Dartmouth's pluralistic community in jeopardy with continued sponsorship of the ROTC program. Although the GSA would like to see an end to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender discrimination here on campus with the termination of the ROTC, the GSA also realizes that this may be a class issue. Students who attend Dartmouth through the ROTC program may come from low-income households and need the federal scholarship money to attend Dartmouth. With this said, the only way the GSA sees that it can justly end discrimination here on campus by the ROTC without having students lose scholarship money, is to ask the College to stop all sponsorship of the ROTC here on campus, but continue to allow students to receive scholarship money.
          For example, Brown University does not have an ROTC program. However, they do have students on full ROTC scholarships. These students take classes at Providence College to fulfill their ROTC requirements. The GSA would like to see Dartmouth carry out a similar method here on campus.
          With careful consideration, the GSA is trying to secure the rights of an alienated minority here on campus, while allowing ROTC individuals to receive the same education as other Dartmouth students that they otherwise may not be able to because of financial obstacles. We only hope that the College and Student Assembly will do the same.
i "Encouraged by Clinton Efforts, Dartmouth Trustees Extend ROTC Deadline in Hopes That End of Gay Ban Will Keep ROTC on Campus." Dartmouth News [Hanover, NH] 8 Feb. 1993: 30
ii "The Dartmouth Board of Trustees ROTC Statement." Released: 16 April 1994.