Army Gives Money To Harvard
Even though Harvard barely gives the Army the time of day.*
The University of Michigan, Columbia and Harvard are splitting a $50 million grant to study military suicides. Chicago Tribune. The University of Michigan apparently has on-campus ROTC. But it looks like Columbia’s ROTC students, like those who rub shoulders with the privileged elites at Harvard, have to go off-campus to other nearby universities to attend military science classes, due to the Ivy League’s holdover Vietnam War-era antipathy, with “don’t ask, don’t tell” being the current excuse.
The Army can’t find any brainiac psychologists and sociologists at universities that actually appreciate the military to share that big pile of money with Michigan?
Have to wonder whether they’ll find any psychologists and sociologists at Harvard and Columbia … or Michigan for that matter … who are interested in helping soldiers as opposed to kicking the crap out of the military.
* I attended the this year’s ROTC commissioning at Harvard, having friends involved with the program. Harvard only recently began allowing formal ROTC ceremonies on campus. It take ROTC stipends, but sends the cadets to MIT for their military courses. The minister who gave the invocation could barely disguise his disgust for the military, while the president of a university that declines to be involved in the cadets’ military education felt compelled to condescendingly hand out copies of “Just And Unjust War,” as if they might not be familiar with the concept. Having Gen. Petraeus on hand seemed to be a draw, though. Big crowd that cheered and clapped a lot.
Here’s Harvard student handbook warning to students:
Current federal policy of excluding known lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals from admission to ROTC or of discharging them from service is inconsistent with Harvard’s values as stated in its policy on discrimination. (See Harvard’s policy on discrimination on page 292.) Although the University respects the right of undergraduates to choose to participate in ROTC, the University does not provide any financial or other direct support for the ROTC program at MIT. Students should be aware that one or more of the military services may impose limitations on the freedom of speech of cadets and that there may be certain academic requirements for eligibility for ROTC scholarship aid. Students should also be aware that the military may require the repayment of scholarship funds if their sexual orientation results in their discharge from ROTC.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:11 pm on Thursday, July 16, 2009
3 Responses to “Army Gives Money To Harvard”
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July 16th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I don’t agree with the military’s policy toward homosexuality, but that’s an issue to be resolved down the road. The attitude of Ivy League elites toward the military regarding this issue is, as you say, merely today’s excuse. I expect the antipathy to change over time, as the 60s era gray-ponytails die or retire.
ROTC has always offered a chance at success for students who couldn’t pay their way without the scholarships and commitments. The “limits on freedom of speech” largely concern the homosexuality issue, and how is that to be chipped away except from within? Academic requirements for eligibility for scholarships? Are they kidding? What scholarship is available without some kind of academic requirement? Even scholarships based on skin color aren’t given away willy-nilly.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:27 am
What else can we expect when the President and most of his cabinet and czars hail from Harvard?
July 17th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Harvard and other Ivy’s are a disgrace to America.
Give some grant money to Virginia Tech. Fine Corps of Cadets right on campus (with all the lefty professors).