Correction Appended
Republican nominee John McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama have both criticized four Ivy League universities that have Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs to the program AU uses.
Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Yale have off-campus programs that work similarly to AU's program with Georgetown University and Howard University. Half of the Ivy League schools - Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth and Cornell - have on-campus ROTC programs, according to Advocates for ROTC, a group that promotes support for college ROTC programs.
Obama and McCain said during speeches at Columbia in early September that Ivy League schools should rethink their positions on ROTC, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Robert Hornsby, a Columbia spokesman, said ROTC students at Columbia are involved with the program through other New York City schools.
"Columbia has a number of active ROTC students who, like those at every other university in New York City, are part of collective programs at Fordham or St. Johns," he said.
Hornsby also said Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger addressed the issue in a note.
"Columbia University has a long and continuing tradition of making special efforts to open its doors to men and women with military service," Bollinger said in the note.
Columbia's Faculty Senate voted this year to not formally invite ROTC back to campus because of the military's discrimination in their "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
"Under the current 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy of the Defense Department, openly gay and lesbian students could or would be excluded from participating in ROTC activities. That is inconsistent with the fundamental values of the University," Bollinger said in the note.
AU currently has an off-campus program similar to the programs used at the four Ivy League schools. Lt. Col. Koprowski, a professor of military science at Georgetown, said 135 students from Georgetown, AU, George Washington University and Catholic University train for Army ROTC at Georgetown. AU students have been enrolled in this program since 1964.
"If we truly have an interest in putting our best leaders out there, ROTC should be available at universities including the Ivy League," he said.
AU also sponsors Air Force ROTC at Howard University. Cadet John Concepcion, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of AU's Air Force ROTC, said he commutes to Howard for his training since AU does not offer the program on campus.
"I joined because I wanted to be a pilot and fly and also be a political science major," he said.
He said he feels that although having the program on campus would be convenient, it would not be efficient because not many AU students participate in ROTC. Casey Stansley, a freshman in the School of International Service, said she thinks ROTC is a "noble thing to do." However, if AU did have a program on campus, she doesn't think that the number of students participating would increase much.
Harvard, Yale and Brown universities also cite the discriminatory policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," as their main reason for not having an ROTC on-campus, according to their Web sites. However, all of these schools have partnerships with other area colleges where their students can take ROTC, not for credit.
At Brown University, students can take ROTC through Providence College, according to Mark Nickel, Brown's director of communications.
"Do not read into the idea [that Brown does not support the military] because ROTC is open to students pursuing military careers," he said.
Nickel referenced an article in the Providence Journal from March that reported Brown had the highest number of students commissioned for the Marine Corps out of all of Rhode Island's colleges in 2006.
You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.
Correction: In "Ivy League ROTC criticized," The Eagle incorrectly identified John Concepcion's school affiliation as being a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is actually a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public Affairs. The Eagle regrets the error.