Imagine that you joined a student group. A club, an organization, whatever you want to call it — you wrote your name down on the sign-up sheet at the club fair and want to get involved. However, every time there is a meeting or an event, you have to trek across the city to attend. Sounds unfair, right?
This isn’t just a hypothetical scenario. Although not necessarily in the same group of student organizations as AU Dems or College Republicans, the ROTC groups on campus face this situation every day. For training or classes they must commute to different schools in the D.C. area because they are not allowed certain privileges here. While we can understand the University’s reservations against discrimination, we still believe that the price ROTC pays is unfair.
Those who have joined ROTC will one day serve our country and they deserve equal treatment. These men and women deserve our utmost respect for the sacrifices they plan to make for this country.
AU has also gained recognition as a veteran-friendly university. If we can acknowledge and laud our veterans, why can’t we do the same for those who plan to serve our country?
With that being said, we do understand where opponents to the move are coming from. AU has a diverse student population and allowing student groups with discriminatory policies could open a Pandora’s box that is best kept closed. AU is a very LGBT friendly school, and for the administration to openly accept a group with a distinct anti-gay policy such as “don’t ask, don’t tell” will hurt this image. However, we think that in this single instance, it is best to allow ROTC to officially participate on campus.
We believe that DADT is a policy that has no room in our military or our country. There are many men and women out there who would proudly serve our country, but cannot based on their sexual orientation. In addition, there are those service men and women who once helped to defend us and were unreasonably dismissed from service. These individuals deserved to be praised, not forced to hide their true selves. We eagerly await the day when this policy is done away with.
We hope that with such leading figures as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates advocating the repeal of DADT that the reality of this happening is not far off. Until then, we hope the University administration takes into account that while ROTC does discriminate, those students involved do not necessarily share in that view, and as such deserve recognition of their sacrifices.
