As per usual, Pitzer College is making a statement, but not in the form of environmentally sustainable green dorms, or affirmative action employment practices. Not visible enough to warrant a grand celebration or a Parents’ Weekend Presidential Address, Pitzer’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) policy merits little, if any attention. Pitzer’s faculty, along with Pomona’s, ended its involvement with the military officer program to protest “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a policy that prohibits homosexuals from openly serving in the armed forces.
Both Pitzer and Pomona currently bar their students from receiving credit for military science courses. Although the schools still technically allow Pomona-Pitzer students to accept ROTC scholarships, they refuse to let the military write the checks directly to the school, as is customary. Instead, Pomona-Pitzer students awarded an ROTC scholarship must pay out of pocket, document all expenditures, and then be reimbursed by the Army. (By contrast, Claremont McKenna pays room and board for its ROTC students, regardless of financial need.)
For Pitzer, at least, that may soon change. On January 14, Robert Gibbs, press secretary to the president-elect, announced that the Obama administration would be ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Given this announcement, we wondered if Pitzer and Pomona would, at the very least, revisit their ban. When asked, Pitzer’s Dean of Faculty, Alan Jones, explained, “That kind of legislation would open up the possibility of reconsideration.”
In 1994, three years after the college’s faculty voted to remove ROTC from campus and one year after the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was signed into effect under Clinton, Pitzer’s College Council penned the school’s current ROTC policy as it is stated in the Dean of Faculty Handbook, “Given that it is current ROTC policy to discriminate against homosexual students and that the College is committed not to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation,” Pitzer refuses to accept ROTC scholarship funds or credit for Military Science and Leadership courses in concordance with its Policies of Non-Discrimination and Social Responsibility.
Pomona College ushered in the ROTC program in 1916. In 1949, CMC became a co-sponsor. Claremont McKenna’s founding president, George C. S. Benson, a graduate of Pomona’s ROTC, was instrumental in preserving ROTC throughout the country. In fact, in 1969, Benson retired from the presidency to accept the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs under Nixon. As of 1995, CMC is the sole facilitator of ROTC, houses its office, provides its course curriculum, fully accepts its course credits, and recognizes its merit-based scholarships.
No sooner than three months after Pitzer formally disassociated itself with the program, then-Pomona President Peter Stanley released his own official letter to Professor of Military Science Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Peter Simoncini explaining that “Unless there is a significant change in the policy of the Department of the Army with regard to homosexuals in the military, there is little likelihood that Pomona College would reconsider its decision to end all formal relationship with the ROTC program.” Nevertheless, the letter proceeds to subtly provide a kind of course of evasion, “Pomona College does not and will not inquire into the sources of funding that individual students use to pay their bills here.”
However, in an email exchange with the Claremont Independent, current President David W. Oxtoby stressed that the decision not to award credit for ROTC classes was “made long ago by the faculty and is unrelated to the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy question.” He said that, “there is no reason to expect any change in Pomona’s policy with the (very welcome) new approach followed by the Department of Defense.”
When pressed in a follow up email, Oxtoby told us his “understanding was that this was [made] some 35 years ago” and he is ignorant of whatever factors influenced the decision. The implications of this apparent administrative contradiction further discredit Pomona’s current ROTC policy and are indicative of its dispensability. If the president of the college doesn’t know why Pomona has its ROTC policy, what good is having that policy at all?
LTC Robert Kirkland, chair of the Military Science Department, begged to differ with Oxtoby’s recollection of the history. “That is new and interesting info,” he said, pointing to Pomona’s prior co-sponsorship. “It is a little difficult to imagine that Pomona did not grant Army ROTC credit before 1993 when they co-sponsored Army ROTC. Why would they sponsor Army ROTC and not give credit?”
In true military fashion, the Army ROTC has developed a way around these restrictions. The Army will reimburse the family for all the tuition dollars it spends, but this policy is fraught with difficulties. Kirkland explained, “It makes it more difficult to have cadets take a scholarship. We can work around it, but it’s inconvenient.” This year at least one family was dissuaded from applying to Pomona after they heard of Pomona’s policy. “We’ll cross Pomona off the list and visit Claremont McKenna instead,” the faither said. Last spring, LTC William Fitch speculated that they lose students every year due to the policies enacted by Pomona and Pitzer
Currently, all payments are approved, validated, and certified by the Professor of Military Science and all documentation concerning the certification of itemized bills and paid receipts is created through the Claremont College Institute of Military Science Scholarship Tracking System. In effect, Pitzer avoids ethical misconduct by accepting the Army’s money from a different set of hands. Presumably some families do not even have the money to pay Pitzer or Pomona before they are recompensed. Does this not stand in contrast to either college’s commitment to socio-economic diversity?
Ironically goarmy.com assures that, “You will have a normal college student experience like everyone else on campus, but when you graduate, you will be an Officer in the Army.” However, a Pitzer freshman ROTC student disagrees. He requested to remain anonymous in this article, sating that, “it’s not a popular thing,” and, “it’s best not to be associated with [ROTC].” When asked if he felt frustrated by how the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy affects his ROTC experience, he was self-admittedly overcautious and refrained from answering. He explained, “It’s not my place to be in disagreement.”
On top of his regular four classes, the ROTC student’s weekly schedule consists of a two-hour lab, an hour-long Friday lecture, and three physical training sessions. Pitzer College will grant him no credit for these courses. Students may take these “Basic Courses” without making any military commitment, but Pitzer refuses to recognize them when calculating GPA and credits accumulated. Indeed, Pomona also refrains from awarding credit for these classes, a decision made based on a recommendation from its faculty’s Curriculum Committee. LTC Kirkland sympathizes with his Pomona-Pitzer cadets, “If they put in the work, they should get the credit,” and added that he’d really like to “reengage Pitzer’s administration” regarding its current ROTC policy.
The LTC also managed to articulate a particularly contentious point concerning Pomona-Pitzer’s motivations for upholding its ROTC policy for the past fifteen years. Kirkland respectfully accepts Pomona-Pitzer’s prerogatives and its implicit message, but wonders, “is that message appreciated by students?”
At least one Pomona student disagrees with the policy and wants it scrapped. Joseph Chang PO ’10 wants to take – and get credit for – Kirkland’s “Key Battles of the 20th Century Class.” Chang plans to petition the Academic Procedures Committee (APC), but knows the odds of getting a waiver aren’t good. The inscription on Pomona’s gate reads, “Let only the eager thoughtful and reverent enter here.” Why does Pomona’s administration stand in its students’ path?
Janet Alexander PZ ‘11 is a staff writer for the Claremont Independent. Charles Johnson CMC ‘11 is editor of the Claremont Independent and founder of the Claremontconservative.com.
Be the first to comment on this story