Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron spoke on behalf of the committee on the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the Undergraduate Council of Students' general body meeting last night.
The ROTC committee is seeking student opinions regarding the possible reinstatement of the program on campus before it approaches the faculty, Bergeron said. The committee has met with various special-interest groups on campus to discuss the issue and recently sent out a survey to alums in an online newsletter. UCS will host a luncheon in the Faculty Club March 22 to facilitate dialogue among students, and a faculty forum on ROTC will be held April 13.
The Brown community has expressed strong opinions about the program, Bergeron said. Many students oppose its possible violation of the University's non-discrimination policy, while others believe Brown should offer students the chance to serve in the military. Though "there isn't a movement toward one outcome or the other," the committee hopes to reach "some form of closure" by May, she said.
Bergeron recently attended the Ivy Plus conference, during which deans from Ivy League universities, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago discussed the status of ROTC programs on their respective campuses. MIT, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton never eliminated their ROTC programs but are currently reviewing the terms on which they were established. Harvard has announced its intention to reinstate the program, and Yale, Columbia and Stanford are moving in a similar direction, Bergeron said. Sixty percent of students at Columbia and 70 percent of students at Yale have expressed support for the program.
If the University decides to keep ROTC off campus, it will most likely be the only Ivy League institution not to offer the program. Students have been allowed to enroll in the ROTC program at Providence College since 1951, but Brown does not offer course credit for participation. The University of Chicago, which has not offered a ROTC program since 1931, also does not have plans for reintroduction, she said.
UCS also passed a resolution urging the University to establish permanent Brown e-mail addresses for alums.
Campus Life Chair David Rattner '13 introduced a resolution recommending alternative water sources in the campus center. Rattner said Brown Dining Services and the Beyond the Bottle Campaign have not provided adequate water alternatives since the Brown University Community Council banned bottled water in November 2009. The lack of signs directing toward hydration centers and the high volume of visitors in the center merit an increased effort to provide water, he said.
