Anti-Military Bias at Columbia

From the New York Post, a story of prejudice against the military at Columbia University:

Columbia banned ROTC in 1969, a few months after the height of the famous campus demonstrations against the Vietnam war and all things military. Yet that knee-jerk anti-military attitude doesn’t apply to today’s Columbia students: Two years ago, a student referendum to bring ROTC back to campus passed with 65 percent of the vote.

The faculty is another matter. It took a year after the referendum before the faculty-dominated University Senate would even form a task force to study the issue. After a year of town halls, email exchanges and committee meetings, the committee is deadlocked, 5 to 5, over whether to change the existing policy. The full Senate is set to decide on May 6.

That is the story around a lot of college campuses these days, isn’t it? A student body that is tolerant and politically moderate or conservative, while the faculty are living back in the 60s. Even on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madson an anti-war protest drew a rather anemic crowd.

And some administrators get the point. According to an Associated Press story, Madison activists were demanding that military recruiters be kicked off campus.

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley told reporters last week that students have the right to protest, but also have the right to join the military. He said he wouldn’t even consider getting rid of military recruiters.

“I would just as soon they not even bother bringing me [the petition],” he said.

Real bummer to be stuck back in the 60s, isn’t it?