FAS Lacks ROTC Convictions

Am I alone in thinking there is something distasteful about the Faculty's attitude toward the Reserve Officers Training Corps? If participation in the program is wrong, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences should have the courage of its convictions: condemn ROTC and make clear to applicants that they cannot participate if they choose Harvard.

If ROTC's advantages (be they civic or selfishly pecuniary) outweigh its faults then, having exposed the faults, participate fully in the program. The spectacle of this community trying to have its cake and eat it too reveals a sophistry wholly at odds with our central purpose, the pursuit of truth. "Trimming" is as demeaning to an institution as it is to an individual. --E. L. Pattullo