By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS — Despite chanting protesters outside, Columbia University's senate voted Friday to welcome the military's Reserve Officers Training Corps back to campus after a 42-year absence.
That vote means the Ivy League school can host ROTC, the training program that prepares students for careers in the Armed Forces, on its campus for the first time since the Vietnam War.
The university senate, a governing body made up of students, faculty, and administration, voted 51 to 17, with one abstention, to pass the resolution.
The resolution said in part that military service "belongs among those forms of public service honored by Columbia University."
ROTC was ousted from Columbia in 1968 amid the tumult of the Vietnam War. Today students can participate in the program, but they have to commute to Fordham University's Bronx and Lincoln Center campuses for classes and training.
Columbia last considered inviting ROTC back to campus in 2005, but the senate voted the proposal down, in part because of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Now that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been repealed, the school is taking up the question again.
The campus-wide debate on ROTC drew national headlines when students heckled an injured Iraq war veteran enrolled at the university who spoke in favor of ROTC at a public hearing.
Opponents of ROTC have rejected the program on campus on the grounds that the military preys on poor and minority Americans. Critics say the military also discriminates against transgendered people, despite the Pentagon's recent repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
The Coalition Against ROTC said in a statement the ROTC's return to Columbia would "marginalize...survivors of sexual violence, students from low or no income households, students of color — particularly Arab and Muslim students, among others — because of the military’s past and current policies at home and abroad."
On Friday as the senate considered the ROTC resolution, about two dozen people rallied outside, holding signs with slogans such as "Against Militarization of CU Our Voices Will Be Heard."
In a statement, the university lauded the senate for "fostering robust debate" on the ROTC issue.
"As in any diverse, open community there will always be a range of strongly held opinions on such important issues," the statement said. "But as President Bollinger stated after last December’s Congressional vote, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell offers an historic opportunity for universities to reconsider their own policies as well."
A survey of students found that 60 percent of those questioned wanted the ROTC to come back.
However, the debate could be largely moot. The U.S. Army's ROTC program has said it has no plans to expand to Columbia, or any other schools.
