By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS — After a four decade absence, Columbia University is welcoming the U.S. Navy's Reserve Officers Training Corps back to the school.
Columbia President Lee Bollinger formally announced the move Friday, three weeks after the Ivy League school's senate voted to invite ROTC back to campus for the first time since 1968 after months of heated debate on the issue.
"It is clear that the time has come for Columbia to reengage with the military program of ROTC, subject to certain conditions and with ongoing review," Bollinger said in a statement.
Bollinger said "formal recognition" of ROTC will start after the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which banned openly gay people from serving in the Armed Forces, is officially repealed later this year.
Under the agreement, Columbia students will participate in Naval ROTC through a unit hosted at the SUNY Maritime College in Throgs Neck, Queens.
Provost Claude Steele will oversee implementation of the ROTC program at the school, Bollinger said.
Columbia ousted ROTC from its campus during the tumult of the Vietnam war, but students were never banned from participating in the program.
Several Columbia students participate in a U.S. Army ROTC program, but they have to commute to Fordham University to fulfill the program's requirements. The U.S. Army's ROTC has said it has no plans to establish a presence on Columbia's campus.
