ADVOCATES FOR YALE ROTC

Dear Yale Student, Alumnus, Faculty Member or Administrator:

Yale has a rich and storied history of affiliation with the American military, and at one time had thriving ROTC Detachments of every service.  Sadly, they were expelled from campus in 1969.  The impetus, to be sure, was the war protests, but officially, the cause was a vote by the Yale Faculty to revoke credit for ROTC courses.

Advocates for Yale ROTC has been organized in association with a similar movement among Harvard students and alumni in order to broaden the base of support for the return of ROTC to Ivy League campuses. Advocates for Yale ROTC is not designed to be a fund raising organization; there are no dues, and it seeks no profit.

Our goal is to increase Yale’s support for ROTC.  At present, Yale students who wish to participate in ROTC must drive an hour and a half each way to and from the University of Connecticut in Storrs.  ROTC courses and activities require cadets to make this trek at least once a week.  Cadets commit large amounts of time to the ROTC program, yet Yale does little to accommodate them or to resolve the inevitable conflicts with Yale course times.  Perhaps worse, Yale accepts ROTC dollars but refuses to grant credit for ROTC courses.  We believe that the Yale Faculty should reconsider their ban on University credit for ROTC, especially advanced academic (junior- and senior-year) ROTC courses.

The roster of Advocates for Yale ROTC will be used to distribute an occasional newsletter and to demonstrate to the Yale faculty and administration the breadth of support for the ROTC program.  We wish to revitalize the dwindling corps of cadets at Yale, and to afford these gifted young Americans a full opportunity to become future leaders in government, industry, academia, and the military.  We believe that they, armed with experience of patriotic service to our nation, will carry our nation’s values into the twenty-first century.

If you wish to voice your support for ROTC at Yale, please .  We invite past and present students and affiliates of Yale College, past ROTC members of all services, members of the faculty and administration, military officers connected in any way with Yale, and children and relatives of past or present ROTC graduates to join us.

Thank you for joining us in our effort to return ROTC to Yale!


Advocates for ROTC — The national umbrella organization.

Storming the Ivory Tower: The Military's Return to American Campuses, by Lt Marc Lindemann. The best single introduction to this issue.

The Solomon Amendment — The law that requires colleges that accept federal funding to support ROTC and military recruiting on campus.

NOTE: 1993 Federal Law codifying "don't ask don't tell" policy.