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 contact us. 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.

Yale Veterans Association — Supported by the Association of Yale Alumni.

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.

NROTC at Yale -- restored 2012!

• 4 November 2001 Lecture by Donald Kagan on Patriotism and the Academy
• 8 November 2001, YDN Yale Cadet named Air Force Cadet of the Year
• 3 December 2001, YDN "University should reinstate ROTC"
• 4 December 2001, YDN "Yale faculty's hypocrisy booted ROTC," by Justin Zaremby
• 29 November 2001, YDN "Divide between military service, intellectual exploration unfounded," by Robbie Berschinski
• 16 January 2002, Washington Times Inside the Beltway: Yale's Turn
• 30 January 2002, Townhall.com McCaslin's Beltway Beat (last item: "Ahead of Radicals")
• April 2002, YAM Alumni Seek ROTC's Return
• 25 September 2002, YDN A Military Life for Some Yalies
• 2 October 2002, Washington Post Yale Will Allow Military at Law School Career Day
• 3 March 2003, YDN In small ROTC corps, focus and discipline
• 30 March 2004, Congressional Record transcript of floor debate in the House of Representatives "H.R. 3966, ROTC AND MILITARY RECRUITER EQUAL ACCESS TO CAMPUS ACT OF 2004"
  Note: Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA) said "At Yale where the school is happy to cash the ROTC scholarship checks, the Yale students have to travel 75 miles to the University of Connecticut and then 75 miles back, 150-mile round trip, they have to do this three times a week. It is an extraordinary burden to place just so that the university can make a point that joining the military is not what we want our students to do."
• 8 April 2003, The Hill "ROTC at Yale remains a distant concept," by David Keene
• 10 April 2003, YDN Panel urges ties between Yale, military
• 17 October 2003, YDN Faculty files suit vs. JAG
• 25 March 2004, YDN Armed Services approves bill strengthening Solomon
• 20 April 2004, YDN Elis lead fight against military recruitment
• 21 January 2005, AP Decades after Vietnam, ROTC making return effort to Ivy League
• 21 January 2005, YDN Return of ROTC is debated
• 21 January 2005, Yale Herald The Next Battle: ROTC at Yale

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

• 26 January 2005, YDN Until it's "do ask, do tell," ROTC has no place on this campus
• 26 January 2005, YDN Think pro-gay and pro-ROTC is an oxymoron? Think again
• 28 January 2005, YDN Bring in ROTC as soon as 'don't ask' is out
• 31 January 2005, YDN 'Don't ask, don't tell' is red herring in ROTC debate
• 2 February 2005, YDN University bans JAG recruiters
• 8 February 2005, YDN Making light of 'don't ask, don't tell' is worrying
• 9 February 2005, YDN End to 'don't ask' won't come through JAG ban
• 25 February 2005, The National Law Journal U.S. Judge: No Yale Law Clerks
• 2 March 2005, YDN Yale schools vary on military recruiting policy
• 27 May 2005, Washington Blade Backwards ban on military recruiters
• 12 October 2005, ACTA Hypocrisy 101: The Academy and Military Recruiters
• 21 October 2005, YDN To defend academia, keep fighting Solomon
• 9 December 2005, New York Times Fighting on the Wrong Front
• December 2005, Yale Free Press ROTC and Yale: Which is the four-letter word?
• 23 February 2006, YDN Marines bring message to campus
• 6 March 2006, American Spectator Taliboola, Taliboola!
• 6 March 2006, Wall Street Journal Taliban Man at Yale
• 6 March 2006, Supreme Court of the United States Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc. (No. 04-1152).
  Note: By an 8-0 vote the Supreme Court upheld the DoD's application of the Solomon Amendment to military recruiting at universities. See also Yale Law School's involvement in this case.
• 6 March 2006, YDN Supreme Court rules against law schools
• 6 March 2006, Human Events Taliban's Newest Training Camp: Yale
• 8 March 2006, Michelle Malkin Give Yale the Finger
• 9 March 2006, Hartford Courant From Taliban To Yale Man
• 13 March 2006, American Spectator The Yale Colonial Office
• 17 March 2006, Washington Times Deeply Ashamed of Yale
• 22 March 2006, YDN FAIR fight should not be limited to Yale Law
• 27 March 2006, Richmond Times-Dispatch Yaliban?
• 24 January 2007, YDN Letter: University should honor alumni serving
• 17 February 2007, New York Post Dodging Rangel's Draft
• 22 July 2007, Washington Post Their War
• 18 September 2007, New York Law Journal Denial of Funds to Yale Law School Upheld Over Military Recruiter Ban
• 10 October 2007, New York Times Yale Law, Newly Defeated, Allows Military Recruiters
• 22 January 2008, YDN ad Bring ROTC Back Onto Yale's Campus
• 7 October 2008, YDN University should resurrect Yale ROTC
• 7 October 2008, YDN At YPU, a call for ROTC’s return
• 11 October 2008, Yale Herald Calls made to reclaim Yale's military past
• 16 October 2008, YDN letter Yale needs ROTC again
• 18 November 2008, YDN Morales: Return to service
• 8 February 2009, New York Times Send R.O.T.C. Back to School
• May 2009, Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute Put ROTC Back in the Ivy League.
  Kenneth Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot who taught as a Guest Fellow at Yale and as an ROTC instructor at The Citadel, relates: As one high-ranking NETC official asked me, “Is a Yale-educated officer really worth five from Auburn?” The short answer is “Yes.” That answer, however, has almost nothing to do with quality of education, and everything to do with our military’s relationship to its civilian masters.
• 26 October 2009, New York Times The R.O.T.C. Dilemma
• 30 November 2009, YDN ROTC could return to Yale
• 1 December 2009, Maja Stevanovich ROTC Ban on Ivy League Campuses. Details some of the opposition and support faced by the two current Air Force cadets at Yale.
• 2 December 2009, YDN News' View: Focusing on the war
• 26 February 2010, YDN ROTC after Yale: A year of midterms
• 5 March 2010, The Day (CT) Lieberman sees ROTC benefiting from repeal of military ban on gays
• 26 April 2010, Boston Globe Elite colleges thawing on ROTC
• 25 May 2010, The Atlantic DADT and Ivy League ROTC
• 23 June 2010, American Council of Trustees and Alumni Open Letter to the Yale Corporation
• 1 July 2010, Flagg Youngblood's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, covering his experience in ROTC at Yale and Elena Kagan's illegal treatment of military recruiters at Harvard.
• 27 October 2010, YDN Letter: Cut the malarky over ROTC
• 21 December 2010, Yale Office of Public Affairs Statement by Yale University President Richard C. Levin on ROTC
• 21 December 2010, YDN Admins to discuss ROTC with military reps
• 22 December 2010, YDN Yalies support ROTC return, survey says
• January 2011, Yale College Council Committee on ROTC report ROTC and Military Service at Yale University
• 10 January 2011, Yale Daily Bulletin ROTC discussions underway between Yale and Defense Department
• 20 January 2011, YDN Yale Daily News Roundtable: ROTC
• March 2011, YAM A return to ROTC?
• 21 March 2011, YDN Day: It’s time for action on ROTC
• 22 March 2011, YDN ROTC’s return under discussion
• 27 March 2011, YDN Miller: Student and Soldier
• 29 March 2011, YDN Committee to consider ROTC's return formed
• 14 April 2011, YDN ROTC makes Bulldog Days Bazaar appearance
• 19 April 2011, Yale College Report of the Faculty Committee on ROTC
• 22 April 2011, YDN ROTC one step closer to returning
• 25 April 2011, YDN Faculty to vote on ROTC rules
• May 2011, YAM Letters: Return of ROTC?
• 5 May 2011, YDN Faculty approve new ROTC resolutions
• 26 May 2011, YDN Naval ROTC to return to Yale in fall 2012
• 26 May 2011, AP Yale announces return of ROTC after 4 decades
• 26 May 2011, Remarks by President Levin at Yale and U.S. Navy ROTC Signing
• 26 May 2011, Yale Daily Bulletin United States Navy announces new ROTC Unit at Yale, returning Naval ROTC to Connecticut
• 26 May 2011, YDN New Naval ROTC unit to draw students from across state
• 26 May 2011, New Haven Independent ROTC Returns To Yale
• 1 June 2011, YDN ROTC’s Back. What next?
• 8 June 2011, New York Times ROTC Returns to Yale and a Soldier Applauds
• July 2011, YAM Naval ROTC Will Return in 2012
• 12 September 2011, Yale Daily Bulletin Air Force ROTC unit established at Yale
• 12 September 2011, President Levin Statement at Air Force ROTC Signing Ceremony
• 12 September 2011, Fox News Yale brings back Air Force ROTC after long absence
• 13 September 2011, YDN Yale to welcome Air Force ROTC
• 28 October 2011, YDN From Yale to Afghanistan
• 8 November 2011, YDN Some ROTC courses to receive credit
• 1 December 2011, YDN ROTC instructors welcomed into faculty
• 30 December 2011, Wall Street Journal How to Get More Ivy Leaguers Into ROTC
  Miller and Hillman observe, "[F]or all the fanfare, Yale is the only university that will have cadets training on campus next fall."
• 17 January 2012, YDN ROTC students face financial aid choice
• 9 February 2012, YDN Alumni veterans supporting ROTC
• 12 April 2012, YDN Yale ROTC competes with academies
• August 2012, Yale News Yale's first NROTC freshmen in 40 years
• 29 August 2012, YDN ROTC returns after decades-long hiatus
• 21 September 2012, AP Yale holds ceremony to welcome ROTC back to campus
• 22 September 2012, New Haven Register Yale welcomes Air Force, Naval ROTC units back to campus
• 26 September 2012, YDN For country or for Yale?
• 1 January 2013, The American Legion The Return of ROTC