THE WAR GOES TO COLLEGE: CIVIL RIGHTS ACT FOR ROTC AND MILITARY RECRUITERS

PRESS RELEASE
       

      U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

      COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

      DUNCAN HUNTER, CALIFORNIA

      CHAIRMAN


For Release: March 30, 2004                Contact: Harald Stavenas or Angela Sowa (202) 225-2539


HOUSE PASSES ROGERS ROTC EQUAL ACCESS LEGISLATION

Washington, DC - The U.S. House of Representatives today approved legislation that would ensure Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and U.S. military recruiters have fair and equal access for recruiting purposes on college campuses.  The legislation, entitled the ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act of 2004 (H.R. 3966), was introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL).

The Solomon law, named for former Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY), was passed by Congress in 1994 and, with its subsequent amendments, granted the Secretary of Defense power to deny federal funding from the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Education, and Labor, and the Department of Homeland Security to any colleges or universities which prohibit or prevent ROTC or military recruitment on campus.

The Rogers legislation expands current law to include funds from the Departments of Energy, Transportation, and the CIA.  H.R. 3966 also strengthens existing law by ensuring that schools accepting federal funding provide access to military recruiters that is "equal in quality and scope" to the access provided to other campus recruiters.

A November 2003 federal district court decision upheld the constitutionality of the Solomon law and denied the motion by a group of law schools and others aimed at stopping the enforcement of the Solomon law.  However, the court also questioned whether the Solomon law gave the Department of Defense a basis for asserting that universities and colleges must give military recruiters the same degree of access to campuses and students that was provided to other employers.  This bill addresses that issue.

"Mike Rogers' legislation will ensure military recruiters are treated the same way as any other recruiter at a college or university," said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.  "Mike Rogers took an important stand for our national security and against those who would weaken our military."

Successful recruitment of officers in our all-volunteer military depends heavily on the ROTC program.  In 2003, for example, the ROTC produced 70% of the newly-commissioned officers who entered the U.S. Army.

"At no other time since World War II has our nation's freedom relied more upon our military than as we engage in the Global War on Terror," Rogers said. "Passage of this bill should help ensure our Armed Services have equal access to our country's best and brightest, and further bolster our military's efforts to increase our national security.

"I would also like to thank Chairman Hunter and Chairman Cox [Committee on Homeland Security] for their support in passing this important legislation, and commend their efforts to strengthen our nation's military and homeland defense."

Recent examples of problems faced by recruiters and students at colleges and universities, such as New York University Law School, UCLA Law School, the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt University, include:

  a.. Students who sign-up for interviews by military recruiters receive harassing phone calls and letters, as their names are released.
  b.. Protesters photograph student interviewees and use the pictures to create discriminatory posters.
  c.. Schools allow protestors to block entrances to recruiting areas.
  d.. Protesters are allowed to disrupt interviews.
  e.. Recruiters are housed at off-campus locations, while other employers are allowed to recruit on campus.
  f.. Unnecessary obstacles to interviews are created by forcing military recruiters to use locations that are a great distance from parking facilities, ultimately reducing participation.
  g.. Recruiters find locked doors at interview locations, forcing delays.
  h.. Notices are posted outside military recruiting rooms which state the military violates a certain school's anti-discrimination policy, creating a "walk of shame."

Specifically, the Rogers legislation:

·        Requires colleges and universities to give military recruiters access to campuses and students that is at least equal in quality and scope as that provided to any other employer.

·        Requires the Secretary of Defense to obtain annually from colleges and universities that host ROTC programs, or allow their students to participate in an ROTC program at another university or college, an advanced notice as to whether they will allow ROTC to be operated on campus if a military service desires to do so, or if the military services elect not to operate a detachment on campus, whether the college or university will permit its students to participate in an ROTC program at another college or university.

·        Expands the categories of defense-related and other funding that might be terminated if the Secretary of Defense determines that a college or university is precluding the operation of ROTC detachments, or to denying military recruiter access.

H.R. 3966 is expected to be considered by the Senate later this year.

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