In victory, a warning to Columbia ROTC advocates

Columbia anti-military activists have begun to push back against the Columbia University Senate endorsement of ROTC.

Professors Gans and Morris remind us that the wheel keeps turning and what goes around comes around. The historical engine of change stops for no one, and as the Poet teaches, "As the present now will later be past, the order is rapidly fadin'. And the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin'." True activists are persistent and don't quit their cause. Activists are empowered by defeat because it restores them to their natural militant anti-establishment role. Their defeat in the University Senate gave Columbia anti-military activists a cause on which to build a new campus anti-military movement.

Columbia ROTC advocates are fairly warned: As we continue to work joyfully after the senate vote to help establish ROTC on campus, we must also account for the opposition and defend our gains from invigorated anti-military activists. What we did to their victory can be done to our victory.

For generations, Columbia anti-military activists had held the duty of guarding the crown jewel of the near-mythic 'Spirit of 68' legacy. They should have had every advantage to stop the campus ROTC movement in its infancy. Yet they failed because their hubris prevented them from respecting the insurgent threat until it was too late. We should take care not to repeat the mistake they made when they allowed us to win.

Cautionary tale from February 3, 2003:

Despite their strong feelings on the matter, these groups have not yet waged much organized protest against the proposal to bring back the ROTC program.

"We have better things to do with our time than undo games that were already won thirty years ago," said Michael Cas***man, SEAS '03 and treasurer of the Columbia Student Solidarity Network.

Eric

Victory

On Friday 01 April 2011, the Columbia University Senate passed a resolution with a vote of 51-17 that military relations "enrich the Columbia community" and . . .

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED

That Columbia University welcomes the opportunity to explore mutually beneficial relationships with the Armed Forces of the United States, including participation in the programs of the Reserve Officers Training Corps.

The Columbia Spectator has solid reporting of the senate vote while the New York Times provides the cultural-historical context. The Columbia Political Union wonders what the ROTC decision means for Columbia's identity.

Friday's victory is not the end of the Columbia ROTC movement. Rather, it is the commencement of the next stage, university-military negotiation. President Bollinger will first consult Columbia's deans, most of whom are already on record supporting ROTC, the senate executive committee, and other relevant Columbia officials (likely to include Columbia's legal counsel, given the contractual nature). Then he will meet with the Trustees, who are believed to support ROTC and rarely veto senate resolutions regardless, for their approval of the senate resolution. Once the Trustees give their approval, which is expected to happen by the end of the semester, Bollinger and his team will be authorized to negotiate with their military counterparts.

I say again with relish, A Vote for ROTC is a Vote for the Heroes of our Generation, while Columbia U. Senate Votes Against Return of R.O.T.C. slips into the dustbin of history.

The victory is personal for me and a long time in coming. I organized the Columbia ROTC movement's inaugural event 9 years ago. It's my baby. By now it has many strong fathers whom I trust love it as much as I do, but it will ever only have one mother: me. I envisioned, then conceived it. I gave birth to it. In the desert of the first days, I nurtured and protected it. I fed it what it needed to grow - I gave it of myself and of others. I fought for its life when, if I had chosen not to, it would have died. Then the 2005 senate vote nearly killed it, and I fought for its life again. Before I graduated, I made sure to give it what it needed to become stronger than it was. I won that fight. This explains only why the cause is personal for me. In terms of credit, as I said, the Columbia ROTC movement has many fathers, and many of my fellow advocates have given the movement important and necessary things that I couldn't. I've been known to be inappropriately overbearing with my fellow advocates at times; the reason is that the movement is still imprinted in my mind as a fragile vulnerable baby - my baby - in the desert.

Eric