On the same day the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy officially ended, Harvard president Drew Faust formally welcomed Naval ROTC back to the school after 40 years.
The return is largely in privileges and some formalities — Harvard will not have its own unit and cadets will still attend military classes at MIT. The participation numbers are not high enough for an on-campus unit or classes. The new agreement applies only to the Navy. The Army and Air Force are hammering out similar contracts with Harvard.
Despite the ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier in the day, the university then hosted a rally at which people criticized the university’s decision to bring back ROTC:
“As the leader of a student organization with members that identify as gender queer or gender non-conforming, to ask students not to protest the ribbon cutting to me is deeply disturbing,” Queer Students and Allies Co-Chair Samuel Bakkila ’12 said. “We were never explicitly asked not to by the administration, but the undercurrent was there.”
The Office of Student Life paid for the travel expenses of keynote speaker Autumn Sandeen, who lives in San Francisco.
Sandeen, a trans woman who served in the Navy for 20 years, said that the repeal did not go far enough.
“On this day when LGB people will serve openly, transgender people will still serve in silence,” Sandeen said, subsequently holding a moment of silence in support of trans service members. “The solution of one problem brings us face to face with another.”
Faust, one of ROTC’s biggest advocates at the Ivies, spoke at both events.
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