Page "Columbia University" Paragraph 16

Beginning in 1969, during the Vietnam War, the university did not allow the U. S. military to have Reserve Officers ' Training Corps ( ROTC ) programs on campus, though Columbia students could participate in ROTC programs at other colleges and universities.

At a forum at the university during the 2008 presidential election campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama said that the university should consider reinstating ROTC on campus.

After the debate, the President of the University, Lee C. Bollinger, stated that he did not favor reinstating Columbia's ROTC program, because of the military's anti-gay policies.

In November 2008, Columbia's undergraduate student body held a referendum on the question of whether or not to invite ROTC back to campus, and the students who voted were almost evenly divided on the issue.

ROTC lost the vote ( which would not have been binding on the administration, and did not include graduate students, faculty, or alumni ) by a fraction of a percentage point.

In April 2010 during Admiral Mike Mullen's address at Columbia, President Lee C. Bollinger stated that the ROTC would be readmitted to campus if the admiral's plans for revoking the don't ask, don't tell policy were successful.

In February 2011 during one of three town-hall meetings on the ROTC ban, former Army staff sergeant Anthony Maschek, a purple heart recipient for injuries sustained during his service in Iraq, was booed and hissed at by some students during his speech promoting the idea of allowing the ROTC on campus.

In April 2011 the Columbia University Senate voted to welcome the ROTC program back on campus.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger signed an agreement to reinstate Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps ( NROTC ) programs at Columbia for the first time in more than 40 years on May 26, 2011.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony on board the USS Iwo Jima, docked in New York for the Navy's annual Fleet Week.