Stanford Faculty Votes To Bring Back ROTC

PALO ALTO, CA - Stanford University in California, one of the nation's most prestigious colleges, may soon have ROTC training on campus for the first time in four decades.

The Faculty Senate voted 28-9 to change the university's policy on the Reserve Officer Training Corps, the Los Angeles Times reported. Three people abstained, and there was a heated discussion for 2 hours before the vote.

Stanford follows Harvard University, which made the move last month, and Columbia University, where faculty voted last week, in the policy change, which was prompted by the end of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. All three universities stopped offering ROTC during the Vietnam War era.

Fourteen Stanford students are currently in ROTC. They do not get Stanford credit for the courses they take on other campuses.

Students in ROTC get scholarships in return for military service after they graduate. Each branch of the military offers its own program.

Ewart Thomas, a psychology professor who headed a panel that recommended bringing back ROTC, said it will bring more diverse points of view to the school.

"That's something from which all our students would benefit," he said.