Stanford Faculty Senate Endorses Return of ROTC

Stanford University’s Faculty Senate voted its support on Thursday for efforts to bring the Reserve Officer Training Corps back to the campus, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The vote puts Stanford on a path to join two other elite institutions, Columbia and Harvard Universities, that have already reached agreements with the secretary of the Navy to welcome Naval ROTC units back to their campuses later this year, after the repeal of a law that banned gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the military becomes effective. It will be up to the military services to decide whether to pursue similar agreements with Stanford. The faculty resolution also sets criteria concerning academic credit for ROTC courses and expresses opposition to the military’s continuing exclusion of transgender people.