Saturday, April 24, 2004
A Columbia Student Responds!
From an Israeli Army soldier currently attending Columbia:
The ban on ROTC and JAG does not mean an absence of
military personnel on campus. At the business school, there is a
student group for military personnel entering the business world.
About 4-6% of students, based on anecdotal evidence, have a
military background. Other schools may have similar groups (I
think the law school used to have one, but it became defunct due to
lack of interest). Also, undergraduate student groups occasionally
bring military personnel as speakers; undergraduates, as
individuals, can - and do - join ROTC programs at Fordham and other
universities.
I am not convinced by your suggestion that the ROTC ban is the
cause, or a major cause, of Columbia's turning out journalists who
are ill-equipped to report on military matters. A Columbia
journalism student with whom I spoke today told me that the general
tenor among his classmates was anti-military, anti-police, typical
left-wing liberal. I question whether such students would engage
with issues and events organized by ROTC cadets on campus; frankly,
I don't believe an active ROTC program at Columbia would do much to
change J-school students' opinions. From what I gather, it is not
Columbia that is inculcating anti-military attitudes in the
journalism students - that attitude is baggage that they bring with
them to campus. Having reservists in the class might help, but of
course the ROTC ban has nothing to do with the admission of
reservists to the J-school.
In response, I don't believe that Columbia's relationship to antimilitary sentiment is correlative, not causative.
I don't have figures yet, but a 4-6% veterans representation on a college campus strikes me as a bit low. Especially for a higher ed institution with some strong graduate programs for older students, such as Columbia's J-school has.
Given the fact that the New York metropolitan area contains seven of the lowest ten recruiting counties in the country, they should be aware that they are already fairly isolated from that subculture within the U.S.
If the military were any other underrepresented group, they'd be working hard to recruit people from that pool.
I suppose it's too much to remind them that campus diversity is usually considered a good thing.
I'll do some digging, though, and find out what the average % of veterans is per college campus, and we can compare that to Columbia.
Jason
The ban on ROTC and JAG does not mean an absence of
military personnel on campus. At the business school, there is a
student group for military personnel entering the business world.
About 4-6% of students, based on anecdotal evidence, have a
military background. Other schools may have similar groups (I
think the law school used to have one, but it became defunct due to
lack of interest). Also, undergraduate student groups occasionally
bring military personnel as speakers; undergraduates, as
individuals, can - and do - join ROTC programs at Fordham and other
universities.
I am not convinced by your suggestion that the ROTC ban is the
cause, or a major cause, of Columbia's turning out journalists who
are ill-equipped to report on military matters. A Columbia
journalism student with whom I spoke today told me that the general
tenor among his classmates was anti-military, anti-police, typical
left-wing liberal. I question whether such students would engage
with issues and events organized by ROTC cadets on campus; frankly,
I don't believe an active ROTC program at Columbia would do much to
change J-school students' opinions. From what I gather, it is not
Columbia that is inculcating anti-military attitudes in the
journalism students - that attitude is baggage that they bring with
them to campus. Having reservists in the class might help, but of
course the ROTC ban has nothing to do with the admission of
reservists to the J-school.
In response, I don't believe that Columbia's relationship to antimilitary sentiment is correlative, not causative.
I don't have figures yet, but a 4-6% veterans representation on a college campus strikes me as a bit low. Especially for a higher ed institution with some strong graduate programs for older students, such as Columbia's J-school has.
Given the fact that the New York metropolitan area contains seven of the lowest ten recruiting counties in the country, they should be aware that they are already fairly isolated from that subculture within the U.S.
If the military were any other underrepresented group, they'd be working hard to recruit people from that pool.
I suppose it's too much to remind them that campus diversity is usually considered a good thing.
I'll do some digging, though, and find out what the average % of veterans is per college campus, and we can compare that to Columbia.
Jason
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