Student Protest Prevents Annual ROTC Information Day at UW-Madison

-by Chelsea Lauing and Bill Linville

The Air Force Reverse Officer Training Corps (ROTC) annual information day on April 30 was cancelled. At the information day, students were "to learn about Air Force scholarship opportunities and Air Force careers" and receive free lunch, according to an e-mail sent out to the student body. According to Air Force ROTC representatives on campus, the event was cancelled due to the threat of a protest called by the University of Wisconsin-Madison group Stop the War.

The protest was one of a series of actions that Stop the War has been taking against military recruitment and the ongoing occupation of Iraq. On April 14, Stop the War helped organize a walk-out against the occupation of Iraq and military recruiting on campus that drew around 200 students.

The protest ended with a sit-in outside the office of Chancellor Wiley, resulting in a public forum with Wiley to discuss the removal of the ROTC and military recruitment from campus. At the forum, concerned students and Madison residents brought up the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This policy discriminates against LGBT individuals and is in direct violation of both state law concerning discrimination in the UW system and UW's anti-discrimination policy. Despite this violation and the recent Third Circuit Court ruling declaring the Solomon Amendment unconstitutional, Chancellor Wiley continues to defend their presence on campus, saying "There's not a chance" they will be removed. Stop the War is currently circulating a petition to remove ROTC and all military recruiters from campus, among other activities.

These actions are part of a nationwide movement against recruiting on high school and college campuses. From Seattle Central Community College to New York University, students have initiated actions that have forced recruiters off campus. This movement is having some effect. Reuters reported on March 6 that, "The regular Army is 6 percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target, the Reserve is 10 percent behind and the Guard is 26 percent short." Over 1500 U.S. soldiers have died as a result of the occupation of Iraq and at least 100,000 Iraqis, according to a study conducted by Lancet, a British medical journal. As the occupation continues and the death toll increases, military recruiters are going to be intensifying their recruiting efforts.

Just as the ROTC session in Madison was billed as a chance to learn about "Air Force scholarship opportunities and Air Force careers", the military often uses the promise of education and job training to lure potential recruits. In fact, the military makes $70 million on the G.I. Bill. Only 6% of female and 12% of male veterans in civilian jobs make use of the skills learned in the military, according to a 1989 study by two Ohio State researchers. Thousands who join the military for an education or job training are returning from Iraq with injuries, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or not returning at all.

On Saturday at Union South, the building on campus where the event was scheduled to take place, about 20 protesters showed up to celebrate the cancellation of the recruiting session and build on this success by developing a movement that can get the military off UW's campus for good.

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Chelsea Lauing, 18, and Bill Linville, 23, are members of University of Wisconsin-Madison Stop the War, of the Campus Antiwar Network (www.campusantiwar.net). Chelsea can be reached at lauing@wisc.edu. Bill can be reached at bill_linville@yahoo.com.