Fighting for Tufts' beliefs

The decision made by Tufts in 1997 to not accept credit for classes taken in the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at MIT is the best possible because protects the university's non-discrimination policy while allowing students to pursue a career in the military at Tufts. The ROTC Task Force convened in 1997 examined the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and concluded that the Department of Defense's policy contradicts the University's non-discrimination policy.

Despite Tufts condemnation of military's policy, the university continues to accept money from the Department of Defense for ROTC students. Many ROTC students say that if the University is willing to take money from the military, it should grant them credit for the classes they take. In fact, the University was on the verge of not accepting scholarship money from the ROTC program. Only in 1997 did Tufts decide to continue to accept money from the DoD, regardless of whether or not the policy was changed.

There are a number of reasons why Tufts should accept the government money. First, refusing the ROTC scholarship would deny a number of students valuable financing for a very expensive Tufts education.

Second, if Tufts were to refuse financial aid from the Department of Defense, then it would have to examine the policies of all third-party financial aid donors. In some cases, this would require the university to refuse scholarships from churches and other groups. An ideological difference should not require the university to deny students the opportunity to attend Tufts.

The ROTC scholarship money does not include conditionalities that would require Tufts to change the application of its non-discrimination policy. The only risk would be a student who came out losing a ROTC scholarship, and consequently the sufficient finances to attend Tufts. The university protected against this eventuality by adopting recommendations of the ROTC Task Force. Following two paths, Tufts is allowing students to take advantage of military funding to pay the tuition bill and protecting the rights of all its students to not be discriminated against. At the same time, it remains active in opposition to the DoD's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Part of this protest is not accepting credit for courses taught in the ROTC program.

Applying the policy adopted by Tufts' ROTC Task Force to all credit-transfer issues causes dilemmas. Will the university accept courses taken by a transfer student from the United States Military Academy or an institution like Bob Jones University? It should, because once students transfer to Tufts, they sever their relationship with the other institution. In the same way that Tufts will accept third-party financial aid from groups unaffiliated with Tufts, but whose policies are divergent, it should accept classes taken at an accredited university if the student has ended ties with that institution.

The 1997 ROTC Task Force said that Tufts should take a lead role in advocating change in the Department of Defense's current rules and regulations. Once the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is changed to a policy of acceptance that is in-line with the university's non-discrimination policy, Tufts should grant credit for ROTC courses. Until then, Tufts should be more vocal in its efforts so that ROTC students at Tufts understand their sacrifice.