Giving credit to the Cadets

The decision made by Tufts in 1997 not to accept credit for classes taken in the Reserve Officers Training Corps represents a contradictive and convoluted policy regarding students involved in ROTC activities. Protecting the university's non-discrimination policy, the given reason for not allowing students to receive credit for ROTC participation, is not a satisfying reason to validate this reality.

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. Though this stance may have a certain degree of justification, it does represent a substantial inconsistency on the part of Tufts. The underlying issue of accepting money from the DoD while at the same time denying credit to the students who utilize said money exposes a hypocrisy in current administration's approach to the ROTC. A more likely reason the University does not accept ROTC credit rests in the administration's hesitance to give credit to military funded activities, even though, academically speaking, they may be on par with courses taught at Tufts.

Courses that ROTC students are required to take as part of ROTC training, including certain courses that MIT students receive academic credit for, should be treated in a similar fashion to courses taken by Tufts students at an outside university, and thus be under the same transfer of credit scrutiny. Several of the ROTC courses have correlating classes at Tufts, such as Thermodynamics and Entrepreneurial Leadership. At a school that gives students credit for studying golf, massage, and the interaction between hops, barley, yeast, and water, our University fails to give students credit for taking courses in entrepreneurial leadership and thermodynamics merely because they fall under the ROTC umbrella. Tufts currently allows students to receive AP or other comparable credit from High Schools located on military bases and schools funded by the DoD, so why should ROTC funded classes be held to different standards?

It is imperative to the future viability of ROTC at Tufts that a substantive decision on the issue be made. The university cannot continue to be in a position of purgatory regarding its approach to the contentious issue. There are only two realistic options. The first would be to stop receiving DoD financing of ROTC programs at Tufts, with the unwelcome residual effect of eliminating the ROTC completely. If Tufts is determined to truly live up to its "non discrimination policy", then it should not accept any money from the DoD, and the hypocrisy would stop. Of course this would then be construed as class based discrimination as students rely on ROTC scholarships to fund Tufts exorbitant tuition fees. The more logical option would be to continue accepting DoD funds, and allow students who wish to receive academic credit petition for the appropriate transfer of credit.

The contentious nature of this issue demands tough and decisive decisions. It will be impossible to appease each side, but what is necessary here is not appeasement, but rather giving equal credit for equal work. This would be the least discriminatory practice of all.