Professors and students at the Georgetown Law Center have protested the presence of military recruiters last Friday, claiming that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which addresses sexual orientation, is discriminatory.
Seventy-five faculty members at the Law Center signed a resolution recently that called for a reversal of the policy.
The resolution criticized Congress for passing the Solomon Amendment, which denies funding to colleges and universities that do not allow military recruiters access to specific student information or university resources. The resolution supported non-discriminatory policies in hiring and stated a belief in an individual’s right to speak openly about his or her sexuality.
The Solomon Amendment was passed as part of a broad appropriations bill in 1995, but it had not been strictly enforced until it was recently revisited by the Bush administration.
Due to this enforcement, Georgetown must accept military recruiters on-campus or lose all federal funding.
Liam Stack (CAS ‘05), a student from the Main Campus who joined the protest, said that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy conflicts with the University’s commitment to not discriminate based on sexual orientation.
According to Chai Feldblum, professor of law at the Georgetown Law Center, 25 to 30 of the faculty who signed the resolution gave money to the cause of reversing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
More than 100 students, faculty and other demonstrators rallied in front of the Washington Court Hotel, where military recruiters were conducting interviews as part of a career fair, before marching to the Senate lawn where several Law Center professors conducted a teach-in.
Nancy Cantaloupo, director of the Main Campus’ Women’s Center and a student at the Law Center, said that she felt that the main target of the protest was Congress, due to the Solomon Amendment; she said that the protest was not about either the military specifically or students in the military.
According to Feldblum, however, the purpose of the protest was to challenge the immorality of the underlying military policy. The policy of “asking gays to pass as straight” is unacceptable, she said.
Undergraduate students participated in the protests as well.
Gladys Cisneros (SFS ‘04) said she went to the protest to oppose both the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as well as the Defense Department’s use of the Solomon Amendment.
“Morally, I feel what the Law Center is doing is right. It is not right [for the military] to threaten to cut off funds to the school,” said Cisneros.
Stack also agreed.
“The Defense Department has no business recruiting at a university that doesn’t openly discriminate in the same manner that they do,” he said.
Although the recruiters were allowed on campus, Feldblum said she thought that the protest was successful in educating people about the issue.
“It may seem as if we’ve lost the first part of this battle, but there is a significant advantage to bringing this fight out into the open,” said Feldblum.
