The student votes are in, and Stanford undergrads support the return of ROTC to campus — but somewhat tepidly.
A referendum vote in this year’s student government elections asked students to select one of the following options:
- I support the return of ROTC to Stanford University – 44.1 percent (2406 votes)
- I oppose the return of ROTC to Stanford University – 17 percent (929)
- I choose to abstain – 38.8 percent (2117)
If the abstention votes are not taken into account, support for ROTC carried 72.1 percent of the vote. Abstention was a formal position, however; students sent email campaigning for students to vote “abstain.”
Depending on the treatment of the abstention votes, the level of outward support for ROTC at Stanford could be considered comparable — or far weaker — to that of peer schools like Yale and Columbia.
Last month at Columbia, formal survey results showed 60 percent of responding students supported “a return of ROTC to Columbia’s campuses.” A larger 79 percent supported “Columbia allowing the participation of Columbia students in ROTC, whether on- or off-campus.”
Prior to the vote to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Yale surveyed undergraduates about their support for ROTC. Almost 70 percent supported the establishment of an ROTC unit on campus. Nearly 300 respondents who are not in ROTC expressed interested in participating in the program, and almost 100 said they would consider joining ROTC if a unit were established at Yale.
The ROTC debate at Stanford has been fairly heated. Last week, pro-ROTC posters were torn on campus; proponents and opponents have debated the issue for most of the school year in the student newspaper and in townhall forums.
Former U.S. Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz officially offered their support for the return of ROTC to Stanford, in a formal letter earlier this winter.
Since the DADT repeal in November, Columbia and Harvard have lifted their respective bans on ROTC.
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.