UC should lead effort to repeal DADT

Our university is traditionally complacent with federal law, and the ROTC program’s enforcement of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is no exception.

While federal law mandates Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the University of California also has a nondiscrimination policy, where no one can be discriminated against based on race, religion, age and sexual orientation.

There is no question among this board that the UC must not stand for this blatant contradiction.

However, simply dropping ROTC is neither reasonable nor practical.

Under the Solomon Amendment, last updated by Congress in 2005, institutions of higher education that deny access to ROTC or military recruiters will be barred federal grants and contracts from governmental bodies, including the U.S. Department of Education.

To demonstrate the importance of these funds, the Department of Education recently granted $6.7 million to the UCLA International Institute for international studies and foreign language instruction.

In short, these funds are instrumental to UCLA’s operations.

The UC keeps ROTC on campus not necessarily for the funding, but because the opportunity to help educate the country’s future leaders is a mark of honor on the institution.

Even so, this superb public institution and many others should not let its nondiscrimination policy fall to the wayside and allow the federal government to practice discrimination on our campus.

Since sacrificing federal funds is clearly not an option and there is no question UCLA will be less of a university without an ROTC program, universities must use their tremendous influence to lobby the federal government to finally repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And what better institution to lead the way than the UC?

In a time that the idea of eliminating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell bounces in and out of Congress, now is the perfect time for universities to collectively take a stand against the issue.

We have come a long way since the Civil Rights movement of our parents’ generation. There is no doubt we have a lot of ground to make up before anyone can say UCLA is a perfectly accepting place, but the presence of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on this campus is not something that we must, or should, stand for.

As one of the most diverse and prestigious schools in the U.S., UCLA attracts students from all over the world. It is entirely appropriate for us to lead the movement forward in the arena of social justice.

Universities have a vested interest in overturning the practice not only in the military and its operations, but also on our campus, on our quads and in our classrooms. Unite public and private, East and West, North and South, to push this legislation through Congress.

Nowhere else in our country allows for institutionalized discrimination. As such, our armed forces should be held to the same standards.