>Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 >From: Grassroots Media Network <tta@mail.utexas.edu> >Subject: [generalnews] After 22 Years, N.Y.U. Allows Army Recruiter >After 22 Years, N.Y.U. Allows an Army Recruiter to Visit > >By KAREN W. ARENSON > >Defense Department recruiter visited New York University Law School >yesterday the first permitted there in 22 years and in a scene reminiscent >of the Vietnam protests of 30 years ago, the event was marked by scores of >protesters who chanted, hooted and called for her to leave. > >Like some colleges and graduate programs, the law school has barred >military recruiters because the Defense Department refuses to employ men >or women who are openly gay. > >The school reluctantly agreed to admit a recruiter after the Defense >Department issued regulations in January saying that it would withdraw all >research funds from a university if any of its divisions kept its >recruiters out. > >Until this year, the department withheld its funds just from the division >that barred the recruiters. The earlier policy meant that the law school, >which has long been known as a congenial school for gay students, lost >about $75,000 in student aid. > >But the university had more at stake. It receives more than $200 million >in Defense Department research funds, about two-thirds of which go to its >medical school. The general counsel's office at the university advised the >law school over the summer that in light of the new regulations, it should >allow a recruiter to visit. > >While the school allowed Capt. Ann H. Zgrodnik, a recruiter from the Army >Judge Advocate General's Corps, to spend yesterday in Lipton Hall, many >faculty members, students and administrators made clear their distaste for >the visit. > >About 100 students in pink armbands and neon stickers turned out in the >common room at the law school's D'Agostino Hall on West Third Street to >voice their dismay in a lively but orderly protest. > >"Don't ask, don't tell, military go to hell," they chanted. > >John Sexton, the law school dean, said in a letter to the faculty that >members of the law school would explore "whether the new regulations might >be challenged as illegal, and how the N.Y.U. Law School might contribute >to such an effort." > >Stephen Gillers, vice dean of the law school, said that the school itself >could not bring a lawsuit but that individual faculty members, students or >the university could. He said the Association of American Law Schools, the >American Council on Education and other education groups in Washington had >protested the new regulations to the Defense Department. > >The law school also decided that every time a military recruiter visited >the school, it would publicize the military's unwillingness to sign the >school's nondiscrimination policy. > >Many law school faculty members also signed a public statement saying they >deplored the new Defense Department recruiting policy because it >compromised their freedom to set ethical standards for student recruiting >and "conscripts us into complicity with policies that unjustly degrade >fellow persons." > >In a statement released by university officials, Captain Zgrodnik declined >to be interviewed. But Lt. Col. Catherine Abbott, a spokeswoman for the >Defense Department, said yesterday that allowing the military to recruit >on campuses "is the law" made by Congress. > >"We want students to be able to make informed decisions," she said. "We >are not asking for any greater access than anyone else has." > >Martha Rudd, a spokeswoman for the Army, said yesterday that 23 schools >either turned away Army recruiters last year or gave them unequal access, >like requiring them to interview in less desirable places. > >Some professors who joined the protest yesterday said they opposed >military recruiting because the Defense Department would not abide by the >nondiscriminatory policies other recruiters endorse. > >"It is particularly galling to be forced to do this under regulations that >I think are illegal," said Sylvia A. Law, a law school professor and >chairwoman of the school's placement committee, who said she might file a >lawsuit over the department's new regulations. > >If there was any dissension from the protest, it was not visible yesterday. > >Some of the protesters signed up for interviews with Captain Zgrodnik. >Richard McKewen, a third-year law student and editor in chief of the >N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change, told the cheering crowd that he >had told the recruiter that by working for the military, "You are >complicit in your institution's bigotry, and you personally are not >welcome here." > >Someone in the crowd shouted, "Did you tell her you were gay?" > >Mr. McKewen grinned and gestured to his costume, which included a golden >tiara and a black feather boa, as well as cargo shorts and sneakers. > >"If she couldn't read the signals," he said, "then the military's worse >off than we thought." > >==================================== >The Grassroots Media Network >1602 Chatham St >Austin, TX 78723 >rootmedia@mail.com >http://www.crosswinds.net/~rootmedia/
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