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A federal court ruled yesterday that a Sikh college student must be allowed to enroll in Army ROTC without shaving his beard, cutting his hair, or removing his turban. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson acted in the case of Hofstra University student Iknoor Singh, who had been barred by the U.S. Army from enrolling in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program because of his religious practices. The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a college-based program for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.

So. Are we done now? And they were forced to do this, many commenters claimed: "They were threatened with negative counselling statements and OERs if they didn’t participate. It was pretty much" do this or we’ll kill your career before it even starts.'" "Someone head to IG with this? Pretty sure this was a forced activity." "Worthless ROTC commanders need to get booted for this incompetence. As a combat vet this sickens me and is a setback for women in the military." I blame the high command of the armed forces. There should be rampant resignations over Obama's maladministration --...

Making the general public aware about tough issues that need addressing is obviously a good thing. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about doing it. A Reddit post supposedly containing a message from the cellphone of a cadet has raised questions concerning an allegedly mandatory ROTC event. In the “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event, cadets were required to wear high heels and march to “raise awareness of sexual assault against women.”

This week Americans honor military veterans. On America’s college campuses, the attitude towards them is more ambivalent, at least when their presence on them is compared to their visibility in the rest of America. For one thing, not every campus is closed for Veterans Day. To be sure, many businesses stay open upon that day as well. Moreover, as the Veteran’s Administration web site notes, “there is no legal requirement that schools close on Veterans Day.” Nevertheless, veterans on campus are few and far between. With the possible exception of Troy University, you will find few colleges and universities on...

Anti-American radical participated in armed takeover of ROTC office–Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder took part in a five-day armed occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters as a freshman at Columbia University.Charles Johnson and Ryan Girdusky reported this at The Daily Caller: As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned.Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler...

The Boston Athletic Association has indicated it will crack down on bandit runners and even ROTC marchers who don’t have registration numbers, according to an email released today that also bans participants from bringing bags to this year’s Boston Marathon as part of higher security measures following the 2013 bombings. “This really is the year they need to avoid the Boston Marathon,” BAA spokesman Marc Davis said about bandits and military marchers. “With an already large field, it is just not the year to run if you’re not registered. We’re asking unregistered runners to just stand on the sidelines and...

As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned. Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to questions from The Daily Caller about whether Holder himself was armed — and if so, with what sort of weapon. Holder was then among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Retired General and former CIA Director David Petraeus will teach part-time and mentor ROTC members at the University of Southern California, the school announced Thursday. Petraeus, who resigned as head of the CIA last year after confessing to an extramarital affair, will begin at the university this fall. “He embodies all the noble qualities of our founder along with a fearless commitment to excellence. His presence will have a profound impact on our students across many disciplines,” USC President C. L. Max Nikias said in a press release. Petraeus, 60, earned a PhD in international relations...

The president of Clemson University is chastising those who booed President Barack Obama during the college’s Military Appreciation Day at last weekend's game. During the university’s annual event that was held this year during the Clemson vs. Virginia Tech game on Saturday, a ceremony was held to induct ROTC cadets into the military. The ceremony was disrupted by booing from some fans in the stands. In an email with the subject line, “Dear Clemson Family: Focus on Positive Dialogue and a Civil Discourse,” Clemson University president James Barker addressed the behavior at the football game.

As college student, Eric Holder participated in ‘armed’ takeover of former Columbia University ROTC office As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned. Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to questions from The Daily Caller about whether Holder himself was armed — and if so, with what sort of weapon. Holder was then among the leaders...

Student Politics and the University "The university now suffers from the consequences of an untempered and irrational attack on American society, government, and university, one to which we as academics have contributed, and on which we have failed to give much light" ... I agree with the SDS that the issues should have been discussed—ROTC, campus expansion, black demands. But more than that should have been discussed. The reasons SDS had raised the issues should have been discussed. The basic analysis they present of society and government should have been discussed. The consequences of their analysis and the actions they...

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Stanford University's faculty voted Thursday to invite ROTC back to campus, nearly 40 years after the military program was barred from campus amid strong anti-war sentiments and anger over the military's ban on gays and lesbians. The Faculty Senate approved the move by a 28-9 vote, about a week after a campus committee recommended reinstating the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said. The approval came with an addendum voicing opposition to the military's policy of excluding transgender and medically disabled individuals from serving.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Sen. John Kerry called on Yale University to follow Harvard's lead Friday and welcome the Reserve Officer Training Corps back to the Ivy League campus. Kerry, a Yale alumnus, wrote in a letter to the university's president that the breakthrough at Harvard is important in moving past a "difficult era" when many elite schools turned away ROTC to protest the now defunct ban on gays serving openly in the military. "As an alumnus whose life and values were in part shaped both by Yale, and by my service in the United States Navy, I would...

Columbia University officials have been considering reinstating ROTC chapters, lifting a ban against the program since 1969. The faculty, with less courage than a Wisconsin Democrat, decided to poll the opinion of the students to see if they would accept a ROTC detachment to pollute their denizen of liberal indoctrination. During a campus town hall meeting students were permitted to express their opinion about allowing ROTC to return to Columbia. Anthony Maschek, a freshmen addressed the crowd and told them some truths that never seems to make it pass the Ivy façade called higher education. He was for the reinstatement...

Former U.S. ArmyStaff Sgt. Anthony Maschek last week received an unfitting welcome at a town-hall meeting at Columbia University. The Iraq-War-veteran-turned-college-freshman was heckled, mocked and inexplicably called a “racist” during a forum convened to discuss reinstatement of ROTC on campus 43 years after the program’s expulsion. The university gave Iran‘s Islamic strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a warmer welcome than this young man who shed his blood to serve his country. Mr. Maschek uses a wheelchair to get around as a result of being shot 11 times in combat. Yet Columbia‘s leftists, blinded by their anti-war fervor, refused this disabled veteran even...

There has been discussion of returning ROTC to Stanford University. The following is a letter to the editor in today's San Jose Mercury opposing it ROTC still does not belong at Stanford Contrary to Lisa Krieger's assertion (Page 1A, Jan. 20), discrimination against gays was never a reason for booting ROTC from Stanford. The real reason was (quoting the present committee's notes) "The majority (of the 1968-69 Ad Hoc Committee on ROTC) felt that the personal conduct standards of the three services 'can seriously limit the student's free participation in all facets of intellectual inquiry and legal political activity.'" It...

Washington insiders who hoped that the repeal of the ban on homosexuals serving in the military would encourage colleges to allow ROTC back on their campuses are very likely to see their hopes dashed yet again. “Several student organizations have launched a new campaign against the return of ROTC to college campuses in light of the repeal of DADT due to their policy of discrimination towards transgender service members,” Alok Vaid-Menon of the National Marriage Boycott states. “The National Marriage Boycott, the largest national youth-led LGBT rights organization, has called for youth activists on college campuses that include gender identity...

Well, it’s back to work and back to writing about conservative values on my blog. All of this Christmas holiday cheer and food has caused me to gain a few pounds and have more than one case of indigestion. Many people are suffering from poor eating decisions during this special time of year, resulting in soaring sales of products such as Pepto Bismol to help with such things. Such is the case that during a recent trip to go shopping…or shall I say, “Returning”…I was in the men’s room when one of the many shoppers in that facility had a...

Now that asking and telling has ceased to be problematic in military circles, ROTC has resurfaced as a national issue: Will universities such as Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools be opened to Reserve Officers' Training Corps since colleges can no longer can argue that the military is biased against gays and therefore not welcome? The debate reminds me of an interview I conducted over parents' weekend at the University of Notre Dame in 1989. I sat down with Theodore Hesburgh, the priest who had retired two years earlier after serving 35 years as the university's president... [Snip] I...

If we can allow gays to serve openly in the military, can we imagine the idea of a fighting force that is welcoming to members of an even more reviled and misunderstood minority — Ivy Leaguers? Yes, apparently. As Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was being repealed, the presidents of Harvard, Yale and several other elite universities practically tripped over one another while racing to the microphone to salute the idea of ROTC students marching across their leafy quads. (Some top schools, such as Princeton, always maintained on-campus ROTC.) If the celebrated universities that have been less than welcoming to the...