A resolution passed by the University Senate last month urged University President Richard L. McCormick to seek authorization from the University's Board of Governors to join a lawsuit against current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights is claiming Rumsfeld is in violation of First Amendment rights. Rumsfeld has adhered to the 1996 Solomon Amendment - which states any college or university that denies military recruiters full access to its students is liable to lose all federal funding - even though FAIR said military recruitment practices are unconstitutional and are against University guidelines.
According to University guidelines, no employer will be given access to the campus to recruit students for employment if their guidelines for employment are discriminatory. Yet, according to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding sexuality, no openly homosexual person can enlist with the military.
Regardless of these guidelines, in compliance with the Solomon Amendment, the University does provide full access to the military recruitment. Recruiters are allowed to gather information pertaining to students, including their telephone numbers and school of enrollment.
Mark Maben, the director of strategic communications at the University, said according to University guidelines, all vendors or employers recruiting students for jobs are required to sign an Equal Employment Opportunity Contract before being allowed to conduct any business on campus. However, Maben said U.S. military recruiters do not have to sign such a contract.
"The effect of the Solomon Amendment is that it forces colleges and universities to allow the military to recruit regardless of campus policies, and that is essentially why they recruit on our campus, ... because the Solomon amendment jeopardizes everybody's federal funding, [it] essentially forces your hand," Maben said.
Although a specific number of total federal funds was unavailable, $151 million dollars went to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs in 2003. That particular office receives the bulk of the federal funding at the University, Maben said. Tuition fees and state-appropriated funds still make up the main source of the University's funding.
If the University chose to limit the military's access to students for employment opportunities based on the military's policy on homosexuality, the University stands to lose millions in federal funding, said Jason Redd, the student representative to the Board of Governors and the student co-chair of the Equal Opportunity Committee. It was the EOC that researched the resolution to the Senate.
"If they were to not allow them come and recruit, they would be penalized. The whole University would be losing [federal] funding," Redd said.
The FAIR lawsuit pertains directly to law schools because law students are actively sought by the military to be employed by the Judge Advocate General's Corps, which provides legal service for the military and its soldiers. A number of law schools - some of which remain anonymous in fear of retribution - comprise FAIR, Redd said.
According to the resolution, "The equal rights of LGBT students are jeopardized because the Solomon Amendment requires the Rutgers University Law Schools to suspend the nondiscrimination policy with respect to recruitment efforts of the Department of Defense Judge Advocate General's Office."
"If another employer wanted to come on campus and recruit but was openly discriminatory, we wouldn't let them come on campus," Redd said. However, "We don't have an issue with army or any military branch coming on campus to recruit for the law school."
"We want them to recruit all of our students and take the best students. [Instead] they are taking the best students that are not openly gay," Redd said.
The University's anti-discrimination guidelines against the restrictions outlined under the Solomon Amendment is a "classic case of conflicting authorities," said Mary Hawkesworth - faculty co-chair of the EOC.
"The only way to deal with [these conflicting authorities] is through litigation," Hawkesworth said.
The idea behind the University joining the FAIR v. Rumsfeld lawsuit stemmed from the work of Peter Simmons, a University professor at the School of Law in Newark. Simmons brought the idea of joining the FAIR lawsuit before the Law School faculty meeting last semester, which subsequently endorsed the idea and submitted it to the Senate Executive Committee, who passed it on to the EOC co-chaired by Redd and Hawkesworth.
As to whether the Solomon Act is in violation of First Amendment rights, Simmons said that is for the courts to decide. "The way we get definitive answers is by asking courts, and so I think it's a reasonable position and one that ought to be raised because a lot of people feel very strongly about it," Simmons said.
Even though the University Senate is an advisory committee for McCormick, Hawkesworth said, "We are optimistic that the president will take our advice."
As to when McCormick may possibly present the idea of the University joining the FAIR lawsuit to the BOG, Hawkesworth said the BOG agendas are usually established months in advance, so it probably will not come up at its next meeting on April 8.
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