McDonald's is a better employer than the U.S. Military. Normally, my flesh crawls as I watch Big Macs super-size our nation and mar the global landscape, but today the underdog has the upper hand. Yes, given a choice between the two, I would sooner like to see the golden arches on the University's campus than those golden stars for the simple reason the McDonald's statement of employment reads, "McDonalds is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse workforce."
It's a whopper I know, but most Americans have caught on to the whole equal rights thing, even incorporating it into policies. However, the military still hasn't gotten hip to nondiscrimination.
The military wants to be down with the self-actualization and optimism being preached so feverishly today in all of their ad campaigns. They want you to be all that you can be - but only if you're straight.
Now, if I were a citizen, no amount of the "chance of a lifetime" propaganda could get me to enlist in the army. However, if you want to become a global Super Trooper, you should have as much of a chance as the next person, regardless of race, class or the gender to which you are attracted.
Joseph Steffan was kicked out of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., just days before graduation because he was gay. The fact he was in the top 10 percent of his class just wasn't good enough - he had to have a girlfriend too.
"I'm discouraged," Steffan said. "In terms of the tenor of the debate, we've lost ground. I've come to appreciate the power of hatred. We're being portrayed as inherently immoral disease-carriers unable to control their sexuality. I think people realize it's wrong to kick gay people out of the military. But they have been made afraid."
"I think what's going on in the military," he said, "is denial and perpetuating the myth that the military is the last bastion of white male heterosexuality. It's the same kind of attitude that causes events like the Tailhook incident: This male arrogant elitism that the military is an institution for a few, for one small segment of our society."
Discrimination in America is not socially acceptable, but apparently, if you have the unfaltering might of the U.S. Military, discrimination is OK. It's the old "might equals right" equation.
The 1996 Solomon Amendment allows the government to withhold federal funds from academic institutions if they deny military recruiters access to their students. The legislation, which was passed 343-81, says universities have to give military recruiters access to campus and students equal in quality and scope as access provided to equal opportunity employers. It also requires colleges with ROTC programs to submit an annual report to the secretary of defense confirming they will continue to support those programs and to allow the Department of Defense to have a unit of the Senior Officer Training Corps on their campuses.
Kent Greenfield, a law professor at Boston College, founded the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, an association of 15 law schools - including the New York University School of Law and George Washington University Law School - that filed the first of the law suits against the Defense Department over the military's right to recruit on law school campuses.
"We can't teach our students about justice if our students are being treated unfairly at our own institution," Greenfield said.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the department began using the Solomon Amendment to force law schools to actively assist the military in its recruiting efforts. Mr. Greenfield calls this a violation of the First Amendment's right to free speech and free association.
I'm glad someone is seeing the light.
According to University guidelines, no employer will be given access to the campus to recruit if they have discriminatory employment practices, such as the military's policy of not allowing any openly gay person to enlist.
A resolution passed by the University Senate this year asked University President Richard L. McCormick to seek authorization from the University's Board of Governors to join a lawsuit with the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights against current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in order to get the Solomon Amendment declared unconstitutional. However, McCormick - like many other university presidents - decided to "respectfully decline," and Rutgers will continue to provide full access to the military recruitment. Recruiters are allowed to gather information pertaining to students, including their telephone numbers and school of enrollment. If you are not an international student and the feds don't get your private information through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, rest assured they will get it some other way.
Faced with the nasty prospect of losing millions in federal aid, law schools such as Harvard and Boston College have backed down from their bans and allowed military recruiters to have a field day on their campuses, regardless of discriminatory practices.
Rutgers does not have the audacity to challenge the mighty military and their ample coffers, and neither do most schools. Big Brother - oops - I mean, the army knows this and will continue to bully universities and get them to violate their policies regarding sexual discrimination in campus recruiting. Pretty impressive. It sure puts my former high school bully Big Fred and his locker-stuffing technique to shame.
With enrollment declining, the military is feeding off that stockpile of able-bodied, impressionable and unemployed potential recruits that are U.S. universities. The military doesn't care about violating the Bill of Rights in order to rake 'em in. Rumor has it we might even be seeing a return of the draft. If you're straight and a U.S. citizen, the army wants you, but students should ask of their universities, "Do we want the army?"
Annika Mengisen is a Livingston College junior majoring in journalism and photography. Her column "A Generation Yawns," appears on alternating Tuesdays. She welcomes comments at annika477@aol.com.
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