Combat and the campus

As military recruiters come to schools, some groups take issue

By Donna Taketa
The Collegian

He looks like any other college student— jeans, T-shirt, backpack.

But on days when he wears his military fatigues, ROTC cadet Lee Vue can be recognized as a United States’ soldier.

Vue entered the Army Reserve Officer Training Course program two years ago just as criticism of military recruiting began to escalate. Since joining, Vue said he and his fellow cadets have heard derogatory comments from some outside the program.

“It’s true there is some negative stuff, but you’re doing your job and this is coming from people who don’t know what it’s like,” Vue said.

Military recruitment on college campuses has been under fire in recent years, and is even discouraged at some universities due to disapproval of recruiting techniques and U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

At Fresno State, a campus group opposes recruitment especially of students. Campus recruiters defend the practice.

“We strike up conversations with people who don’t know about the Army,” said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Seidel, an Army recruiter in Clovis. “Most of them had no idea they were going to join until they talked with a recruiter.”

Recruiters representing the Army, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard are often present at campus career fairs and also reserve spots in the Free Speech Area.

Protesters haven’t yet approached Capt. Vaughn Williams, a Marine recruiter out of Sacramento.

“I’ve heard about it, but haven’t experienced it,” he said. “But I know it’s going to happen eventually.”

The Marines visit Fresno State every other month and in the last year have recruited five students.

However, there are some students who feel recruiting on campus isn’t appropriate.

“You have them going into schools kind of promoting, ‘don’t go to college. Go to the war and serve your country,’” said Elizabeth Trujillo, president of the Campus Peace and Civil Liberties Coalition.

The group initially formed to oppose the war in Iraq and protested an Army recruitment booth on campus during Vintage Days in April earlier this year.

“I mean what are you fighting for?” asked Trujillo of the soldiers she’ watched on TV dying in Iraq. “It’s not a matter of serving your country, it’s just basically we don’t feel this is a just war.”

The group of 15 students wanted to share its perspective with enlisters during the Vintage Days protest.

They handed out flyers and during the event banged drums. Campus police were notified, but the police left soon after arriving.

“It was a misrepresentation of the Army. However, it was within their right,” Seidel said of the flyers Campus Peace distributed. Seidel was working at the Army booth that day.

From his vantage point, Seidel said he noticed many civilians getting upset and that the protest actually attracted more people to the Army booth. Two people signed up that day.

“No one was violent,” Trujillo said. “Some people were hostile to us, but that’s to be expected.”

Similar counter-recruiting protests have occurred at college campuses across the country. Protests this year have occurred at UC Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Illinois at Chicago, among others.

Harvard law school has banned military recruiters completely, reported BostonNews.com. It specifically opposes the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which it says discriminates against homosexuals. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on whether government funds can be withheld from colleges that don’t allow recruiters on their campuses for this reason, according to a May USA Today article.

The effect of counter-recruiting may be having an impact on enlistment numbers.

For the first time since 1999 the Army didn’t meet its recruiting goal for the 2005 fiscal year. Its goal was 54,935 for active duty enlistments, but it only signed up 47,121, a report from the Department of Defense said. All other branches met or exceeded their quota.

The Army has also experienced the highest number of casualities so far during the Iraq War. Of the 1,911 deaths from March 2003 to September 2005, 67 percent were Army, reported the DOD Web site. The Marines have the next highest casualty count with more than 550 deaths.

At the Army recruiting station in Clovis, Seidel said he has already exceeded his monthly quota and estimates the overall recruitment total for the station has increased 15 to 20 percent from last year’s numbers.

Part 2 Wednesday

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