Mullen Talks DADT, ROTC at Columbia

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke Sunday at the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University in New York City, where he said that repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy could bring “significant” improvements in the sometimes fractious relationship between the military and the nation’s elite colleges over the schools’ ban on the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

The afternoon discussion, which focused heavily on the subjects of veterans’ resources and policy toward Iran, inaugurated a series called "Conversations With the Country," described by Mullen as “an effort to connect with communities throughout the country.”

During the question-and-answer session following initial remarks, a 1968 graduate garnered applause when he asked about the possibility of the campus reestablishing the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC), which was expelled in 1969 during protests over the Vietnam War. Students wishing to participate currently travel to other campuses in the area to train.

“Actually, we talked about this whole issue over lunch, and this is part of what I believe is a transformative moment, that there are opportunities out there now, that it might be time to do that,” said Mullen. “I think representation, in particular, universities in the Northeast, would be of great benefit to the universities as well as the military as well as the country.”

Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, who spoke onstage with Mullen, said the existence of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy remains the “principal problem” that must be fixed in order to rebuild some Ivy League schools’ fractured relationship with the military.

”I think the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is the crucial, really been a critical divide, and it’s been going on since the late 1980s, even before that, and the debate became much more difficult over the past five to 10 years,” he said. “With this new direction, I think there are enormous opportunities, not only with respect to ROTC but to other things as well.”