ROTC Proposal

Wow, this week has been a busy one! For the past few days, the SGA has decided to be more proactive in the discussion to bring an ROTC site to UMBC. We had 2 emergency Senate meetings the past two days hoping to come to some sort of conclusion. The first meeting included both old and new Senators, but not everyone was present. After 2 hours, we decided to take an informal vote between both Senates, and the results split. Yesterday, we decided to hold another meeting mainly to record the pros and cons to present at the University Steering Committee. In addition, students outside the SGA, including members of Freedom Alliance and ROTC, attended the meeting and voiced their opinions.

Together, we compiled quite a lengthy list. The pros included $400,000 per year for ROTC cadets, the addition of the ROTC site would add a piece of diversity to campus, our future leaders in the military would be UMBC graduates, and the possibility to have some ground to change the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. The cons included establishing an institution that goes against UMBC's non-discrimination policy, the fact that much of due process and shared governance is being skipped over, some students would not feel comfortable on campus, a general lack of information about the details of the program, and also the timing during finals.

After 2 hours of discussion and deliberation, the new Senators decided that they wanted to take a position on this issue. Since this was not a formal meeting, they could not cast a formal binding vote. However, they decided to informally vote on the question "Do you support UMBC submitting an application for ROTC site status at this time?" The votes were 3 yes, 7 no, and 1 abstained.

Formally or not, the SGA Senate was the only senate not to vote yes for the submitting of an application at this time. However, the decision has not been made yet, and it is uncertain when we will find out. At the University Steering Committee meeting, we discussed what action we need to take for both scenarios. If this does not go through, we need to continue having the discussion of bringing ROTC here in the proper fashion in order for us to make a clear decision when the opportunity arises again. If this does go through, major work would need to be done over the summer to make sure that the logistics of this program work out for the better. Either way, there will be people who are not happy at all with the decision, and as a community, we will need to come together to get through it.