Discriminatory policies spark symposium

Author: Caroline S. Stauffer

In response to issues raised last spring after a member of the United States Marine Corps was permitted to recruit on campus, the Dean of Student Affairs Office has organized a conference entitled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Solomon Amendment: Practices and Purposes" to take place Friday, Jan. 26.

The Community Council and the faculty each passed resolutions following Captain David Doucette's February 2005 visit to campus. The resolutions from both organizations recommended eliminating a clause in the College recruitment policy that permits employers who cannot sign the College's recruiting form because of discriminating employment policies to recruit on campus after giving a presentation explaining and answering questions about the policy. In May, after consulting with the Board of Trustees and administrators at other colleges in the NESCAC, President Ronald D. Liebowitz announced that the College's recruitment policy would remain unchanged, a move that generated some controversy among members of the community.

Associate Dean of Student Affairs Karen Guttentag expressed hope that Friday's conference would educate the College community on some of the issues raised in the spring of 2005.

"Although members of the community clearly had strong feelings about this issue, many of these discussions tended to conflate four distinct policies - Middlebury's nondiscrimination policy, Middlebury's campus recruitment policy, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and the Solomon Amendment - into one amorphous object," she said. "We have organized this conference in hopes of enhancing the quality of our community-wide discussions of these issues, and in particular, elevating our understanding of the ban on gays in the military, the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy that guides its enforcement and the Solomon Amendment."

The conflict between colleges, many of which only allow recruiters that pledge not to discriminate in any manner, including by sexual orientation, and the government's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward gays in the military has received national attention because, according to the 1997 Solomon Amendment, "institutions of higher education that prevent Reserve Officer Training Corp access or military recruiting on campus can be subjected to the denial of grants and contracts from the Department of Defense, Department of Education and certain other departments and agencies."

The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), a group of law schools and professors, sued Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the grounds that the Solomon Amendment is unconstitutional. The decision is being considered by the Supreme Court following the Third Circuit Court of Appeals preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the Solomon Amendment.

Vermont Law School (VLS), which was one of three law schools in the country to forgo federal grants in order to continue to bar military recruiters from campus, hosted a conference entitled "Serving with Pride: Gays in the Military" in early October.

Guttentag and colleagues invited Sharon Alexander, along with Kent Greenfield and Gerald Walpin to Middlebury after hearing them speak at the VLS Conference.

"It was an excellent and informative conference, and we thought our community would benefit tremendously from hearing these experts," Guttentag said. "Each represents organizations involved in high-impact pending litigation on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and the Solomon Amendment."

In selecting speakers for the conference, Guttentag said the organizers strove for equilibrium. "Ultimately, our goal in selecting speakers was to provide a balanced array of perspectives and diverse areas of expertise so that audience members would emerge feeling educated and literate about these policies and their nuances," she said.

The conference, which will take place in Charles A. Dana Auditorium, is split into two parts. From 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. Alexander, deputy director for policy at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and John Allen Williams, professor of political science at Loyola University in Chicago will give a brief history of pertinent issues and answer questions from the audience.

"It is important to note that part one of the program is not a 'pro-con' format or a debate," Guttentag said. "Both speakers are discussing different aspects of the ban on gays in the military."

The second part of the conference, scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start, will consist of a debate and discussion on the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment featuring four expert panelists and will also include questions from the audience. The panelists for this portion of the conference are Boston College Law School Professor Greenfield, who is the founder and president of FAIR, Gerald Walpin, from the board of directors at the Center for Individual Rights, Professor and former President of the VLS L. Kinvin Wroth and Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science at Middlebury College Murray Dry, an authority on American constitutional law.