MOQA protests College policy

Author: Scott Greene

Members of the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA) demonstrated peacefully outside the Ross Dining Hall in conjunction with an information table sponsored by the United States Marine Corps on Nov. 13. The students protested against the College's allowance of such recruiting and challenged President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz to abide by an earlier promise to hold a public forum on the issue of military recruitment at academic institutions.

The demonstration took place in front of the U.S. Marine Corps' informational table, as well as a Privilege Week exhibition seeking to raise awareness about socioeconomic diversity. At one point, Liebowitz, Dean of the College Tim Spears, Secretary of the College John Emerson, Communications Director Mike McKenna and Dean of Institutional Diversity Shirley Ramirez all attended the event, speaking with the student protestors and the military recruiter.

The protests focused on what MOQA perceived as empty promises from President Liebowitz to more closely address the issue. A poster hung on the wall replacing the tradition Marine Corps slogan of "The Few, the Proud, the Marines" with "the Few, the Proud, the Closeted." In addition, several students carried posters reading "Ask me - I'll tell!" The demonstrators also displayed posters condemning the open access to students' information that the College must provide to recruiters. At one point, two female students dressed in military camouflage - and not associated with MOQA - started to kiss in front of the recruitment table.

Liebowitz defended his stance on military recruitment.

"Allowing the military to recruit on our campus does not mean our policies are like theirs, or that we as an institution support or agree with their policies," he said. "People should recognize this and not conflate the allowing of the military's presence with our non-discrimination policies. The College has a non-discrimination policy that it follows strictly, of course, and that reflects our values and practices. The military has a policy ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell") that allows gays and lesbians to serve, but does not allow gays and lesbians to acknowledge their sexuality. From my perspective this is wrong, unfair and hurts the country."

Dean of Institutional Diversity Shirley Ramirez said she completely supported the protests.

"I'm definitely in favor of having a community where students, faculty and staff are very thoughtful about how to engage folks, and I'm impressed with the approach that the students are taking," she said. "[Students] want to respect what the military is doing and I think that they want to engage the community.

The U.S. Marines recruited two students for its officer training program last year, and is working on a third student this year, according to the recruiter, Gunnery Sergeant Will Morgan Jr. He said the protests were not a problem and was pleased with his reception.

"That's the beauty of being here," he said. "I travel all over. I have over 38 different colleges that I go to and to see students express their feelings really makes me proud."

As for the challenge to come through on pledges to open up debate, Liebowitz said that in addition to the already-scheduled open form to discuss the issues of military recruitment policy on Nov. 26, the College also has been planning an additional event for some time.

"We will have three Congressman, all Democrats, here to discuss "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Solomon Amendment," he said. "I hope all those who oppose "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" can come to that event and let those responsible for the policy know what they think about it." The forum would likely be held in January.

"It's evident with everything that's happening on campus, with the energy that students are exhibiting that more conversation needs to be had, conversation that is educational, fruitful and has real outcomes in the community," Ramirez said.

MOQA held an impromptu meeting in Chellis House on the evening of Nov. 12 during which it organized Tuesday's protest. Many in attendance focused their comments on the College, arguing that its policy was hypocritical for still allowing groups with discriminatory recruitment policies to come to campus.

"Middlebury is not out of compliance with its own policy," said Michael Glidden. "It changed the policy so that it would be in compliance. It's a perfect opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of a college institution in its policy of allowing recruiters on campus."

The College, in accordance with federal law, must allow the military equal access to recruit on campus. Under the Solomon Amendment, if it chooses to deny access to the military, the College would lose funds that, Liebowitz wrote in a campus-wide e-mail, "would be difficult to replace from within our operating budget." The College received around $1.8 million of such funds in 2005. Glidden also claimed that besides the obvious violations of the College's non-discrimination policy, many fail to notice the privacy implications of allowing military recruitment on campus.

"It means that the College is providing, at request of any branch of the Defense Department, students' name, address and telephone listing, date of birth, date of graduation, current affiliations and major area of study," Glidden said. "So they aren't just saying the military can come here, but they're providing records at the privilege of receiving government grants. It's not just access to Ross that [the military] gets. It's a privacy issue."

Attended by around 15 people, those present at the meeting initially struggled to reach a consensus as to what the group would actually protest against: The military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," or the College's decision to allow the recruiters to operate on campus. They ultimately decided to focus the demonstration on the College itself.

"Most students on campus agree that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is not a good policy," said Molli Freeman-Lynde '08. "Nobody thinks the military is right to have this policy, it's no longer about that. The question is how is Middlebury handling it and how are they being open about it."

The College recently changed its policy regarding recruiting on campus as a result of a 2006 Supreme Court decision (FAIR vs. Rumsfeld) which unanimously upheld the Solomon Amendment.

In his letter to the College community, Liebowitz outlined the shift in College policy in response to the Supreme Court ruling. He also opposed prohibiting the military from recruiting on campus, despite his personal opposition to the military's recruitment policy.

"There is no acceptable reason to deny gays and lesbians the right to a career in the military, and the loss to our armed forces has been significant," Liebowitz wrote. "I nevertheless believe it would be wrong to ban the military from recruiting on our campus."

Liebowitz went on to defend his position, referring to the Supreme Court's upholding of the Solomon Amendment as "the law of the land" but rejecting the argument that the receipt of funds is the main reason for adhering to the law. Instead, he contended that allowing the military to recruit on campus reflects the mission of a liberal arts institution to expose students to as much of a plurality of opinion as possible so as to best facilitate a cultivation of individual opinion.

"In adhering to federal law, and allowing the military to recruit on campus, students at Middlebury will be exposed to an organization that has legal authority to differ in how it treats individuals on the basis of their sexuality than we do," Liebowitz wrote. "We are recognizing the complexities of the issue, and exposing our students to a different perspective from our own."

Still, members of MOQA deliberated about the proper way to demonstrate against the military recruiters in Ross. Some did not like the idea of aliena
ting and singling out the recruiters themselves for the military policy of their government.

"It creates the assumption that the military recruiter is straight, homophobic and agrees with the policy," Ryan Tauriainen '08 said, "but that person could be gay and serving in silence."

Though most agreed that they did not want to harass any one person but rather wanted to call attention to the current situation, some in the group took a more radical position on the idea of protest.

"I don't think we should necessarily support somebody who's trying to recruit people to the military when not everyone is having equal access to that opportunity, and so I don't understand why we always have to be the ones bowing down and say 'I'm not going to interfere,'" MOQA co-president Christine Bachman '09.5 said. "If we don't interfere, we aren't directly in someone's way, then nobody is going to take notice of us. It's the only way we're going to get noticed and the only way the policy will get changed."

While the protest focused on the College's own policy towards military recruitment, very little debate surrounds the military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," one which almost nobody in the College community defends. In fact, the policy itself is currently under siege in the U.S. House of Representatives with the introduction of H.R. 1246: Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2007.

The bill calls for an amendment to title ten of United States Code, "to enhance the readiness of the Armed Forces by replacing the current policy concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces, referred to as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', with a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation." The bill has 136 cosponsors who claim that the military dismisses two service members under the policy every day.

Aware of the status of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in Congress, students and members of MOQA decided to concentrate their protests on the College community. Others, however, were doubtful of the likely effects of protest towards College policy and remained cautious about the potential of their demonstrations.

"Having talked and gone to meetings and protested this same issue before, realistically we may not get very far in changing this policy, so the protest then becomes about not letting people forget," Freeman-Lynde said. "Personally I would love for Middlebury to say that we're committed to our 'supposed' nondiscrimination policy and are willing to forego federal funds for that," she added. "I want Middlebury to really stick to their guns and say 'we care about students being discriminated against and will not allow it.'"

Glidden guided the students in their deliberations at the MOQA meeting about how to make their demonstration as effective as possible. He led those in the corner of confronting Liebowitz over not following through on previous promises to initiate debate on the issue this term.

"Ask for the public forum," Glidden urged the students. "Demand that Ron Liebowitz hold this public forum. You've got how many weeks left in the semester? When the hell is this going to happen?"