NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale University has agreed to bring back the ROTC for the first time in decades after Congress voted to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
Yale President Richard Levin and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus planned to sign an agreement Thursday that establishes the Naval ROTC’s formal presence at Yale for the first time since the early 1970s. Harvard University welcomed the Reserve Officers Training Corp back in March.
The ROTC left prominent universities amid anti-Vietnam War sentiment, including Stanford. Colleges more recently kept it off campus because of the military’s policy on gays, which they considered discriminatory. Congress repealed the so-called don’t ask, don’t tell policy in December.
Last month the Stanford Faculty Senate voted to invite the ROTC back to campus.
A handful of Yale students have been involved with ROTC, but they must attend training at other colleges.
