How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Military recruiters who visited NYU's School of Law yesterday encountered opposition from several members of the NYU community who protested the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
Images
NYU OUTLaw, an organization for LGBT law students and their supporters, organized a rally against the Judge Advocate General's Corps' presence on campus; JAG Corps is the legal branch of the armed forces.
Elliott Farren, a second-year law student who joined the protest, believes the JAG Corps is "effectively blackmailing our school."
"They couldn't come here with their hiring policy if it weren't for the fact that they could turn off their federal funding," Farren said, alluding to the ruling of the 2006 Supreme Court case FAIR v. Rumsfeld, which held that military recruiters must be allowed access to law school campuses or else the government could withhold federal funding.
Though NYU has a strict anti-discrimination policy, the university could lose roughly $130 million a year in government funds if it doesn't allow access to the military, according to a 2005 press release from the Office of Public Affairs. But NYU spokesman John Beckman said that number has most likely increased since 2005.
"We would prefer not to have the military recruiting on campus because of its discriminatory policies, but the law insidiously pits two important university principles against one another: our support for the rights of the LGBT community and our commitment to our scholars being able to pursue their research," Beckman said.
Second-year law student Scott Blair, political action co-chair of OUTLaw, helped to distribute pamphlets and ribbons at the group's tables at Vanderbilt and Furman halls.
"Our concern with Don't Ask, Don't Tell is that it is discriminatory," Blair said. "It treats gays and lesbians as threats to their unit and ignores the valuable service played by queer men and women in uniform."
Farren agreed with Blair.
"At a time when the military is stretched so thin, firing some of the fittest people because they are gay is foolish," he said.
NYU law students are planning a letter-writing campaign, as well as a visit to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's Lobby Day event, an annual event where thousands of people gather to oppose Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Second-year law student Lisa Nowlin, co-chair of OUTLaw, said the organization is encouraging students to attend the event and write letters opposing the policy to congressmen.
"I think the general people have reached a consensus that [Don't Ask, Don't Tell] is no longer necessary," Nowlin said. "Hopefully, we can reach a change in the next year or two."
