NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — ROTC programs are coming back to some Ivy League universities four decades after Vietnam War protesters cheered their departure.
Yale, Harvard and Columbia signed agreements this year to revive ROTC following the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the policy that banned gays from serving openly in the armed services.
But the change is mainly symbolic on campuses where a new generation of students is neither organizing against them nor lining up to enlist.
Yale has only three students pursuing ROTC through off-campus arrangements, but Dean Mary Miller says it's important to the university to make a path to military leadership available for students. She says the number will grow over time.
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps has 490 host units across the country, mostly in the South and Midwest.
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