Debate continues about whether to allow ROTC on the Columbia campus, with an important meeting of the Student Affairs Committee scheduled for Friday of this week. The committee will discuss a resolution drafted by the University Senate Executive Committee that some say expresses support for ROTC and others say is “wishy-washy” and makes no clear statement.

But a new wrinkle has surfaced in the debate: The draft being considered “makes no mention of Columbia’s nondiscrimination policy,” according to an article at the Columbia Spectator. “Some students oppose an ROTC return because the military does not accept transgender individuals, which they argue would violate Columbia’s nondiscrimination policy.”

From the Spectator article:

Avi Edelman, CC ’11 and president of Everyone Allied Against Homophobia, who opposes ROTC on nondiscrimination grounds, called it “mind-boggling” that the University’s nondiscrimination policy has not seen greater discussion among senators and administrators. The policy bars organizations from discriminating on the basis of gender identity.
“We’re preparing to initiate actions that would undermine a policy that’s been written and voted on and enforced for years, and no one’s talking about that,” Edelman said.

I wonder how the ROTC will handle that objection, what with the Army’s fervent commitment to “diversity” and determination to erase sexual differences.