Counter-Recruitment Day Sweeps U.S. Colleges
by Maya Schenwar

On December 6, the "ivory tower" will send a message back. In court, the oral argument will be presented for FAIR v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court case which will decide the fate of the Solomon Amendment. On the street, thousands of students, teachers and peace activists will participate in the National Day of Counter-Recruitment, holding rallies and educational events in almost every major city. The day of protest, organized by Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) and endorsed by Cindy Sheehan, Howard Zinn and Kathy Kelly, is expected to be the largest student counter-recruitment action organized around the Iraq War to date.

"A military that is an unequal employer and that funnels people into an immoral war should not be able to recruit on campus," said Ian Chinich, a member of Rutgers Anti-War and an organizer of the December 6 protest. "We hope that the public and the anti-war movement realize that counter-recruitment is one of the most effective strategies for fighting against the war and is also a moral imperative."

Yet the Solomon Amendment now curbs most counter-recruiting efforts: schools that prohibit recruiters or do not provide them with "equal access" to campus are denied all federal funding. In 2002, the law was toughened, so that even if only one department of a university-for example, its law school-bars recruiters from campus, all federal funds are withheld, including critical money for medical and psychological research that the nation depends on.

Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), a national organization of law schools that is serving as the plaintiff in the case against the Solomon Amendment, argues that the mandate to allow recruiters on campus violates universities' constitutional right to freedom of speech.

"Just as civil rights advocates have a First Amendment right to boycott a racist business, law schools have a First Amendment right to boycott discriminatory employers," said Joshua Rosencrantz, one of FAIR's attorneys, who calls the Solomon legislation a violation of schools' right to freedom from compelled speech. He also cites a freedom of association violation: the Solomon Amendment attempts to control the people and organizations with whom universities ally themselves.

Though the parties challenging the Solomon Amendment in court oppose recruiters mainly for their discriminatory policies, the organizers of the December 6 day of protest also oppose them on anti-war grounds. The Solomon Amendment makes the military's messages of violence a mandatory part of students' college experience, says Counter-Recruitment Day endorser Kathy Kelly, who coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence in Chicago.

"It is foolish and dangerous to rule that U.S. education facilities must instill military culture and the solutions pursued by the U.S. military in every institution of higher learning," Kelly said.

Counter-Recruitment Day organizers also hold that military recruiters use deceptive, manipulative strategies to convince students to enlist. The recruitment drive is aimed primarily at lower-income Americans, says Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, an NYU student and a head organizer with CAN.

"Recruiters take advantage of the inequality and segregation of this country, in which a whole segment of society is written off, and hold up joining the military as a way out," Wrigley-Field said.

According to a recent CAN report, recruiters often lead students to believe that joining the military will enable them to pay for a college education. Yet only 15 percent of soldiers complete a college degree, and less than 10 percent use Army funds to do so. In terms of job training-another promise the military makes to new recruits-an American Friends Service Committee report notes that veterans earn 11 to 19 percent less than non-veterans with similar backgrounds.

"It's very sad to realize that young people graduate from colleges loaded up with loans to repay and that one of the only means to get assistance with education is to enlist in the military," Kelly said. "How much wiser it would be if U.S. wealth and productivity could be directed toward assisting young people, with no requirement to join the military; to learn languages, learn skills desperately needed in third world countries, and learn the basics of community development."

Counter-recruitment, then, is not simply about getting recruiters out of the schools: it's about presenting young people with alternatives to enlisting. Many of the Counter-Recruitment Day actions will involve direct protests staged at recruiting stations, in which protestors will distribute information to potential recruits. The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, an endorser of the Dec. 6 protests and a key player in the counter-recruitment movement, councils prospective recruits in the dangers of military involvement, non-military ways to finance college and alternative service learning opportunities.

In the past couple of months, the counter-recruitment movement has seen a string of successes. Sixty percent of voters in San Francisco approved a proposition last month to kick recruiters off campuses and fund non-military scholarships. The first national student-organized anti-recruitment day, Not Your Soldier Day of Action, rocked 40 campuses on November 17. As the verdict on FAIR v. Rumsfeld draws closer, activists are crossing their fingers for another victory, hoping that if given the chance, schools will say no to recruiters on campus.

"The majority is with us in opposing the war and military recruitment," Wrigley-Field said. "It's time to get that majority organized to get recruiters out of our schools."

To find out about National Counter-Recruitment Day events near you, see www.campusantiwar.net.

-- Maya Schenwar is a recent graduate from Swarthmore College and has written for In These Times and Conscious Choice magazines, as well as for Common Dreams. Her work has been syndicated on Alternet, the Alternative Press Review, Chicago Indy Media and U-Wire. She loves to sing, write stories, dance around the kitchen and think of good names for bands she will never have.