Will Military Recruiters Get the Boot?

Supreme Court to rule on whether recruiters can be banned from college campuses.

Many higher education institutions deny access to recruiters for employers that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, along with race, sex, and religion. Some schools consider the military to be one of those employers, because under its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, the U.S. prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces.

In 1994, Congress attempted to resolve this conflict by passing the so-called Solomon Amendment , a law mandating equal access for military recruiters. Colleges and universities that refuse to comply with the requirement risk the loss of federal funds.

Claiming that the Solomon Amendment violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association, a group of law schools and law faculties sued. Last year, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the statute because it requires schools to embrace and disseminate the military's message that discrimination against gays and lesbians is acceptable. 

Now the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the federal government can cut off funds to higher education institutions that refuse to allow military representatives to recruit on campus. The Court's decision in the case, Rumsfeld v. FAIR, also could impact military recruitment in high schools.

A little-known provision of the No Child Left Behind law  (NCLB), Section 9528, requires school districts that receive federal funds to furnish military recruiters with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all secondary school students—and it guarantees military representatives the same on-campus access as recruiters for colleges and employers. But parents have the right under NCLB to refuse to allow the release of information about their children, and school districts are required to notify parents of that right. 

If the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates the Solomon Amendment, then Section 9528 would also be vulnerable to legal challenge.

Rumsfeld v. FAIR will be argued in December. A decision is not expected until after the first of the year. 

'Centers of Influence'?

It's no secret that the war in Iraq has hurt military enlistment. One clue: The Pentagon has published a "School Recruiting Program Handbook" to help Army personnel enlist high school students. The guide indicates that faculty and support professionals are key components in the strategy to "ensure...total market penetration" of high schools. And, it proclaims ambitiously, "The goal is school ownership that can only lead to a greater number of Army enlistments."

The handbook further cautions that "the relationship between Army recruiters and educators…is a potential source of comfort and conflict for both parties," and directs recruiters to "cultivate coaches, librarians, administrative staff, and teachers" as "COIs [Centers of Influence] in the school." 

To this end, the handbook recommends that recruiters "[d]eliver donuts and coffee for the faculty once a month," make presentations to faculty meetings, organize "an exhibition basketball game between the faculty and Army recruiters," dole out gifts to support staff ("pen, calendar, cup, donuts, etc."), and "always remember secretary's week with a card or flowers."

In a related development, the Department of Defense has contracted with a private marketing firm to organize and maintain a "private" database of personal information about potential recruits between the ages of 16 to 25—about 12 million youth—including date of birth, Social Security number ("where available"), address, phone number, e-mail address, ethnicity, gender, grade point average, level of education, field of study, and scores on various tests.

Expressing its desire "to protect the privacy rights of students," the 2005 NEA Representative Assembly voted to support amending federal law to require schools to obtain "specific parental or legal guardian consent before turning over student information to military recruiters."

—Michael D. Simpson, NEA Office of General Counsel