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SDS Plan to Expel ROTC Set to Go Before Faculty

By James M. Fallows

The December Faculty meeting will consider an SDS petition to expel ROTC from the campus, while a milder resolution aimed only at removing ROTC's academic status will remain in the Committee on Education Policy (CEP).

Ford said yesterday that Hillary Putnam, professor of Philosophy, plans to introduce a resolution calling for ROTC's removal from the campus at the Faculty meeting on December 3. Putnam's resolution will be similar to one passed at an SDS meeting on Monday, Ford said. Putnam was not available last night to comment on the report, but several SDS members confirmed that Putnam would present the SDS resolution.

The SDS resolution calls for the removal of ROTC on "moral" grounds, charging that ROTC training "supports America's policy of suppressing popular revolutions."

Five Steps

The resolution also lists five specific steps--including denying ROTC the use of any campus buildings and replacing ROTC scholarships with Harvard financial aid--to oust ROTC from the University.

At the SDS meeting, members had threatened to "physically confront" Ford and the Faculty if they did not consider the resolution at the December meeting.

Meanwhile, the CEP met yesterday to discuss a milder attack on ROTC. Six undergraduate representatives--four from the Harvard-Radcliffe Policy Committee (HRPC) and two from the Harvard Undergraduate Council (HUC)--presented arguments for removing academic credit from ROTC courses and denying ROTC instructors their corporation appointments.

HRPC Report

Both the HRPC and the HUC had passed resolutions earlier this month asking for changes in ROTC's academic status, and the HRPC issued a ten-page report on Sunday attacking "the role of the military in a liberal arts institution."

The CEP took no formal action on the student demands yesterday. Dean Glimp, however, said he was beginning a week-long study of ROTC problems at other colleges. Glimp said he would report his findings to a special CEP meeting next Wednesday.

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