Spot Poll-We Asked 50 Students:

ASSUMING THAT THE NEW DON'T-ASK-DON'T-TELL POLICY FOR GAYS IN THE MILITARY PASSES CONGRESS, SHOULD THE DARTMOUTH TRUSTEES DROP THEIR THREAT TO PULL OUT OF ROTC?

LAST YEAR THE TRUSTEES Declared that the current Pentagon policy violates Dartmouth's own non-discrimination policy. They vowed to discontinue Army Reserve Officer Training Corps in April 1993 if the Defense Department's ban prohibiting homosexuals from serving in the military was still in place. Anticipating Clinton's probable plans to lift the ban, the Trustees agreed to postpone their decision until next April. With the recently announced compromise—which allows homosexuals to serve in the military provided that they keep their sexual orientation and practices College's choice has become even more complicated.

Of the 50 students we questioned, 74 percent felt that the Trustees should now drop their threat to discontinue ROTC while the remaining 26 percent urged the Trustees to follow through with their promise to end the program.

Those wishing ROTC to remain reasoned that the financial aid allows men and women to attend first-rate institutions like Dartmouth. "To eliminate ROTC would be to deprive those potential students with less than adequate means of a Dartmouth education and would deprive our nation's military of many bright potential leaders," said Garland Allison '95. Opponents.argued that alternative forms of aid could take up the slack if ROTC Were discontinued.

But the issue stirring up students most was whether the Clinton compromise is up to the College's equal-opportunity standards. The editors of The Dartmouth say no. "The revised plan...does not go far enough to acquit the military of its discriminatory policy and allow the ROTC program to continue on campus," an editorial stated last summer. Anti-ROTC students agree that the policy remains discriminatory. It "still presents the idea that homosexual behavior can and should be hidden under the 'normal' guise of heterosexuality," argues Charmaine Oakley '95.

While students acknowledged that the compromise would not satisfy all parties, many agreed that it was a sound beginning to an intricate question. "It would be counter-productive to abolish the program just when the situation is starting to improve," said Christopher Ferry '95. In our informal, unscientific e-mail poll, Ferry's opinion was in the overwhelming majority.