The Residence Hall Association and the Student Government passed pieces of competing legislation in the past few weeks over whether military recruiters should be allowed on campus.
The General Assembly, the SG's legislative arm, passed a bill in late September calling for the university to ban military recruiters from campus. In response, the RHA passed a resolution last week in opposition to the SG, calling for the university to "continue to welcome military recruiters to campus."
The GA bill, which echoes similar resolutions passed by AU's Student Bar Association and the Graduate Leadership Council, was brought before the assembly in response to a November 2004 federal court ruling allowing universities to bar military recruiters from their campuses without risking the loss of federal money. Congress's Solomon Amendment of 1995 requires campuses to offer full recruiting access to the military or risk being denied certain federal funds. This legislation is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
AU posts a notice at job fairs stating that "an employer recruiting today, the United States Military, discriminates in its hiring practices on the basis of sexual orientation." The notice references the Solomon Amendment to explain why the recruiters are allowed at the job fairs, according to the GA bill.
Representative Chris Sgro, the author of the GA bill, said the RHA resolution "goes one step beyond the university's policy and actually welcomes [recruiters] onto campus," which violates the university's nondiscrimination clause.
Washington College of Law student Ryan Butler said the authors of the RHA bill, which was sponsored by Letts Hall President Nicholas Thorpe, "had no chance of any legitimate student government adopting their discriminatory stance." Butler said they wrote a confusing bill in order to get the RHA to vote "in favor of discrimination."
RHA President Will Mount said the RHA bill, which was passed by a 15-3 margin, has been misinterpreted and as a result, his organization has been "slandered as anti-gay [and] homophobic." Many organizations have attempted to "informally threaten" the RHA by removing their representatives from the group, Mount said.
Mount clarified that the RHA opposes the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy instituted during President Clinton's administration to deal with gays in the military. The RHA is working on a campaign to change that policy but it does not believe that the solution is the removal of military recruiters from campus, Mount said.
The RHA bill points out that the Solomon Amendment is still valid law until overturned by the Supreme Court. Mount said the "questionable outcome" of the pending case was one of the reasons for their opposition to the GA bil, Mount said.
Mount said the RHA also opposed the ban on recruiters because their removal "would severely degrade the employment opportunities of our current and graduating residents."
Butler disagrees.
"I think that if any student really wanted to join the army, they certainly would know how to find them," he said. "They have commercials on television, a website and, I don't know about you, but they're the only people who have randomly called me at home and offered me a job."
Mount also voiced his concern that barring recruiters could be the start of a "slippery slope" and questioned who would be banned from campus next. The RHA is concerned military students might view the SG resolution as "strongly undervaluing their heroic contributions to the United States," he said.
However, the GA bill included specific amendments to stipulate that ROTC students would not be affected unless they are in the process of active recruiting.
Some SG members question whether the RHA should be taking a stand on policy issues such as this one. Sgro characterized this subject as "well outside of RHA's purview" and SG Secretary Joseph Vidulich said the RHA overstepped its bounds. Vidulich pointed out that the GA largely stays out of RHA matters and the RHA should do likewise.
Adam Poulemanos, the RHA vice president of advocacy and community coordination, wrote on the RHA website that their group's constitution authorizes them to "advocate for issues affecting students living in university residences," which he believes makes this issue relevant to the RHA, he wrote.
The original GA bill, which was approved by a nearly unanimous vote, became SG policy without the signature of SG president Kyle Taylor. Taylor said he would have signed it if given the opportunity but the Speaker of the GA, Richard Bradbury, opposed the bill and chose not to sign it or turn it over to him. Under GA rules, resolutions passed by the GA automatically become law if they are not signed or vetoed by the president within five days.
Bradbury, who is not running for a Senate seat in the upcoming elections, also failed last week to get two Ladner-related bills to Taylor in time for the SG president to consider them.
