While approximately 125 demonstrators stood outside their Nassau Hall meeting room, the Board of Trustees Saturday approved, 30-4, the return of the Army and Air Force ROTC to the Princeton Campus in September, 1972.
The trustees' action, endorsing the proposed contract terms negotiated by the ad hoc committee on ROTC, followed the Dec. 10 recommendation of the board's executive committee that the contracts be accepted. Formal signing of the agreements is expected before the end of the month, according to President Goheen.
Saturday's vote reversed the trustees' June, 1970, decision to phase out undergraduate military training, and came 13 months after the Undergraduate Assembly reopened the ROTC debate by calling for its reinstatement as an extracurricular activity.
Goheen said the board's final discussion was "not very long because it has been debated so many times before."
However, Goheen reported to the board on the advisory votes taken by various compontent bodies of the university, as well as mail and petitions representing "broad cross sections" of the university community urging either approval or disapproval of the proposed contracts.
Goheen said the trustees were persuaded to vote for the return of ROTC by what he termed "a change in relation of ROTC to the universtiy."
Among the points specifically enumerated by the president and trustees were: - A proposed contract settlement that preserves the "full integrity" and "academic life and standards" of the university; - The fact that entering freshmen are no longer eligible for II-S student draft deferments; - That the trustees were impressed by what the Executive Committee termed "a substantial revival of concern to permit the ROTC option to be open to students who want it;" - That many trustees, including those opposed to current national policy, believed the ROTC issue should not be tied to Vietnam and that the presence of ROTC-trained officers is a beneficial and liberalizing influence upon the military.
The trustees believe the contracts negotiated by the ad hoc committee satisfied the university's objective of maintaining its "integrity," particularly in the areas of course credit and academic rank for ROTC personnel, and in there being no net cost to the unviersity, according to Goheen. The terms include: - A recognition of "sole university prerogative" in determination of any academic credit for ROTC courses; - A designation of the senior officer of an ROTC detachment as "Director of the Officer Education Program." The senior officers would be given a rank of equivalent to that of professor, but neither the title nor the exclusive faculty prerogatives of professors. - Operation of the programs at "no net cost" to the university, because the value of ROTC scholarships expected to offset the program's operating costs. - Description of the ROTC programs as "integral elements" of the university, rather than as "integral academic and administrative departments" as defined in preceding contracts.
Goheen said the university would "probably not be able" to reach a similar agreement to retain Navy ROTC because of the Navy's reluctance to negotiate on several of the issues involved.
Negotiations with that branch, whose contract with Princeton expires in June, have been held in abeyance pending the outcome of talks with the other services.
