Welcome
I invite you to discover the School of General Studies (GS) of Columbia University. GS is the finest liberal arts college in the country created specifically for students with nontraditional backgrounds who seek a traditional and rigorous Ivy League education. What you may not know is that GS has been educating military veterans for over 60 years.
Since World War II, the School of General Studies has served veterans who interrupted their education to serve their country. Like these military service women and men, most of the 1,200 degree students at GS have, for personal or professional reasons, interrupted their education, never attended college, or can only attend part-time. They bring a wealth of life experience to the classroom, and contribute in a unique way to the diversity and cultural richness of the University.
From a student's first semester, throughout his or her undergraduate career, and extending into the graduate's professional life, the transforming impact of a Columbia education is evident. We find that women and men from the United States armed forces have been and continue to be excellent candidates for our degree program.Please take a moment to learn more about our unique college and the opportunities offered by the Columbia undergraduate program. We are very proud of our tradition of educating women and men from the armed services, and we hope to continue that tradition long into the future.
Peter J. Awn Dean, School of General Studies
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Letter from Columbia University School of General Studies
Letter from Columbia University School of General Studies Dean Peter J. Awn inviting members of the armed services to apply to Columbia and premiering the school's new veteran-oriented website, www.columbia.edu/cu/gs/military:
Monday, May 28, 2007
NYT: Thomas Friedman
"The Quiet Americans" by Thomas Friedman.
Friedman describes graduation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and being impressed by "the number of R.O.T.C. grads, including women, who came up and collected their degrees in full dress uniforms. It was not only the pride with which they wore those uniforms that was palpable, but also the respect they were accorded by their classmates. I spoke to one young man who was going from graduation at Rensselaer right out to sea with the United States Navy. As bad as Iraq is, they just keep signing up."
Friedman describes graduation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and being impressed by "the number of R.O.T.C. grads, including women, who came up and collected their degrees in full dress uniforms. It was not only the pride with which they wore those uniforms that was palpable, but also the respect they were accorded by their classmates. I spoke to one young man who was going from graduation at Rensselaer right out to sea with the United States Navy. As bad as Iraq is, they just keep signing up."
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Washington Times Editorial
"Bring back ROTC".
"It's time for Harvard, Columbia, Yale and other schools to heed what President Bush said last week: "It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible." It's time to give ROTC a chance."
"It's time for Harvard, Columbia, Yale and other schools to heed what President Bush said last week: "It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible." It's time to give ROTC a chance."
Thursday, May 17, 2007
NY Sun Article on ROTC Ban
"Bush Rebukes Universities On ROTC Ban". Note: "Yesterday's ceremony featured a diverse group of cadets from all 50 states and included a graduate student at Columbia, Bret Woellner, who was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. The president's statement took officials at a few leading universities aback. Spokesmen at NYU and Harvard and Yale universities, which also do not offer ROTC on campus, did not respond publicly. Riaz Zaidi, president of Columbia's Hamilton Society, a military group, said the president's words were "gratifying." Mr. Zaidi, a cadet in the Fordham ROTC program, said that while he thought the military should reconsider the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Columbia should reinstate the officer-training program regardless." See response by Paul E. Mawn, head of Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
President Commissions Cadets from Columbia, Stanford, and Harvard at the White House
U.S. Army News Release "President to host first joint commissioning ceremony for ROTC cadets and midshipmen at the White House: 23 Army ROTC Cadets Chosen for Joint Commissioning Ceremony". Note: 55 ROTC Cadets and Midshipmen from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force will be commissioned on 17 May, representing all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and territories.Here are remarks by the President at Joint Reserve Officer Training Corps Commissioning Ceremony. (Video here) President George W. Bush said "All of you have made many sacrifices to receive your commission. Yet some of you have had to endure even greater hardships -- because your universities do not allow ROTC on campus. For those of you in this position, this can require long commutes several times a week to another campus that does offer ROTC, so you can attend a military class, participate in a drill. Most of all, it means living a split existence -- where your life as a cadet or midshipmen is invisible to most of your fellow students. Every American citizen is entitled to his or her opinion about our military. But surely the concept of diversity is large enough to embrace one of the most diverse institutions in American life. It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible. To the cadets and midshipmen who are graduating from a college or university that believes ROTC is not worthy of a place on campus, here is my message: Your university may not honor your military service, but the United States of America does. And in this, the people's house, we will always make a place for those who wear the uniform of our country." Among the officers sworn in at the ceremony were Erik Sand of Harvard, Diana Clough of Stanford and Bret Woellner from Columbia.
In an Associated Press article "Bush says ROTC has a place on campus". It notes that "Three of the officers in the White House ceremony came from schools that don't allow ROTC on campus, including Harvard University, Stanford University and Columbia University. Bush saluted their extra sacrifice."
Thursday, May 10, 2007
MG Robert Scales on his Academic Experience at Duke
My Heart Bleeds for Larry Summers
By Maj. General (ret) Robert H. Scales
Why would a retired general, Fox News Military Analyst and father of two very high performing professional daughters have sympathy for the slow death being suffered by the President of liberal Harvard University? Glad you asked. In spite of coming from two different cultures we share one thing in common: we both have been victims of nutty faculty from elite universities. His story is well known. Now I can tell mine. Thanks, Larry, for giving me the excuse to bond by sharing….
My reward for surviving the Battle of Hamburger Hill was graduate school. The Army offered me two fully paid semesters away to study a subject of my choice and my choice was military history. My dad was a professional soldier and veteran of three wars so I grew up listening to war stories from a colorful and rich collection of war veterans. I walked battlefields in places we lived overseas like The Philippines and Germany. My mother told me that I read The Red Badge of Courage when I was eight and Grant's Memoirs at twelve.
I arrived at Duke in the summer of 1971 on what was a pilgrimage to the Mecca of war studies. Something like sixty generals have advanced degrees from Duke. Two chiefs of service, Ron Folgelman, Air Force, and Rick Shinseki, Army, earned Masters there before me. Second year officer students greeted me with the warning that Vietnam had changed the atmospherics at Duke mostly for the worse. Their advice to the new guy was unambiguous: take courses only from that terrific cadre of esteemed professors who joined the faculty after serving in World War II. Men like Ted Ropp, I.B. Holley and Richard Preston quite literally invented the discipline of war studies during the fifties.
I chose one. Unfortunately shortly before Labor Day, he died. In his place marched into the classroom the first of the History Department's young Turks hastily tenured in fear after the student riots in the late sixties. Professor "X" was about four years older than me. He was a Marxist on the make when Marxism was the rage on campus. His first group of graduate students would be the clay that he would mold to become an edifice to his brand of dialectical scholarship. He changed all the pedagogical rules. Only one four hour session per week; each would be a student's hell with brutal show and tell exercises during which we would learn just how stupid we were. We would get a grade every week. Immediately, half the students bolted. But not me. After all I'd survived an AK -47 in my face. Could this be any worse?
Well, actually, yes it was. My first grades were very good, all A's. Then about mid October my A's turned suddenly into F's. I panicked but persevered. But studying harder seemed only to make things worse. At mid semester at my wife's urging I decided to see Professor X in his office on East Campus. It was a stately room for one so newly tenured, covered as they all were with walls of books intended I think to intimidate graduate students. I guess the weight of paper signified wisdom.
I remember things pretty well. But this session on that October afternoon is seared in my memory and it's just as fresh today as it was almost thirty years ago. Professor X was courteous to a fault almost obsequious at times. "You're a good student," he said, "You read everything, you write well, and you argue your case with some skill."
"But what about my grades?"
"Ah, grades, they don't mean much, really."
"Well they do to the Army. If I fail here my career is over."
Then he became solicitous. "Well, Mr. Scales, I will confess that this situation is partly my fault. I was only recently told that you're in the military." At that I froze but kept my composure. Then came "the justification". "You see, Duke is a great research institution. Our task as faculty is to produce scholars who will expand the body of historical knowledge. By that I mean produce serious scholarship. (At that point he made some moronic allusion to planting corn. I forget the details). "Frankly, I don't believe the army is a place where serious scholarship is done. Your being here really robs the profession of a place that a deserving scholar should be occupying."
All I could think to say was…." Do I have any recourse?" To which he answered in a pleasant and modulated voice: "I don't think so." And the F's kept coming. That was it. I was screwed. But I persevered. Over the next few weeks, like any good soldier, I went up the university chain of command to no avail. All of them lectured me on the sanctity of academic freedom and the prerogatives of tenure. Only when I threatened to go to the local Durham newspaper did they came up with a novel compromise: I would go to trial. (I'm not making this up!)
Talk about surreal. There I was defending myself alone against a group of hostile professors who really wanted to exploit the occasion to inform me of how immoral it was to be a soldier. I made the case that even if they didn't like my profession the ethos of the academy should allow even those from degenerate backgrounds the right to learn and be heard. The final ruling was a curious blending of cowardice and obfuscation. If I earned an A on the final exam they would give me a gentleman's B for the course and allow me to change out of Professor X's course for another. Holding out until finals week, of course, was their way of keeping me quiet.
I kept my mouth shut and passed. But the whole sordid episode made me so angry that I decided that the surest revenge would be to earn a Ph.D. instead of a Master's. First I petitioned the Army for a third semester. They wouldn't give me the traditional four necessary for a Ph.D.. I calculated that if I doubled up my course load for the next year I would (just) have enough credits. I would use whatever time I could find to learn a second language and study for the preliminary examination which I had scheduled just three days before I was to report to my next duty station.
The next year was both exhilarating and debilitating. But by February 1993 I was approved for my prelims. In those days a student chose his "committee" of faculty members with the help of the faculty advisor. I was pleased with my mine. However, just a week prior to the exam I happened to open the latest "crack and peel" computer printout that showed one of my choices had been scratched and in his place was, you guessed it, Professor X. Again, back to the mats. I confronted him with the print out.
"Why did you do this?"
"Because I told you that you shouldn't be here. If you don't deserve a Master's I assure you that a Doctorate is out of the question."
"Will you black ball me?"
"Of course, you don't belong here."
Again up the chain of command. Fortunately one of the gray haired faculty, Professor Ted Ropp, came to my rescue and made polite mince meat of X. I passed my prelims.
So, Larry, we do share similar experiences. The lesson for both of us is that a university should value all opinions. The academy should relish not only diversity of race, gender and sexual choice but also diversity of opinions and ideas. Professors should be the last ones to abuse their power in order to fulfill their own ideological agendas. But it happens, doesn't it, Larry?
By Maj. General (ret) Robert H. Scales
Why would a retired general, Fox News Military Analyst and father of two very high performing professional daughters have sympathy for the slow death being suffered by the President of liberal Harvard University? Glad you asked. In spite of coming from two different cultures we share one thing in common: we both have been victims of nutty faculty from elite universities. His story is well known. Now I can tell mine. Thanks, Larry, for giving me the excuse to bond by sharing….
My reward for surviving the Battle of Hamburger Hill was graduate school. The Army offered me two fully paid semesters away to study a subject of my choice and my choice was military history. My dad was a professional soldier and veteran of three wars so I grew up listening to war stories from a colorful and rich collection of war veterans. I walked battlefields in places we lived overseas like The Philippines and Germany. My mother told me that I read The Red Badge of Courage when I was eight and Grant's Memoirs at twelve.
I arrived at Duke in the summer of 1971 on what was a pilgrimage to the Mecca of war studies. Something like sixty generals have advanced degrees from Duke. Two chiefs of service, Ron Folgelman, Air Force, and Rick Shinseki, Army, earned Masters there before me. Second year officer students greeted me with the warning that Vietnam had changed the atmospherics at Duke mostly for the worse. Their advice to the new guy was unambiguous: take courses only from that terrific cadre of esteemed professors who joined the faculty after serving in World War II. Men like Ted Ropp, I.B. Holley and Richard Preston quite literally invented the discipline of war studies during the fifties.
I chose one. Unfortunately shortly before Labor Day, he died. In his place marched into the classroom the first of the History Department's young Turks hastily tenured in fear after the student riots in the late sixties. Professor "X" was about four years older than me. He was a Marxist on the make when Marxism was the rage on campus. His first group of graduate students would be the clay that he would mold to become an edifice to his brand of dialectical scholarship. He changed all the pedagogical rules. Only one four hour session per week; each would be a student's hell with brutal show and tell exercises during which we would learn just how stupid we were. We would get a grade every week. Immediately, half the students bolted. But not me. After all I'd survived an AK -47 in my face. Could this be any worse?
Well, actually, yes it was. My first grades were very good, all A's. Then about mid October my A's turned suddenly into F's. I panicked but persevered. But studying harder seemed only to make things worse. At mid semester at my wife's urging I decided to see Professor X in his office on East Campus. It was a stately room for one so newly tenured, covered as they all were with walls of books intended I think to intimidate graduate students. I guess the weight of paper signified wisdom.
I remember things pretty well. But this session on that October afternoon is seared in my memory and it's just as fresh today as it was almost thirty years ago. Professor X was courteous to a fault almost obsequious at times. "You're a good student," he said, "You read everything, you write well, and you argue your case with some skill."
"But what about my grades?"
"Ah, grades, they don't mean much, really."
"Well they do to the Army. If I fail here my career is over."
Then he became solicitous. "Well, Mr. Scales, I will confess that this situation is partly my fault. I was only recently told that you're in the military." At that I froze but kept my composure. Then came "the justification". "You see, Duke is a great research institution. Our task as faculty is to produce scholars who will expand the body of historical knowledge. By that I mean produce serious scholarship. (At that point he made some moronic allusion to planting corn. I forget the details). "Frankly, I don't believe the army is a place where serious scholarship is done. Your being here really robs the profession of a place that a deserving scholar should be occupying."
All I could think to say was…." Do I have any recourse?" To which he answered in a pleasant and modulated voice: "I don't think so." And the F's kept coming. That was it. I was screwed. But I persevered. Over the next few weeks, like any good soldier, I went up the university chain of command to no avail. All of them lectured me on the sanctity of academic freedom and the prerogatives of tenure. Only when I threatened to go to the local Durham newspaper did they came up with a novel compromise: I would go to trial. (I'm not making this up!)
Talk about surreal. There I was defending myself alone against a group of hostile professors who really wanted to exploit the occasion to inform me of how immoral it was to be a soldier. I made the case that even if they didn't like my profession the ethos of the academy should allow even those from degenerate backgrounds the right to learn and be heard. The final ruling was a curious blending of cowardice and obfuscation. If I earned an A on the final exam they would give me a gentleman's B for the course and allow me to change out of Professor X's course for another. Holding out until finals week, of course, was their way of keeping me quiet.
I kept my mouth shut and passed. But the whole sordid episode made me so angry that I decided that the surest revenge would be to earn a Ph.D. instead of a Master's. First I petitioned the Army for a third semester. They wouldn't give me the traditional four necessary for a Ph.D.. I calculated that if I doubled up my course load for the next year I would (just) have enough credits. I would use whatever time I could find to learn a second language and study for the preliminary examination which I had scheduled just three days before I was to report to my next duty station.
The next year was both exhilarating and debilitating. But by February 1993 I was approved for my prelims. In those days a student chose his "committee" of faculty members with the help of the faculty advisor. I was pleased with my mine. However, just a week prior to the exam I happened to open the latest "crack and peel" computer printout that showed one of my choices had been scratched and in his place was, you guessed it, Professor X. Again, back to the mats. I confronted him with the print out.
"Why did you do this?"
"Because I told you that you shouldn't be here. If you don't deserve a Master's I assure you that a Doctorate is out of the question."
"Will you black ball me?"
"Of course, you don't belong here."
Again up the chain of command. Fortunately one of the gray haired faculty, Professor Ted Ropp, came to my rescue and made polite mince meat of X. I passed my prelims.
So, Larry, we do share similar experiences. The lesson for both of us is that a university should value all opinions. The academy should relish not only diversity of race, gender and sexual choice but also diversity of opinions and ideas. Professors should be the last ones to abuse their power in order to fulfill their own ideological agendas. But it happens, doesn't it, Larry?
Monday, May 7, 2007
Federal Register: New Proposed Rules
"Military Recruiting and Reserve Officer Training Corps Program Access to Institutions of Higher Education: Proposed rule" (in PDF form here).
These proposed rules implement the October 2004 changes in the Solomon Amendment. Of particular note is the "Supplementary Information" similar to language in the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 about faculty appointments and course credit: "The criterion of ``efficiently operating a Senior ROTC unit'' refers generally to an expectation that the ROTC Department would be treated on a par with other academic departments; as such, it would not be singled out for unreasonable actions that would impede access to students (and vice versa) or restrict its operations."
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