Thomas Schelling, Littauer Professor of Political Economy, who criticized ROTC in Faculty debates 12 years ago, says the 1969 Faculty legislation represents an academic principle that should not depend on the fluctuating popularity of the armed forces.

The government should not have "a direct line" to students at a university, Schelling adds. "Obviously Harvard lives in the real world," he says, but "the idea is to minimize compromise with the real world, to preserve the idea of an ivory tower. Our service is to the culture, not to the national interest even when it's right."

But Stanley Hoffmann, Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France, who also argued against ROTC in 1969, now says "if some kind of loose association were to be proposed, it's possible that we could arrange something" between Harvard and ROTC.

The 1969 Faculty ruling was based on strong anti-war sentiment and on the student mood at the time. Hoffmann adds. Today, "the number of people who would be against ROTC on principle wouldn't be as large," he says, adding. "There must be a response to student demand, to student wishes."

To reestablish ROTC as a full department, a majority of the Faculty would have to vote to reverse its 1969 decision, which Marquand and other Faculty members say is unlikely. If the Army wanted to reintroduce ROTC without academic credit or departmental status, however, some kind of unit could be created without a full Faculty vote, Marquand says.

Although Kark believes Harvard students will demand and receive an independent ROTC detachment within the next six years, some other military recruiters say Harvard is still very hostile to the armed forces.

"The last holdout of ill-will towards the military is right here in this town and maybe at Berkeley." Major Steven I., Orton, assistant professor of aerospace studies at MIT's Air Force ROTC detachment, says, adding. "In this area nobody cares. If we went away they probably wouldn't notice."

Unlike Kark's Army detachment, which sends letters to all Harvard freshmen and sophomores. Orton's Air Force unit makes little effort to attract Harvard students. "We just don't think that it's worth the energy to go there," he says.

Navy ROTC, which was the largest of Harvard's three detachments in 1969, now has no Harvard students in its program, Lt. Commander Edward J. Welsh, the Navy's regional ROTC recruiter, says.

"We haven't spent a lot of time on Harvard," Welsh adds. "The majority of people at Harvard are looking for graduate school opportunities. We go once a year, but we don't even know if we'll keep doing that anymore," he says.

While Faculty legislation does not prevent military officials from recruiting on campus, almost all current enlistment efforts center on mailings and other forms of advertising.

Last week, for example, all Harvard male undergraduates received applications for the Marines' Platoon Leaders Program, a training course similar to ROTC.

The Marines' marketing agency, which spends about $2 million each year on such mailings, bought a list of the names and addresses of Harvard students from a firm specializing in such lists. Major Skip Kruger, who signed the letter, said last week.

Although Kruger said he receives a lot of "hate mail" in response to the letters, he believes they succeed in helping to provide the marines with the 2000 men they need annually.

Harvard usually provides three or four officers trainees for the Marines each year. Captain James Burke, the service's recruiting chief in Boston, says, adding that he requests mailings to Harvard each year, because it has students who can usually pass the Marines' SAT-type officer qualification test.