The Civil Liberties Union of Harvard (CLUH) yesterday sent President Neil L. Rudenstine a letter urging the University to sever its financial ties with the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

The letter stated that Harvard should break its financial ties with ROTC beginning with the class of 1997, unless ROTC ends its policy of discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The military does not allow gays and lesbians to serve in its ranks.

CLUH leaders said that ROTC's policy of open discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is inconsistent with Harvard's policy of non-discrimination and non-involvement with programs that discriminate.

"Having University ties with such a discriminatory program as ROTC is a blatant affront to students who may be homosexual, as well as to all students concerned with civil liberties," said Jol A. Silversmith '92, assistant director of CLUH.

Currently, Harvard does not offer an on-campus ROTC program. The College accepts ROTC scholarships, but students must travel to MIT for ROTC drills and classes.

The Faculty Council will vote next spring on whether to continue to recognize the program's scholarships.

The CLUH letter was issued in response to Rudenstine's request for input from the University community on ROTC's role on the Harvard campus, according to CLUH members.

"President Rudenstine gave free reign to anyone in the Harvard community who has an opinion on the ROTC issue," said Joshua E. Burstein '93, director of CLUH.

"To date, no group except GUARD [Group United Against ROTC Discrimination] has come out as strongly against the University's relationship with ROTC," he said. "This letter is the strongest public statement against ROTC in terms of civil liberties, rather than moral and ethical issues."

University spokesperson Peter Costa declined to comment on the letter yesterday.

Continued Dialogue

CLUH members said that they hope to continue dialogue with the administration regarding its ROTC policies.

"We hope that the administration will hold an open forum for students to express their concerns to the University," Burstein said. "We want our view to be taken into consideration."

Loss of Diversity

CLUH acknowledged in its report on ROTC, issued yesterday with the letter, that Harvard would lose an element of diversity by cutting its financial ties to ROTC.

The report states that a large percentage of students enrolled in ROTC could not attend Harvard without the financial assistance of military scholarships. Other students, it reported, would choose to attend other schools to participate in the program.

A recent poll of Navy midshipmen conducted by the Undergraduate Council's ad hoc committee on ROTC found that more than half of the undergraduates who benefit from the program's scholarships say they could not attend Harvard without the ROTC aid.

Only three of 31 midshipmen polled said they would attend Harvard without ROTC benefits, and 17 responded that they participate in ROTC for strictly financial reasons, according to the committee's co-chair, Timothy P. McCormack '91-'92.

But CLUH maintains that Harvard's withdrawal from the ROTC program will help end the military's ban on gays and lesbians, thus allowing all interested students to participate in ROTC, according to the report