In fact, according to MIT's Assistant to the President for Government Relations Sara E. Gallop, who is a member of the Institute's Working Group on ROTC, MIT likely will not make substantial changes in its own policy until 1995. That is the year when a faculty committee will examine national progress on the issue, she said.
The decision over the money paid to MIT will be made principally by Rudenstine, Knowles said last week, although the funds come out of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences budget.
"If, on July 15, President Clinton left things as they are now, then President Rudenstine will have to decide whether to follow the recommendations of the Verba Committee, one of which is to stop paying the fee to MIT," Knowles said. "The discussions, I expect, would include me too."
But Verba said one of the report's goals, that "individual students could continue to participate in a ROTC program without financial support from Harvard," might be unlikely should the payment be stopped.
Gallop said MIT has no official reaction so far to the Harvard Faculty vote or to the possibility that Harvard might stop paying the fee. "I cannot tell you what we might do," she said.
Harvard officials stress that all action is in limbo pending Clinton's move on the issue this summer.
"I think it's just prudent to sit and wait and see what happens," Verba said.
'The vote, in a way, doesn't change anything. I think it does have symbolic significance...It indicates the Faculty's support for the position in our report.'
Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba '53
ROTC AT HARVARD
24 Turbulent Years
*1969--After hearing the concerns of anti-Vietnam War student protests the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) votes to withdraw all curricular and academic status from ROTC. Cadets could now only participate in programs at MIT.
*1984--FAS votes to reimburse MIT for costs of Harvard students in their program.
*1985--The University adopts a non-discrimination policy which includes sexual orientation.
*1990--Faculty Council votes to recommend that Harvard's participation in ROTC programs be suspended if insufficient progress had been made in resolving issues of discrimination by the military on the basis of sexual orientation
*Spring 1992--President Rudenstine establishes ROTC Committee to analyze Faculty position and advise on further action. Committee issues delayed report in the early fall.
*Nov 1992--Faculty discusses report but takes no action.
*May 1993--Faculty votes to accept the report's recommendations, which include discontinuing approximately $130,000 in payments to MIT approved in 1984.