"We as a people are more conscious of theseissues now than we were in 1969," says Douglas W.Bryant, professor emeritus. "You can he sureHarvard won't take the [ROTC] decision lightly.What Harvard does becomes--in many ways--abellweather."
Students in the BGLSA and CLUH look forward tonext year as a watershed, knowing that whateverRudenstine decides on ROTC could movethe campusinto another phase of the ROTC debate.
"What I would like to see is PresidentRudenstine make a statement with his explictposition on ROTC," says Jeff A. Reading '96, gayrights project chair for CLUH.
Lin says he expects protests if nothing isdone.
"You can delay this for only so long before itbecomes obvious that people want to resolve it,"Lin says. "Now we're taking this in good faith,but if it goes on for another year, it wouldn't beacceptable anymore."
A Different World
The change in the ROTC debate was a change inissues--from an objection to militarism to astance against discrimination. But the nature ofthe debate was also recast by a new political era.
"[The issue then] really had this kind oflife-and-death urgency that's hard to replicatenow," notes New York Times Opinion columnist FrankRich Jr. '71 "It's such a different world now.It's almost apples and oranges."