But the Rudenstine solution is still workable, Corbett says.

"He's obviously trying to preserve the ROTC option," Corbett says of the president, who served in Army ROTC as an undergraduate at Princeton. "I think we should give students the ROTC option. I would object to the faculty's position."

Corbett says that denying students the right to participate in the program is meaningless.

"I still think it's a wonderful program, great for college students all over the country," Corbett says. "Objection to particular policies is different from taking away [access to beneficial programs]; they're only hurting the students."

Corbett says Harvard's has a small role to play in the course of a national debate over gays in the military.

"Harvard University taking...leftist political positions is of no consequence," Corbett adds. "It's totally out of the mainstream of American politics."

But other alums dispute that conclusion. They argue that the key flaw in Rudenstine's argument is his assumption that Harvard's actions won't make a difference on the national scene.

"It's certainly not going to change if people don't stand up to it," Hyland says of the military's policy on gays. "Especially in universities, which have become, in a certain way, the holders of the moral conscience of the country."

Carney agrees that Rudenstine is mischaracterizing the impact Harvard could potentially have.

"I think Rudenstine underestimates the influence the school could have by severing ties," Carney says. "The program at Harvard and MIT is important to the [military, sending them] some of their best and brightest."

"The armed forces would notice," Carney says. "They may not change their policies, but they'll notice."

Carney adds that by cutting ties, Harvard might make it easier for other schools--including MIT itself--to do the same. (MIT has established a committee that will review its ties to ROTC. That committee will convene this coming fall).

But Barrington Moore Jr., who was a lecturer in sociology back then, disagrees.

"I thought the whole business was grossly overblown because it has to do with Harvard," he says. "Harvard grossly exaggerates its influence in all fields."

Still, most alums interviewed, like most students on campus, neither support nor oppose with the report, simply because they didn't know enough about it.

The overwhelming majority of alumni interviewed by The Crimson aren't even aware that Rudenstine had passed down a compromise proposal on ROTC.

That might be because news of the compromise was buried in a short blurb in Harvard magazine.

"It is downplayed," Hyland suggests.

Aside from Carney, all those who commented on the proposal did so only after The Crimson faxed them a copy of the statement or read them key selections.