Kronman met with JAG officials in Washington last week and said his description of the military’s access to Yale students was “favorably received.”

And although Harvard sent two unsuccessful letters asking the defense department to reevaluate its compliance, Harvard’s original policy was more restrictive toward the military than Yale’s.

While Yale spokesperson Tom P. Conroy says the school’s initial efforts to challenge the interpretation will go the department, officials have been reluctant to say whether they would actually defend their policy in court.

The statements of Levin and Kronman were silent on a potential appeal to the courts.

Yale’s Rankin Professor of Law Drew S. Days III, chair of an advisory committee on Yale’s response to the military, says legal action “is certainly a possibility” but that no decision has yet been made.

But both student spokespeople for Yale’s Student/Faculty Alliance for Military Equality (SAME), which was founded to oppose the military funding threat, say they expect Yale to take the decision to court if necessary.

“My sense is that yes, they have said that they are looking for a definitive determination of whether our current practices are in compliance with the Solomon Amendment,” says Matt W. Alsdorf, a second-year law student. “If they don’t succeed in whatever administrative options the Department of Defense has, I imagine it will go to court.”

“In terms of talking to professors and administrators, certainly the emotional and intellectual commitment is there to take this as far as they can,” Alsdorf adds.

At a meeting in early September, the law school faculty voted unanimously to fight the military pressure.

Testing Harvard’s Backbone

Harvard Law School faculty have been similarly united in their anger at being forced to allow recruiting on campus. Dean Robert C. Clark will participate in a protest Monday in front of Langdell Library.

But unlike Yale’s president, Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers issued no public statements when the school announced its decision.

Summers made several public efforts last year to improve relations between Harvard and the military, praising military service and becoming the first Harvard president in 30 years to attend the Reserve Officers Training Corps commissioning ceremony.

Harvard Law School third-year student Lindsay Harrison attributed Harvard’s decision not to mount a court fight to Summers’ views.

“Harvard could have taken the lead on this, but chose not to, I suspect because of President Summers’ strong pro-military stance,” Harrison writes in an e-mail.