April 14, 2006

With high court ruling, recruiters return to SOU

Students wanted military banned from Stevenson U

By Chris Conrad
For the Tidings

Military recruiters returned to Southern Oregon University nearly a year after a student group voted in favor of banning them from the student union.

Recruiters from several military branches participated in Thursday’s Career Fair, an annual job-seeking event held in the Stevenson Union.

The Associated Students of SOU passed a resolution last May barring military recruiters from Stevenson Union because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” homosexuality policy, which the students say conflicts with the university’s anti-discrimination policies. The vote stymied recruitment at the Stevenson Union until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in March that requires colleges accepting federal funding to provide military recruiters access.

Sgt. 1st Class Chad Orr, an Army National Guard recruiter, said he respects the opposition to a military presence at the Stevenson Union. He pointed to a slip of paper given to him by a student. It stated SOU’s affirmative action policy and criticized SOU President Elisabeth Zinser’s decision to disregard the ASSOU’s opinion and student senate’s resolution to block military recruitment.

“The university is a microcosm of society,” Orr said. “Everyone has a different view. I welcome protesters. What I do allows them the right to do that.”

Orr, a 1989 Eagle Point High School graduate who spent a year in Iraq, said he doesn’t push the military on anyone. He stays back and allows curious students to approach him with questions.

“I’ve had about 12 students stop by in the first hour,” Orr said.

Steve Ryan, ASSOU’s director of administration and finance, pointed out his group is not anti-military.

“I come from a military family,” he said. “It’s a wonderful thing for some people. But I do have a problem when our institutions deal from the top and bottom of the deck and say you can’t discriminate here, but you can over there. It’s inconsistent.”

Ryan noted the legislation was written last summer when fliers threatening violence against homosexuals appeared on campus.

“We certainly need to abide by the college’s anti-discrimination policy or just get rid of it all together,” he said. “It just bothers me to see the double standards.”