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05/25/2011 11:01 PM

Columbia University To Allow ROTC Program For First Time Since 1969

By: NY1 News

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Columbia University and the Navy will sign an agreement Thursday that will allow the Reserve Officer Training Corps program back onto campus for the first time since the Vietnam War.

University officials said Wednesday that the signing will happen aboard the USS Iwo Jima as part of “Fleet Week.”

Under the agreement, the Navy will have an office at the university's Upper West Side campus.

Recruits will train at the SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx.

The news comes three months after Columbia's Senate voted to allow the military training program back, citing the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay soldiers.

The ROTC program was initially dropped in 1969 over protests to the Vietnam War.