Columbia University cadets prepare the American flag to be raised on the flag poll at Low Library. Photo by Alex Luchsinger/Northattan

Dozens of military veterans, cadets and onlookers gathered Thursday to honor Veterans Day at the first color guard ceremony held on Columbia University’s campus in 40 years.

It was a small moment, but a significant one for military veterans on a campus that once boiled with anti-Vietnam War fever and has banned the military’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) since 1969.

“There are a few students who really worked diligently to bring this back to campus,” said Amber Griffiths, Veterans Benefits Counselor at Columbia University, as the color guard hoisted the American flag at Columbia’s Low library Thursday in honor of Veterans Day.  The color guard – consisting of six ROTC cadets and a non-commissioned officer – raised the flag to signal the start of the official duty of the day, or reveille.  This ceremony is conducted daily on military bases and postings throughout the world.  Several veterans, decked out in their service uniforms draped in medals, popped to attention and saluted the flag.

“It makes me proud to represent, not just that I’m a veteran, but I’m a Columbia veteran,” said Marco Reininger, President of the Columbia US Military Veterans and former Army Sergeant.

Columbia’s website describes a “long and storied history of partnership with the nation’s armed forces.” General Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the university’s most famous graduates, served as Columbia president after he left the U.S. presidency. And ROTC was a campus fixture dating back to its origins in 1916; a plaque at Butler Library honors the 23,000 Navy midshipmen who trained at Columbia and later fought in World War II.

But the military’s ROTC program was thrown off Columbia and other Ivy League campuses around the country, following protests against the Vietnam War.

A movement to return ROTC to some of those campuses – including Columbia – began in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. Advocates said the armed forces had long been misrepresented and portrayed in a negative light on campus, in part because of the absence of ROTC.

But several student, faculty and alumni efforts to restore ROTC have failed, largely because of the U.S. military’s continued “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibits gay, lesbian or bisexual service members to disclose their sexual orientation.

After one failed effort in 2005, when the university Senate overwhelmingly rejected ROTC’s return, Columbia President Lee Bollinger said that the school’s nondiscrimination policy would be violated if ROTC training returned to campus but refused to accept openly gay or lesbian students.

“The university has an obligation, deeply rooted in the core values of an academic institution and in First Amendment principles, to protect its students from improper discrimination and humiliation,” Bollinger wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal.

The university points out that Columbia students can still participate in ROTC, but to do so they have to attend training at other New York City schools: St. Johns, Manhattan College or Fordham University.

John McClelland commanded the color guard ceremony Thursday.  He is a former Army Ranger and Columbia student, currently enrolled in an off-campus ROTC program through Fordham.  McClelland said he wants to see ROTC restored at Columbia, though.

“I think we need to invest in our military, even in spite of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” he said. Columbia’s stance on “don’t ask, don’t tell” is a principled one, McClelland said, but he said he wished the university would use its influence to try to change the military’s policy. Without that change, “I don’t think [ROTC is] going to come back to Columbia’s campus,” he said.