Dan Flynn

A Marine recruiter seeking to sign-up law students for the judge advocate general program was shouted down by a group of faculty and administrators at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The Marine was forced to cease his presentation to students interested in the program after anti-military faculty and administrators turned up the volume on a video promoting gays in the military and began speaking over his presentation.

In light of the September 11 attacks on America, many view the heckling against the Marine, as well as the attempt to hinder recruitment efforts, as unpatriotic.

"I'm angry," reacted UNLV Regent Tom Kirkpatrick. "I'm really angry and I'm going to make sure that it doesn't happen again." Kirkpatrick brought the subject up at this December's UNLV Regents meeting, with the school's president and the law school's dean apologizing for the October 22 occurrence. Numerous state officials have also vocalized their displeasure over the school's actions.

The anti-military protestors included law professor Mary LaFrance and librarian Matthew Wright. The group showed up unannounced to a meeting between Marine Captain Felix Rodriguez and a number of potential recruits. LaFrance, Wright, and their colleagues began handing out literature protesting the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals and blared the audio on a television airing an anti-military video when Rodriguez attempted to deliver his recruiting pitch. The din made it impossible for Rodriguez to effectively communicate his message to those gathered. He then left before completing his presentation.

Richard Morgan, dean of the UNLV law school, concedes, "some of the students who were in the room thought that faculty behaved badly." Because the faculty and administrators protesting the program dispute the version of events given by the Marine captain and the students in the room, Morgan claims he is not sure what really happened and refuses to punish any of the hecklers. "There are much different perceptions on the part of the two sides of the debate about what happened in terms of faculty conduct or misconduct," he observes. Morgan affirms that the protestors did play a video in the same room as the Marine attempted to make his presentation, but is not sure how loud the volume was.

The law school's dean now acknowledges that forcing the Marines to share space with a group protesting them without advance warning was a mistake. "I, as dean, authorized a few faculty to set up a competing table to 'ameliorate,' as the Association of American Law Schools requires, the effects of the military's discrimination policy against gays and lesbians," Morgan told Campus Report. UNLV Law School is a part of the Association of American Law Schools, which decrees that its members distribute information to counter the military when it sends representatives to campus to recruit.

The AALS was founded in 1900 and boasts 164 law schools as members. Since UNLV Law is a member of AALS, Morgan asserts that it must follow the organization's guidelines, which prohibit member schools from discriminating against homosexuals and from opening up their campuses to the military. For schools that jeopardize federal aid by barring the military, the AALS allows exceptions to these rules.

"Schools that choose not to comply will have their noncompliance excused so long as they engage in appropriate activities to ameliorate the negative effects that granting access to the military has on the quality of the learning environment for its students, particularly its gay and lesbian students," the organization's executive director instructs. This "amelioration" must state "publicly the law school's disapproval of the discrimination against gays and lesbians by the military and provides a safe and protective atmosphere for gay and lesbian students."

AALS Executive Director Carl Monk continued: "Before making a decision to permit the military to interview, we urge each school to examine the actual extent of financial aid and other funds that it is at risk losing, to explore ways of avoiding the loss of funds through turning to alternative sources, and to consider the range of ways that it might adopt to ameliorate the negative effects of granting access, if access were to be granted."

UNLV's Morgan contends that all he was attempting to do in forcing the military to share the room with their critics was compliance with the AALS's guidelines. Critics contend, however, that membership in the AALS is voluntary and the group holds no power to enforce any of its rules.

"We have a group of people over there that really hate the military," UNLV Regent Tom Kirkland remarked about his school. If UNLV faculty and administrators continue to block military recruiters from talking with students, Kirkland suggests firing those who inhibit the ability of recruiters from the armed forces to speak freely and meet with students.

The law school's dean points out that the school has already taken corrective action. The school has apologized to the Marine who was unable to make his presentation. Recruiters from the Air Force and the Army have since returned to the school to recruit as well. Dean Morgan states that in the future, military recruiters and those protesting them will be given separate rooms to make their case.

Harassment of military recruiters, as well as bans on them, has been an ongoing controversy at law schools since the 1960s. Then, the Vietnam War served as the impetus for barring recruiters from campus. Now, the military's policy prohibiting open homosexuals from serving is the stated reason for the hostility. At the undergraduate level commissioning ceremonies, armed forces programs, and military recruiters have faced stiff on campus opposition. The Reserve Officers Training Corps, for instance, is banned at such schools as Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Wellesley.

If UNLV Law faculty and staff continue to impede the ability of military recruiters to meet with students interested in careers in the armed forces, it could come at a heavy price to the school. Federal law prohibits federal dollars from going to schools that bar military recruiters. Regent Tom Kirkpatrick believes that the protest of school employees would be less hypocritical if they refused federal funding for themselves, rather than denying students opportunities with the military. "They can always decline federal funding, but they're not about to do that, are they?"