The University received more than $8 million from the Department of Defense in 2004, accounting for 11 percent of the total funding the University got from all federal and subfederal sources, said Simona Sharoni, the 2004-05 Savage professor of peace studies at the University, during her speech at the EMU Tuesday evening.
Sharoni, who said the University received more than twice the amount of money it asked for from the Department of Defense in 2004, has been conducting research on the relationship between race, gender and militarization.
An equal-access decision passed by the U.S. Congress in 2004 made it clear that federal funding to the University, particularly from the Department of Defense, could be stopped if the University disables any military-based programs, such as the department of military science, or restricts access to military recruiters on campus, Sharoni said.
This decision, Sharoni said, is the direct reason for the University’s
silence on all kinds of military
recruitment on campus.
Sharoni said five military recruitment advertisements recently printed in the Emerald mentioned everything attractive to young men and girls but not the killing and death.
She said military science courses offered by the University were also funded by the defense department. The University collected tuition fees, but it did not pay for the military-based teachers.
Sharoni said she had talked to a high-ranking official of the University about the selection of military science teachers and the official said the University has no special requirements for military teachers because they believe the military will send the best man to the campus. That attitude could be a reflection of the nearly 100 years of relationship between the University and the
military, Sharoni said. She believed the military has been aggressively spreading its propaganda on
campus, while the administration has nearly no resistance to that,
she said.
Sharoni said students and faculty will show up at today’s career fair to warn students about possible dangers of joining the military.
They will tell people that war is not necessary, that the military should not be an important organization, and that the military should not be present in schools and colleges, she said.
Tony McElfresh, a local taxi driver who attended the meeting, said he was shocked by the fact that the University received such large amounts of funding from the Department of Defense.
He said it’s ridiculous that the
University collects tuition fees while the cost of the military science class was paid by the defense department, adding that he doesn’t know how the University could explain that.
University student Priscilla Schmidt said she believed the lecture would be a good beginning for communication among students, the University and the military.