By Leo Garcia
“Have you served your country today?” Most college students will hear these six words at least once every semester. They will hear them from people in uniform holding a flyer in one hand and a registration form in another. Some of these students will end up wearing uniforms themselves.
“We…are looking for students who are either about to graduate or drop out of college,” says an Army public relations officer. “In the past, almost all recruits came from high school but now with changing times, we…must reach out to college students. We can’t necessarily wait for students to complete their educational career or semester.” He says that 13.9 percent of all recruits in fiscal year 2006 had “some college experience” but hadn’t graduated.
Colleges play an increasingly important role in the military recruitment strategy. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.’s need for soldiers is greater than ever. To meet that demand is increasingly difficult in New York City, especially among the student population, most of whom think that the Army is not for them.
“They asked me if I served my country and I said I serve it every day! So they asked me if I was in military service and I said, ‘no, I’m a war protester.’” Eli, a student at Brooklyn College, relays this story with a particular relish. “They didn’t seem to like that very much.”
Others complain about the methods by which military personnel tried to garner recruits. Students call them “forceful” and “dishonest.”
“They’re very pushy. Very. You know, you can’t just say ‘no’ and be polite about it ’cause they’ll take advantage of that, ask you why you’re going to school. They try to get you to fill out a form, trying to create a bridge,” says a student who declines to give his name. “I don’t agree with the war and I don’t think they should be here. This is a place for us to learn.”
Soldiers and students alike spoke of an economic draft where the military reaches out to the poorer sectors of the population who frequently have no other way to pay for school. Indeed, security officers in Brooklyn College, a city university, confirmed an almost daily presence of recruiters just outside the campus gates, whereas Columbia University’s security said that recruiters showed up “once in a while,” and “every couple of weeks,” to the Ivy League campus.
Railing against all this are the campus counter-recruitment movements from organizations such as the Campus Antiwar Network and Veterans Against the War. Their objective is removing military recruiters from college and university campuses permanently. According to Hunter College peace activist and Iraq veteran, Chris Dugan, the anti-recruitment effort suffered a setback with the March 2006 U.S Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Solomon Amendment—a federal regulation that allows the federal government to withhold funding from schools that do not allow recruiters on campus.
Only 8 percent of Americans support the current strategy in Iraq, according to a New York Times/CBS poll. Faced with soldier shortages, commanders are applying heavier and heavier pressure on their recruiting personnel to come up with the needed numbers. According to the Washington Post, this “no excuses” attitude is trying the morale of recruiters.
The Department of Defense recently posted its recruitment figures for fiscal year 2006, showing that nearly all active branches of the military (the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force) met their quota. Though this looks like a significant improvement from last year when the Army only met 91 percent of its quota of 80,000 recruits, there is an explanation. An Army official says the main reasons for the increase were higher incentive bonuses for recruits and the increase of maximum enlistment age from 35 to 42.
For now, the military is satisfied with the number of volunteers aged 17-42, and a draft has been avoided. But with the White House and numerous politicians calling for more troops in Iraq to “finish the job,” students at the city and state colleges better get used to seeing sergeants in fatigues outside their cafeterias.
Igor Kossov is a writer in Brooklyn. Email him at
harvest.wind@gmail.com.
“We…are looking for students who are either about to graduate or drop out of college,” says an Army public relations officer. “In the past, almost all recruits came from high school but now with changing times, we…must reach out to college students. We can’t necessarily wait for students to complete their educational career or semester.” He says that 13.9 percent of all recruits in fiscal year 2006 had “some college experience” but hadn’t graduated.
Colleges play an increasingly important role in the military recruitment strategy. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.’s need for soldiers is greater than ever. To meet that demand is increasingly difficult in New York City, especially among the student population, most of whom think that the Army is not for them.
“They asked me if I served my country and I said I serve it every day! So they asked me if I was in military service and I said, ‘no, I’m a war protester.’” Eli, a student at Brooklyn College, relays this story with a particular relish. “They didn’t seem to like that very much.”
Others complain about the methods by which military personnel tried to garner recruits. Students call them “forceful” and “dishonest.”
“They’re very pushy. Very. You know, you can’t just say ‘no’ and be polite about it ’cause they’ll take advantage of that, ask you why you’re going to school. They try to get you to fill out a form, trying to create a bridge,” says a student who declines to give his name. “I don’t agree with the war and I don’t think they should be here. This is a place for us to learn.”
Soldiers and students alike spoke of an economic draft where the military reaches out to the poorer sectors of the population who frequently have no other way to pay for school. Indeed, security officers in Brooklyn College, a city university, confirmed an almost daily presence of recruiters just outside the campus gates, whereas Columbia University’s security said that recruiters showed up “once in a while,” and “every couple of weeks,” to the Ivy League campus.
Railing against all this are the campus counter-recruitment movements from organizations such as the Campus Antiwar Network and Veterans Against the War. Their objective is removing military recruiters from college and university campuses permanently. According to Hunter College peace activist and Iraq veteran, Chris Dugan, the anti-recruitment effort suffered a setback with the March 2006 U.S Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Solomon Amendment—a federal regulation that allows the federal government to withhold funding from schools that do not allow recruiters on campus.
Only 8 percent of Americans support the current strategy in Iraq, according to a New York Times/CBS poll. Faced with soldier shortages, commanders are applying heavier and heavier pressure on their recruiting personnel to come up with the needed numbers. According to the Washington Post, this “no excuses” attitude is trying the morale of recruiters.
The Department of Defense recently posted its recruitment figures for fiscal year 2006, showing that nearly all active branches of the military (the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force) met their quota. Though this looks like a significant improvement from last year when the Army only met 91 percent of its quota of 80,000 recruits, there is an explanation. An Army official says the main reasons for the increase were higher incentive bonuses for recruits and the increase of maximum enlistment age from 35 to 42.
For now, the military is satisfied with the number of volunteers aged 17-42, and a draft has been avoided. But with the White House and numerous politicians calling for more troops in Iraq to “finish the job,” students at the city and state colleges better get used to seeing sergeants in fatigues outside their cafeterias.
Igor Kossov is a writer in Brooklyn. Email him at
harvest.wind@gmail.com.
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