The University Senate held a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of inviting ROTC back on campus. Columbia’s ROTC program was dissolved more than four decades ago after the passing of legislation that came to be known as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which was repealed late last year.

Many students were on hand to offer their opinions on the issue of reviving the ROTC program, but Dean of Columbia College Michelle Moody-Adams spoke first, outlining what she said was a set of questions to focus on.

“I think that we must ensure that military training and discipline create what we can call citizen soldiers,” Moody-Adams said. “We should encourage the members of the military, also, to see themselves as such.”

However, Moody-Adams’ speech was not without controversy. Many students accused the Dean of promoting pro-military views.

 “A Dean just openly spoke in favor of bringing ROTC back, but there was no counter-argument,” one student said, drawing applause.

Another group of students engaged in a heated conversation with the Dean at the meeting’s intermission.

Several students used the open microphone format to offer their views on the issue of ROTC’s possible return to campus. One student who identified as transgender talked about how the presence of ROTC would threaten transgender students.

“Somebody described Columbia as a safe haven, and that is absolutely true,” the student said. “Students who are in ROTC do not need that safe haven, and transgender students do.”

Another student, who said he grew up in a military town, spoke about how banning ROTC from campus does nothing to solve problems of discrimination and negative recruiting tactics in the military.

 “I understand that we want to shelter ourselves from that institution that preys on low-income students,” he said. “On the other hand, shouldn’t we be doing something to change it? Or should we just isolate ourselves and make a little utopian community of people who don’t know what the military is?”

Another speaker, the only one to openly identify as gay while speaking for the revival of the ROTC program, questioned the legitimacy of the reasoning for the ban.

“These rules that are in place are not determined by the military. They are determined by our elected leaders, and us in turn,” he said. “We are abdicating our stance if we think that by pushing [ROTC] off of campus, by ignoring it, we will remedy anything.”

 Even amid the tension and seriousness, one clever student was able to draw some laughs from both sides.

 “It’s an organization in which women, today, are still treated as second class citizens, where the LGBT community is looked upon with abhorrence by the majority of the members of that organization, and organization which is highly hierarchical, and an organization which deliberately recruits from some of the poorest and most vulnerable places in our society,” he said.  “Now, I’m obviously talking to you today about the Catholic Church.”

The University has yet to decide whether or not to allow ROTC to return, and, if the Town Hall Meetings are any indication, public sentiment is also very divided.