What is the SDS "ROTC: Off our Campus!" Movement?
It is a student-led, university-wide campaign to kick ROTC off campus for its role in maintaining U.S. imperialism. SDS seeks to transform our school into an environment of higher learning that benefits society and does not hinder the character of UCF. SDS is also opposed to the role of ROTC in maintaining sexual discrimination; please see our section on that subject.

What is ROTC?
It is a U.S. armed forces educational program situated on college campuses, producing 60 percent of all officers in the U.S. armed forces. The U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force currently enjoy residence at UCF.

Why are you doing this?
Concerning U.S. foreign policy, particularly with Iraq, U.S. citizens, with their protests and poll results, feel as if their opinions fall on deaf ears. However, action and positive results are possible if directed correctly.

As ROTC is the main source of officers, its abolition nationally would devastate the future of the U.S. government's imperialist policies. As long as UCF maintains a relationship with ROTC, it will remain a source of U.S. imperialism. The movement hopes UCF can be the premier in a national movement that demonstrates how citizens can affect our nation's policies: by eliminating a militarized education system.

UCF: Iraq War Profiteer
U.S. industry profited after the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004, 150 American companies received contracts worth up to $48.7 billion in postwar work, many of which were huge political donors and had direct ties with the top brass in the U.S. government, according to The Center for Public Integrity.

UCF is a member of this club. In 2004, UCF received $150,000 to study the effects of an energy-based weapon, dubbed the Pain Gun (Orlando Weekly: 3/17/2005). Recently, the Army received $31.3 million to construct vehicles slated for Iraqi deployment equipped with this weapon (defensetech.org).

As UCF was integral in the weapon's research, our campus now has the honor of contributing to a war that was unethically motivated and ill planned. Kicking ROTC off campus will somewhat redeem our institution.

UCF Army ROTC: Imperialism's bodies
A glimpse at UCF Army ROTC's alumni points to the power of the program, as cadets currently reside in Iraq and Afghanistan. Others have operated in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Operation Desert Storm, while others work as consultants for companies profiting off warfare (these companies also have ties to UCF; please refer to our military-industrial complex pamphlet).

Check out UCF Army ROTC’s alumni at: http://www.army.ucf.edu/alumni.htm

Why does UCF even allow the military on campus?
Money. On March 6, 2006 the Supreme Court, in the case of Rumsfeld v. FAIR, upheld the Solomon Amendment, stating that the federal government could deny funds to schools that do not allow recruitment.

Due to our current UCF administration, Department of Defense funding is UCF's lifeline and the Solomon Amendment is the ransom note representing the forced militarization of our society.

How would UCF benefit by kicking out ROTC?
As the UCF administration endorses both research and manpower to our country's war machine, our campus's student body can be the only instrument of dissent. An organized movement opposed to UCF ROTC's present and future wars will spark an awareness of the militarization of our nation's educational system. By refusing the military's money, UCF will be forced to find ethical donors, and only then can our campus contribute positively to our local and global community.

There are those who say throwing ROTC off campus would deny their right to free speech. That is not the issue. SDS is opposed to the active role of ROTC in killing people and denying human rights around the globe.

Can UCF benefit with a history of introducing the new weapons of war and imperialism, or can UCF benefit with a history aimed at contributing to a peaceful global society based upon fair diplomacy?

The question is easy to answer. When war is profitable, peace is impossible, and UCF contributes to a world of impossibility.

How can I help?

Spread the Message
The easiest way to help is to educate your friends and fellow-students.

Join the SDS
We will be happy to add you to our contact list, emailing you about upcoming meetings and events.

Contact the UCF Administration and SGA
Email your SGA President and insist that he write a resolution calling for the immediate removal of ROTC. Demand the same of President Hitt and insist that the Board of Trustees immediately vote on the issue.

Student Body President White
sga_pres@mail.ucf.edu

President Hitt
www.ucf.edu/president/hittmessage.php

Board of Trustees
bot.ucf.edu/contact.html

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