By Avi Steinberg, Globe Correspondent, 6/20/2004

Like many graduating seniors at Harvard, Rafi Cohen was looking forward to a post-commencement vacation, and had planned a camping trip to Ireland with his father.

Unlike most of his classmates, however, Cohen will return and attend officer training at Fort Benning, Ga. After training, he will report for duty with the US Army's 10th Mountain Division.

While many of his friends begin graduate school, first jobs, or travel, Second Lieutenant Cohen will likely serve in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Cohen is one of 10 Harvard cadets who recently took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against ''all enemies foreign and domestic." On June 9, in Harvard Yard, he and his fellow cadets were commissioned as officers as part of the US military's Reserve Officer Training Corps.

The ROTC program was dismissed from the Harvard campus in 1969 by the faculty and administration. Since then, Harvard students who wish to participate have to train at MIT's ROTC branch. In 1984, the commissioning ceremony returned to Harvard Yard. But the university's willingness to cover the expenses of their cadets' training at MIT ran out in 1993, when it was determined that the military's ban on homosexuals violated the university's policy of nondiscrimination. Former president Neil L. Rudenstine arranged for private donors to help cover costs, but otherwise took an icy approach to the concept of Harvard ROTC.

Controversy over ROTC at Harvard bubbles up every few years and inevitably divides the campus. And it looks like the issue might be on its way back.

Current president Lawrence H. Summers has been an outspoken supporter of ROTC; he is the first president in more than 30 years to attend and address the annual ROTC commissioning ceremony. In his remarks this year, Summers cited ROTC's ''profound importance to this university" and, turning to the young officers seated on the stage, vowed that ''the Harvard community will always stand by your side."

Sitting in attendance, Harvard professor of government and the school's resident conservative gadfly, Harvey C. Mansfield, remarked that, ''this is the strongest statement I've heard Summers make" on the ROTC issue. ''I wouldn't be surprised to see ROTC come back to campus soon."

In an April editorial in the Harvard Crimson, students argued that Harvard ''must not be strong-armed by the federal government into providing for a blatantly discriminatory organization on campus" and decried a proposed bill in the House, the ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act, or the so-called ''Harvard Act." If passed, the bill could cost the university up to $400 million in federal money if it continues to ban ROTC. The student paper, praising the individual effort of the ROTC recruits, posed the question, ''how much does Harvard value its policy of nondiscrimination?"

Undeterred, Lieutenant Colonel Brian L. Baker, who runs Harvard Army ROTC at MIT, has announced his intention to double enrollment in the program within five years from 50 cadets to 100. Enrollment has already doubled over the past four years.

''I think it's very important that the army reflects a cross-section of our society. It's very much in this country's interests to have officers with a Harvard-type background. And yes, I think these men contributed a great deal to their college classes, as well."

Harvard's newest class of officers echoes this idea. Daniel Walker, who studied history and is headed to Florida for flight training at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, believes that exposure to a diversity of people is the greatest lesson he learned at Harvard.

''I'm from a small town, Rhinebeck, N.Y., so Harvard was a truly widening experience for me."

Stephen Bosco, another new officer, agrees.

''At Harvard I learned how to deal with a variety of people, including people who disagree with me on a variety of issues," he said. ''That's very necessary on a ship. In order to lead people, you have to be able to relate to them on a human level and get past differences."

Although controversy over the issue of ROTC on campus is likely to continue, these officers see a vital role for Harvard-educated officers.

A common anti-military criticism, says Rafi Cohen, is that it is unjust for the wealthy and educated to send poor, uneducated people to fight their wars.

''One way to change that perceived dynamic is for more [well-educated people] to serve for a bit in the military," says Cohen. ''I essentially agree with those critics: There shouldn't be such a deep divide between social classes. That's part of why I enlisted."

This story ran on page S5 of the Boston Globe on 6/20/2004.
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