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These two decisions surfaced in the wake of a lawsuit filed by the Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights (FAIR) against the Solomon Amendment, a piece of legislation adopted by the federal government in 1995 that says colleges that do not allow military recruiters on campus can be denied federal funding.
The Third Circuit court ruled in favor of FAIR, declaring that the Solomon Amendment was unconstitutional.

However, CLA Dean Garvin Davenport said in a recent interview with the Oracle that Hamline will continue to allow military recruiters on campus. This decision was made by the president’s cabinet, a committee consisting of university vice presidents and deans, on the grounds that if Hamline were to comply with the HUSC and CLA faculty resolutions, the university would stand the risk of losing federal aid and grants.

“We understand the resolutions,” said Dan Loritz, vice president of university relations and a Hamline alumnus. “However, we have to look at the financial implications of such action.”

When asked to comment on financial implications, Davenport said, “The risk is too great.”

“We receive about 27 million dollars of federal funding each year,” Loritz said. About 25 million dollars of this money is granted directly to students through federal grants, but two million is granted directly to Hamline, he said.

“If we were to violate the Solomon Amendment, we have every reason to believe that the federal government would withhold that two million dollars,” said Loritz.

This is because the verdict that declared the Solomon Amendment unconstitutional came from a circuit court. Since Hamline is not under the regional jurisdiction of this court, the university would not be
protected from an injunction, putting the university in danger of losing federal grant monies.

Senior Colin Schumacher disagrees with Hamline’s stance on the issue, because the information on which the university is basing its decision is incomplete, he said. Schumacher is a leading supporter of a movement urging the Hamline University School of Law to join FAIR.

Such an action, Schumacher claims, would protect the law school from any injunction placed on Hamline by the federal government.

Though the school of law would be protected from penalties were it to join FAIR, the other colleges of
Hamline would not. The problem with these injunctions, Loritz said, is that “the burden falls unevenly.”

“The majority would fall on the CLA, and it would have a significant impact on their ability to carry on its programs,” he said.

Schumacher also contends that if the administration at Hamline were to ban military recruiters from campus, the federal government would have to give the university notice before denying it any grant monies. He stresses that Hamline could then issue a statement saying that, although the CLA faculty and HUSC do not agree with the decision of the federal government, the university has no choice but to comply. Schumacher is currently working on a petition, which will be sent to the president’s office, urging them to make a public statement.

Loritz suggested, as Schumacher’s petition does, that students take action into their own hands.

“This has been a long-standing issue, and it affects every university in the country that receives federal aid,” said Loritz. “The issue really has to go to our members of congress and the president, not the military.”

Loritz suggested that students and faculty around the country voice their frustrations with the Solomon Amendment to their legislators, because, as he points out, it is congress which makes such laws, not the military.

For now, Hamline’s official policy does not ban military recruiters from campus, even though HUSC and the CLA faculty have both passed resolutions urging the administration to change its stance on the issue.