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DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DENIZENS CODDLE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE

From Mountain States Legal Foundation

On April 5, 2005, the University of California at Santa Cruz

(UCSC) hosted a job fair for students seeking to learn about 

post-graduate employment opportunities.  Along with 

representatives of 60 companies such as Broadcom, Infineon, 

and American Express were Army, Navy, and Marine Corps 

recruiters.  Within moments, however, 100 student protesters 

infiltrated the job fair, surrounded the recruiters’ tables, 

linked arms to deny access to those tables, and chanted anti-

military rants.  Meanwhile, another 200 student protesters 

remained outside the building, barricading the entrances and 

cheering in support of their compatriots.  After what one 

reporter called “an hour of chaos and tension,” during which 

the job fair came to a halt, UCSC officials asked the 

military recruiters to leave and advised protesters that they 

could distribute their anti-military literature.

On April 11, 2006, UCSC again hosted a job fair.  Once again, 

recruiters from the Army and National Guard joined with other 

prospective employers; however, this time the U.S. Armed 

Forces representatives were placed in a separate room, apart 

from the other job fair participants, a room guarded by a 

dozen campus police.  It was not enough; a riot broke out as 

protestors, who, according to one press report, included 

students and faculty, blocked the entrances and demanded that 

the recruiters be ejected from campus.  Police responded as 

the violence escalated:  one arrest was made and an 

automobile belonging to a recruiter was damaged.  As in the 

previous year, the recruiters were asked to leave the campus, 

which they did, to the regret of at least one student:  "It's 

frustrating.  I'm not a Republican.  I'm not a conservative.  

I don't support the war.  It's about finding a career."

There was one difference:  the riot at UCSC made national 

news.  Bill O’Reilly of Fox News opened his show the next 

evening with footage of the disturbing images from 

California, which included darkly clad, mask-wearing, noisy 

protesters marching shoulder-to-shoulder across the UCSC 

campus.  Much of O’Reilly’s discussion with his guests 

concerned the Solomon Amendment, which requires colleges and 

universities, on pain of losing federal funds, to grant 

military recruiters the same access allowed other prospective 

employers.  Just one month earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court, 

in an 8-0 ruling, had upheld the constitutionality of the 

federal law, to which various unidentified law schools and 

professors had objected.  One of O’Reilly’s guests, noting 

the unanimous ruling, stated that he had urged Secretary of 

Defense Rumsfeld to withhold the $80 million that UCSC 

receives annually.

Nonetheless, the Department of Defense took no action 

regarding the inability of its recruiters to appear at UCSC 

job fairs.  Then, in January 2007, the UCSC cancelled a job 

fair scheduled for later that month given safety concerns 

related to its expectation of the type of protest that took 

place in 2006.  Finally, on April 25, 2007, UCSC “anti-war 

activists held a celebratory rally” after learning that Army 

and Marine Corps recruiters had pulled out of the April job 

fair, just one day after UCSC officials had warned them that 

as many as 400 students would protest their presence on 

campus.  While one student had the courage to speak out 

against the inability of military recruiters to appear on 

campus ("There's actually quite a few moderate and 

conservative students on this campus who are likely to be in 

the closet for fear of reprisal."), there was no comment from 

the Defense Department.

There will be one now.  On July 25, 2007, Young America’s 

Foundation (YAF), a non-profit, organization committed to 

ensuring that young Americans understand and are inspired by 

the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, 

free enterprise, and traditional values and one of the 

nation’s most active groups on America’s college campuses, 

sued Secretary Robert M. Gates.  YAF’s demand is simple:  

declare UCSC in violation of the Solomon Amendment and 

withhold the federal funds that it would otherwise receive 

until military recruiters can appear safely at its job 

fairs.

If you would like to support Mountain States Legal Foundation,

 click below.  MSLF’s sole source of support is the tax-deductible

 contributions it receives from people like you.

If you would like to support Mountain States Legal 

Foundation, 

click here.  MSLF’s sole source of support is the 

tax-deductible contributions it receives from people like you.

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