Redeeming Columbia

Of all the graduates receiving their diplomas this season, the one we salute this morning is Bret Woellner. He is the Columbia University graduate student who was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army yesterday in the first joint commissioning ceremony ever held at the White House for graduates of the Reserve Officer Training Corps. All of the ROTC graduates are men and women who made extraordinary sacrifices as students. But Mr. Woellner was among a select group who made a double sacrifice, because Columbia, like several other universities who had graduates at the White House yesterday, bans ROTC from campus. So Mr. Woellner had to travel to Fordham to do his military studies. This was not lost on President Bush, who, in exceptionally eloquent remarks that we reprint on the adjacent page, who declared the commissioning ceremony a “solemn moment” for our country…. “Every American citizen is entitled to his or her opinion about our military,” the president said. “But surely the concept of diversity is large enough to embrace one of the most diverse institutions in American life. It should not be hard for our great schools of learning to find room to honor the service of men and women who are standing up to defend the freedoms that make the work of our universities possible.” And then came the pointed words: “To the cadets and midshipmen who are graduating from a college or university that believes ROTC is not worthy of a place on campus, here is my message: Your university may not honor your military service, but the United States of America does. And in this, the people’s house, we will always make a place for those who wear the uniform of our country.”