I really don't have a problem with the armed forces coming on to campus for recruitment purposes, as it is mandatory if we want federal monies, but can be in many cases a great way for a student to get their college paid for. Today though I learned of a particularly disturbing event that happened on one of our campuses. My room mate and colleague Bob teaches philosophy at Richland College. He has a great student who just served in the Marines in Iraq and has been back less than a year. Bob tells me he is a great student who is really getting into his classes and doing quite well.
Yesterday two recruiters came to Bob's classroom and wanted to speak to the student. So he goes outside and the aholes make him stand at attention, with no uniform on mind you, and start in trying to recruit him again. This disturbs me for several reasons. First it is illegal for them to get stdent information that includes class schedules, times they are on campus and where they meet when they are attending class. All of that information is considered private and not accessible to anyone without student authorization, unless there is an emergency or the police want to arrest the person or are chasing them down. Mind you, constables and process servers do not even get access to this info, or at least they aren't supposed to. One imagines the two recruiters went up to the admissions office and looked important enough to have access to that information.
The other big reason this disturbs me is that it interrupts class, causes a scene in the hall and makes for a rather unpleasant atmosphere. I don't and I know Bob doesn't want them to have free reign over our campuses, nor do we want them believing they have a right to do that. They have their recruiting table, which is where they should stay when recruiting on our campuses PERIOD.
Yet another issue I have is the recruiters trying to reinlist someone who has just gotten back from Iraq and is trying to get on with their lives. What in the hell is wrong with our military? Do they have no ethics at all? I mean you promise a kid an education after they go serve and put their lives in danger, only to turn around and try to get them right back in that very same danger? We are treating out soldiers like meat that gets sent through the grinder once and then again and as many times as it take to turn them into mush. They become useless hollow fragments of human beings that end up missing not only arm and limb, but they come back with broken psyches and unknown illnesses.
Why on earth can they just not hold up their end of the bargain and let those who have served get the education that was promised to them? It shows a lot of disrespect in my opinion, not only to the soldier, but to every citizen in the country.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 60
I agree with you, Travis. Leave them alone, they've done their time.
Olga..it is the military and our government doing it to the soldiers and veterans.
elizabeth..unbelievable doesn't even begin for me..
Actually, I don't believe in it even then. If they couldn't come up with any more soldiers to fight their filthy profiteering wars, they would have to learn to show respect for the precious ones who they already have, and continue to squander. They might even have to get in there and duke it out for themselves. HA!!
As for rerecruiting the kids when they get out, there is a valid reason (from the military view) for this. Money. No training needed on that enlistment. The guys that re-up are already trained and ready to go. They have had their physicals. They have the right mind set to make it rhrough, no psych testing needed. I know some people that CHOSE a career in the militart, and they did not need to be rerecruited, they re-upped before they even had time at home.
I think there should be no approaching guys after they served, hand them a paper to contact the recruiter, or a calling card, on their way out and let them choose what they want to do. They served their time and hopefully are able to get on with life if they choose to.
When you enlist in the Marines it's for a Grand total of 6 years. Now you may select to serve the 6 years in a number of ways; 3 yrs active, then 3 yrs in active or 4 yrs active 2 yrs inactive or you can do what I did and serve the entire 6 years active. At the time of your EAS (End of Active Service you're free of any obligations to the Marines. Now maybe your friend Bob still had time on his inactive contract and the Marine recruters where asking to return to active duty.
Yes I know because I was asked to do the same thing back in 1991. Even though I'd already spent 10 yrs in the Corps, they still needed people with critical skils to return. I almost went back in. My family changed my mind.
"Now maybe your friend Bob still had time on his inactive contract and the Marine recruters where asking to return to active duty."
Benjamin..please go back and read what I wrote. Bob is the professor, the recruiters interrupted his class to try and recruit a veteran who has been back less than a year.
because dipstick they are the same recruiters that are always on his campus.
"Why are you being such a baby about this. "
why are you a complete and total asshole?
"If fact, they could have come to his class and taken him to report for duty at that moment."
He isn't active military. He was discharged.
You can call me a sucker if you want..I really don't care what you think. You would do just as well to stay away from me too.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976921954
He thought is was going to be easy when he got there.
You probably missed some facts.
Since I was Navy, they used my personal info to get to my younger brother WHO DID NOT WANT to go into the military. He wanted to go the police academy instead. They harrassed him, and bugged him during odd hours and such.
I would have told them to go suck a donkey dick, or some such thing. Regardless, you buddy shouldn't have gone through that crap.
Of course, we don't really have all of the information, but i'm just going on what was posted.
just my two cents. Jean j.
I fail to see how that has enything to do with it.
Oscar, from what Bob tells me the student had a long talk with him after class about the whole thing. The recruiters make it awfully tempting to go back, but he has a job now and a new girlfriend and is making his way through school, which is exactly what he is entitled to. It should be the kind of thing all out veterans come back to.
id like to get sandwiched
between the two of you
and make peace
thanks for the wink
finally
;)
I look out for all students and BTW I never said I hated the military, nor can you find any reference where I did say such a thing. I simply do not like the tactics PERIOD. You keep trying to defend the indefensible.
and today is my birthday actually
see its like this..........
im a dreamer
and still dream in a the world where bombs turn into butterflies
much like travis does..who by the way i find beautiful too
im probably not the type of soldiergirl you'd want in the trenches, unless they were the trenches of your pants..
so see , i still need a lot of convincing to stay the course and not deviate
again you have not read my comments supporting some things and not others when it comes to the "war on terror". I do not hate the military, but here at home I expect them to abide by the rules and the law, which in this case they did not. It really isn't that hard to understand.
My nephew received his Doctorate in Gynecology because of his enlistment in the Service. (I think it was Air Force, but not sure.) He had to serve a short term upon graduation, which he had no problem doing. He is now practicing OBGYN with several other doctors in private practice. He is aware that his folks would never have been able to put him through Medical School because of the expense.
I find it hard to believe that Recruiters would come to a class and call out a student just to propose he re-enlist in the Service. I agree with some of the others that there seems more to this than the rest of us know. Perhaps his grades are not up to par, because those are carefully monitored. Passing grades won't do it, they have to maintain a certain grade average in order to participate in the Government plan.
I really believes this needs a little more research. His explanation to your friend may not have been entirely on the up and up.
.
Has it occurred to you that by getting student information they were breaking the law? And BTW..I have been teaching in a college setting for more than ten years and there is NO military oversight when it comes to people trying to get an education via their G.I Bill. Most certainly not recruiters coming to classrooms. The Financial Aid department of every college keeps track of that, not the military themselves. It would really do some well to read all of this before they decide to post and start calling the student in question a liar.
I never called anyone a liar. I simply stated that people do not always tell the whole story.
John, I know personally that the G.I. Bill is monitored because my nephew went to college on it. Of course he was a Captain upon graduation. Have you ever seen a doctor in the service with a rank lower than Captain? Unless he was doing some kind of internship. The Medical field promotes Officers faster than any other branch of the service because Doctors are continuously leaving to go into private practice.
The Law Enforcement section probably has the lowest promotion rate in the entire service. My late husband spent 20 years as an Officer in the Air Police. He was one of the youngest ever to be promoted to Captain in the history of his regiment. Once that rank is achieved, the ranks move up pretty fast. He had a top security rating which meant he was eligible to escort the President and other high officials. He turned down the offer to join the Honor Corps because promotions in that section were almost nil. (These are the ones who take care of all details in funerals, special presentations, Honor Guards, etc.)
Another reason he turned it down was because I had a successful career in the town he was stationed in. I would have had to pretty much start from scratch if we had relocated.
So, John, I am quite familiar with the Military and their regulations, which change often.
You are an idiot. It would be my wish that even discussing such things was not necessary.
will waiver for
a hot young piece of ass
;)
I'm 'left wing and liberal', yet I proudly served in the Navy, sometimes alongside Marines. Please don't fall into the same political/stereotypical bullshit as some people on Gather.
Still no excuse for recruiters using such tactics. Even if the student DID give them that info, why be an ass and call out the student? Travis may be 'left' but he doesn't strike me as a liar, either. I've read his articles.
See you around!
My husband is serving in Iraq for the third time at this very moment and I frankly would be highly irate if he came home and we decided to get on with our lives and recruiters tried to pull a stunt like that!!!