lxxxii
2.7.08
published on 04/21/06
This Week at Vassar in 1984
On April 23, 1984, then-Vassar President Virginia B. Smith debated U.S. Representative Gerald Solomon (R, N.Y.) on the televised “MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour” about the constitutionality of his proposed amendment, which denied federal financial aid to male students who had not registered for the draft. The debate was televised one night before Supreme Court hearings of the so-called Solomon Amendment. According to The Miscellany News on April 27, 1984, Smith said that the amendment was “inequitable, unfair, and improper,” claiming that it targeted financially strapped young men seeking higher education as a means to achieve skilled employment. Solomon countered that the act served as a “reward to the patriotic young men who have complied with registration” and encouraged obedience to federal law. In 1984, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the act. The Solomon Amendment on financial aid was repealed in 1999. Solomon sponsored an act in 1996 to deny federal grants to schools that bar military recruiters and/or ROTC from their campus. The Solomon Act is still being debated in the Supreme Court.
—Emma Epstein, Assistant Life Editor
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Alumnae/i posters are strongly encouraged to include their class year with their name. The maximum length for comments is approximately 100 words; longer responses should be submitted as letters to the editor to misc@vassar.edu. More information about our letters policy can be found on our Policies page.
