ALLIES General Interest Meeting & Discussion

Since the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, public high-schools across the nation have been legally obligated to open their directories to military recruiters--providing names, addresses, and telephone numbers that could potentially point the armed forces towards their next generation of soldiers. Some have decried this provision, calling it a violation of privacy and a tool too easily manipulated by over-zealous recruiters eager to fulfill mandated quotas. Others have taken a more positive view, contending that such tactics are necessary in times of war, especially if the US hopes to simultaneously maintain both an all-volunteer military and its superpower status. Americans, it seems, are divided. But such debates are nothing new, and in fact represent only the most-recent chapter of a decades-long narrative, beginning with President Nixon's decision to end the Draft in 1973 and extending to the present day. How does the military fill its ranks? Should public high schools be obligated to open their doors to recruiters? Can their tactics ever be termed "too aggressive," and if so, where is the line? Join ALLIES on Wednesday, 1/22 at 8pm in Braker 113, as we discuss these questions and more in a discussion we've titled "I Want You: Filling the Ranks in the Twenty-First Century." To get the gears turning, we've included two articles and a video we found especially interesting--see the attached document below!