Students, faculty and even state senators are in the dark on what might happen next to the Reserve Officer Training Corps on Illinois college campuses.

The argument began a nationwide controversy on the Department of Defense policy to exclude homosexuals from all defense-funded programs.

The NIU University Council gave the Department of Defense two years to change their policy of exclusion.

Gov. Jim Edgar vetoed the bill which would have prohibited university officials from removing ROTC programs from their premises despite overwhelming legislative approval.

Senator Judy Baar Topinka said the legislature doesn’t plan to leave this decision up to the governor. She has filed for an override vote.

Mike Lawrence, Edgar’s press secretary, said the governor believed the decision should be left up to universities and that the state legislature was overextending its reach.

“The legislature deals a lot with how universities run. I think the governor may have received some bad advice,” Topinka said.

“The legislature was trying to say that it was not an ROTC policy; It is a defense policy,” said Col. Terry Fielden, director of NIU ROTC. “The legislature spoke very plainly. ROTC is not linked with this issue. It is a defense policy. It is not linked with the presence of ROTC on this campus or any other campus.”

Fielden said he doesn’t understand why the university wants to attack students who benefit from ROTC in the attempt to help others.

“The policy would be very hurtful to many students, but whether we’re here or not will not change the federal policy,” Fielden said.