With the plot building for a possible showdown between NIU and the Department of Defense over the Reserve Officers Training Corps here, the Student Association is standing back and waiting.

“Right now, we are just gathering information,” SA President Preston Came said. “I’m just keeping options open.”

Came’s reaction comes on the heels of Gov. Jim Edgar’s veto last week of a bill which would have prevented NIU from challenging ROTC.

The University Council decided in March 1990 to reconsider ROTC’s contract this spring if the Department of Defense does not change its policy of banning homosexuals from the military.

The vetoed bill, which stated NIU could not throw ROTC off campus, could reopen a controversy which seemed dead after it passed through the Illinois General Assembly during the summer.

However, SA senators are not poised for a fight.

Two senators, Donielle Gary and Lattice Coleman, could not fully support a move like throwing the ROTC off campus.

“I think that is a bit extreme,” Gary said. Coleman voiced similar concerns, saying such an action is “pushing it.”

But they both said homosexuals should be able to join the military. Gary said sexual preference “should not be an issue” when considering people for the military.

Sen. Dan Gora thinks the senate can’t affect much influence on ROTC’s future.

“It makes little difference” what the senate does, Gora said. He suggested lobbying the Department of Defense through letters and phone calls as better methods to make a change.

But Gora said he doesn’t “really have a feel” for how the senate should deal with the ROTC controversy.

Came has made a firm stance that ROTC should not be kicked off campus because some students could not afford college without the program. But he was cautious about supporting the way the state is trying to tell NIU what to think.

“I don’t like the state taking over university decisions,” he said.

However, he indicated that the SA will not play dead if the veto holds. “It is going to be a huge issue on this campus.”