mr. speaker , issues like this one -- first brought to our attention with a passion and eloquence only possible in a man like jerry solomon -- provide our democracy a valuable service : they cut through the fog of spin and force us to tell the american people exactly where we stand .  pure and simple , this bills says our armed services -- the army , navy , air force , marines , coast guard , and national guard -- should have the same right to recruit at colleges and universities who receive federal funding as any other group .  every year , thousands upon thousands of businesses , industries , non-profit groups , and even other colleges recruit underclassmen to sign up to become investment bankers and computer engineers or environmental lawyers or medical students .  and yet , some colleges -- principally the elitist and elite colleges -- refuse to even allow military recruiters on their campuses .  such policies are obnoxious in times of peace , but they are simply intolerable in times of war , and the equal access of our military recruiters to federally funded colleges and universities must be protected .  but that , mr. speaker , is the easy part .  the hard part is understanding why facilities and administrations of these colleges do n't want military recruiters on their campuses .  because , at bottom , their opposition to the presence of veterans at their schools is not about academic freedom , or civil liberties .  it 's about them not liking the military , or the values our men and women in uniform represent .  it 's about many of them preferring the company of people who blame the united states for 9/11 -- who compare the world trade center victims to nazis -- to the company of a soldier or a sailor or an airman or a marine .  it 's about academia feeling more sympathy for terrorists than for the women and children they murder .  it 's about a fundamental misconception about the purpose of a university -- the professors are there for the students , mr. speaker , and not the other way around .  that our military makes our academia possible , and not the other way around .  indeed , the right of tenured academics to be publicly insufferable exists only because of the sacrifices of our servicemen and women .  the least they could offer in return is a booth in the field house on career day .  of course , men and women who have dodged bullets and held dying comrades in their arms do n't take seriously people who live by the glib professional code `` publish or perish. '' but those elite campuses , who claim to educate our nation 's best and brightest , who claim to train our leaders of the future : how can we possibly not allow military recruiters to have the right to talk to such students ?  what profession , if any in our entire society , needs the opportunity to recruit the sharpest and broadest minds of every generation more than our armed forces ?  america 's armed services have molded great men from all walks of life , and when given brilliant men and women , they have produced legends .  how can we let such minds pass through our top colleges without even the chance that they might bump into a veteran recruiter who could change their life ?  america in the future no doubt will need its brilliant businessmen and lawyers and poets , but what good can such genius do without brilliant admirals and generals to protect them ?  mr. speaker , it 's a shame this issue was ever forced on us at all , but the vote on this bill will help to clarify exactly what we each mean when we say we support the troops .  we 'll finally see who among us really believes the military deserves more than just lip service from those of us they protect .  votes like this , after all , remind us of one of the great blessings of american democracy : that unlike college professors , congressmen do n't have tenure .  