She was one of 11 Harvard graduates commissioned into the Armed Forces this May in a ceremony on campus that some see as easing tensions between the university and the military. Harvard is one of several elite colleges that do not formally recognize the Reserve Officers Training Corp, which trains students at hundreds of schools but is not recognized at most of the Ivies and other top-tier universities because the military violates their anti-discrimination policies. However, these schools’ opposition to ROTC, which started on many campuses during the Vietnam War, could soon change if Congress repeals the federally mandated policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). See TIME’s special: “Back to Campus.”

Stanford’s Faculty Senate has already installed a committee to investigate bringing a program back to campus, but with DADT still in place, most of its peer universities are not willing to comment on any potential plans, a sign that ROTC is still a sensitive subject. “If DADT was repealed, then ROTC would probably be an attractive option to more students,” says Tom Conroy, the deputy director at Yale’s office of public affairs, where students currently face a commute time of up to three hours roundtrip to the University of Connecticut. But, he added, “for the time being, the number of interested students is lower than what it would take to support an ROTC unit.”

Paying the salaries of training officers as well as covering costs of student equipment, uniforms, textbook allowances and monthly living stipends means that the military cannot sustain units that have only a handful of cadets. Plus, each branch of the military offers scholarships, some covering full tuition, making ROTC a lucrative option for the more than 30,000 cadets enrolled across the country.

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