The chief obstacle to ROTC's expansion today is not antimilitary sentiment but a Pentagon that prefers to allocate its resources to surer recruiting prospects, primarily in the South and the Midwest.

ROTC cadets on elite campuses across much of the nation still face serious obstacles to their aspiration to serve their country.In the case of Columbia, the blame lies not with Columbia or its students, but with the ROTC program in New York City--which has just four host units located on campuses remote from most students.

After a faculty meeting, Yale University is expected to join the ranks of other elite schools where, after four decades of exile and estrangement dating back to the Vietnam War, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) is returning to campus.

Just three weeks after Columbia's university senate voted in favor of engaging with ROTC, Columbia has announced it will reinstate its Navy ROTC program. Meanwhile, ROTC looks set to return to both Stanford and Yale.

The lifting of elite-school bans against the ROTC will be a lost opportunity unless the military and civilian leadership push for more substantive changes to the ROTC program, broadening its base and seeking more geographic and institutional diversity.

Harvard recognizing its Naval ROTC program is a great moment and other universities should follow suit.

If President Obama is serious about restoring ROTC's geographic and cultural balance, he will have to be willing to advocate for--and authorize--the necessary resources.

Columbia will participate in a student vote to decide whether ROTC should return to campus, and there are good reasons to be optimistic.