> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Armed forces dip into college pool - URL: https://www.smdp.com/armed-forces-dip-into-college-pool/ - Published: 2005-02-19T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T06:08:31.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Lessons in recruitment met with mixed reviews* *By KIM CALVERT Special to the Daily Press* Marine and Army recruiters scan the students stroll ing the campus here and at random they slide up beside them, hoping that their pitch sticks. “How are you doing? What’s your major? Did you know we can help you meet your goals — help you solve your problems?” they tell the students. A girl stops to chat with recruiters and shares her French fries. They tell her there are opportunities for women in the armed forces, too. When recruiters see students they’ve talked to before, they call out their names and give a friendly wave. “We’re still getting together on Friday, right? We’ll pick you up at 10 — OK, see you then.” Jeronimo Saldana, 25, said recruiters have approached him numerous times on the SMC campus. “Every time I pass by the library they hit on me,” said Saldana, SMC’s Associated Student body president and also chairman of the Community College Caucus for the U.S. Student Association. “If I’m dressed nice, they come up and tell me about all the great options the service has to offer. If I’m not dressed up they say stuff like, ‘Hey, what are you doing with your life?’” Saldana said it appeared as if the recruiters target low-income minority students. “I’d like to know if they do the same thing at more prestigious college campuses where you have a different demographic,” he said, referring to SMC’s 63.5 percent minority population. SMC is just one of many community colleges the United States Marine Corps consider as re cruit ing venues because most students are high school graduates and in the age range between 18 to 28, according to Marine Corps Master Sgt. David Arriola, 40, who trains recruiters. He said race and socio-economic factors were not a consideration. 66D,“We’re looking for qualified men and women — that’s it,” he said. During the week of Feb. 7, Arriola supervised recruitment efforts on the SMC campus by seven newly trained Marine recruiters, along with two additional recruiters from the Marine recruitment center in Culver City. Arriola said response from the students varied. “Some are open, some aren’t,” Arriola said. “Students get excited when we tell them what we have to offer, but when they go home to tell their parents, a lot of the time, that’s the end of that. A lot of people have negative opinions about the military when they really don’t know anything about us.” Arriola said the recruitment effort at SMC has been ongoing for years and wasn’t prompted by an increased presence of military troops in the Middle East. He declined to say how many people they’ve been able to lure away from school. It’s most likely a tougher sell in liberal Santa Monica, where Democrats far outnumber Republicans. A large portion of the city’s population is against the war, and college campuses are generally known as liberal. Santa Monica resident Patricia Hoffman, who is a Democrat and has three sons in an age range attractive to the military, said she doesn’t like students being recruited on campus. “I know that colleges are free-speech zones,” she said. “But I think aggressive recruiting, where they actually approach students and attempt to engage them in conversation is a violation of the student’s personal space.” She said there’s concern in Santa Monica not only about what goes on at SMC, but efforts to recruit students at the high school level as well (See related story). 9F3,“I doubt if they tell students ‘we’re going to give you an opportunity to serve your country and we want to put you in a life-threatening situation, oh, and by the way, if you get hurt, forget about benefits,’” Hoffman said, referring to budget cuts proposed by President Bush. “I don’t want to see our youth being used as fodder for canon fire,” she added. “I don’t like the idea of them attempting to hasten the death of our young people.” Her sentiment is shared by Julie Lopez Dad, president of the Santa Monica Democratic Club. “I find their tactics heavy-handed, especially now,” Dad said. “It goes against the grain of what public education is supposed to be about. Students should be free to pursue their education without that kind of pressure.” However, not everyone thinks the recruiters are a problem. “I’m happy they’re here,” said Fran Chandler, who has been teaching business classes at SMC for 20 years and is the student advisor for SMC’s 100-member Republican Club. She added that the recruiters were playing to a tough crowd at SMC, given not only the liberal environment of Santa Monica, but of college campuses in general. “I appreciate what they are doing for us and for democracy,” Chandler said. “They’re offering students some great career training opportunities — and with tuition costs going up, joining the service can be a way to get training that otherwise might not be affordable.” When Edwin Encaración, 52, walks by the recruiters on the SMC campus there is a mutual nod of recognition and respect. Encaración takes classes at SMC in drawing and jewelry design, and said he would like to major in art. He’s also a veteran of the Marine Corps, serving in Thailand from 1970 to 1974 during the Vietnam War. He said he enlisted after graduating from high school because he didn’t have money for college and “my dad told me that two male crabs can’t live in the same hole.” He selected the Marine Corps because when he read the obituaries, there seemed to be fewer Marines listed than fatalities from other branches of the armed forces. Encaración’s son, Estefan, also became a Marine. He was severely injured when his HumVee ran over a land mine in Iraq. “He has a titanium face now,” Encaración said. “And a Purple Heart.” Encaración said he was glad that students on the campus had a chance to sign up — if that’s what they wanted to do — but said he wished the United States just had a peacekeeping force. “We need to forget about other people’s troubles,” he said. “I’ve had enough of the war on terrorism.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 19, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/021905.pdf?ref=smdp.com)