Why can’t students handle the sight of soldiers?

sir – Cambridge University Students’ Union has voted to ban military personnel from the freshers’ fair (report, February 5).

I thought that one of the advantages of a university education was that it broadened one’s mind and outlook, in preparation for the cut and thrust of career, family and relationships in general. CUSU’S actions will have the opposite effect.

If students are likely to be traumatised by the sight or presence of military personnel, should they even be allowed out on their own? Lt-col Mike Tugby (retd) Warminster, Wiltshire

sir – I am a recent graduate of Edinburgh University, where I spent two years in the Officer Training Corps and one-and-a-half years in the Royal Naval Unit.

There could have been nothing better for my mental health. Pushing myself mentally and physically through military exercises in the fresh air of Iceland, Scotland, the Baltic and France did far more to expand my mind and challenge my thinking than any other Edinburgh University student group, society or lecture. Alice Roberts

Stratford-upon-avon, Warwickshire

sir – I agree that a freshers’ fair is no place for recruitment. My experience of this event was one of total mayhem – scores of stalls in the confined space of a sports hall, with hundreds of students milling around. It was a relief when, in the mid-2000s, Cambridge University Air Squadron, along with the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps and the Cambridge University Royal Naval Unit, were barred from attending.

This was not a problem, as the military-sponsored units got together and, having been granted the necessary permission from Cambridge City council, we set out our stalls on the adjacent Parker’s Piece, a green common. Our location was on the way to the freshers’ fair – and recruiting could not have been easier.

Wg Cdr JJ Jarvis RAF (retd) Cambridge University Air Squadron Adjutant, 2004-13

Upper Benefield, Northamptonshire