By PETER THORNE PIX11.com

7:41 a.m. EST, February 24, 2011
NEW YORK (WPIX)—
Columbia University was a conflicted campus Wednesday evening. There was a split over a controversial question: should Reserve Officers' Training Corps be let back on campus after a four decade-long ban?

Wednesday night marked the third schoolwide "townhall-style" meeting on Columbia's campus seeking input to help university administrators come up with a decision on the ROTC question. The auditorium was packed to capacity.

First to speak was a Columbia student, former Marine and Iraq War veteran who urged civility and civility ruled. But it broke down at a meeting similar to this that took place last week.

That controversial meeting was when the Columbia ROTC controversy first veered into the news and triggered national outrage when disabled Iraq War veteran and Columbia freshman, Anthony Maschek, was jeered and heckled by an anti-ROTC contingent when he spoke in favor of military service.

Some at Wednesday's meeting felt that incident was taken out of context by some media organizations.

Columbia's ROTC ban has been in place for decades.

Sources with knowledge of the ongoing decision-making process told PIX 11 News that a decision on if the ROTC ban will be lifted could come as early as April.