For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the U.S. Army is expanding the number of ROTC programs on college campuses.
The Pentagon requested this year that Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs produce 4,500 new second lieutenants each year, a 15 percent increase, according to an Oct. 31 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Boston University Dean of Military Education Douglas Sears said there is a constant need for new officers because of U.S. involvement in two wars abroad.
‘The U.S. military is stretched fairly thin in two major confrontations in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ he said. ‘There’s a constant need to renew the officer core.’
Northeastern University military science instructor John O’Brien said expanding ROTC is necessary because the U.S. Army must meet a quota for officers recruited from academic institutes.
‘The Army has a certain number of lieutenants they are looking to fill,’ he said. ‘The ROTC is the largest way the Army receives its commissioned officers.’
Northeastern has raised its quota by 1,000 cadets this year to fill the minimum 5,000 spots the Army is looking to fill from the institution, O’Brien said.
Boston University offers ROTC students many merit-based scholarships and higher education benefits to encourage recruitment.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Michael Matern said the only way he was able to attend BU was because of the scholarship he received from the ROTC program.
‘If it wasn’t for the ROTC, I wouldn’t be at BU,’ he said.
However, the scholarships provided to cadets does come with a price.
Cadets must all serve a minimum of four years active service in the military, as well as four years as inactive members on the Reserve’s roster. ROTC students do not find out where they will be stationed until after they graduate.
Some colleges resisted the call for an increase in ROTC programs due to antidiscrimination policies that clash with the military’s’ ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, which prevents gay individuals in the military from telling others about their sexual preference.
Both U.S. presidential candidates support an increase in ROTC programs on college campuses and recently criticized Ivy League colleges in a joint appearance at Columbia University Sept. 12 for their resistance to an on-campus ROTC program, according to Bloomberg.’
Like Columbia, Harvard University does not host an ROTC program because of the military’s stance on homosexuality.
‘Current federal policy of excluding known lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals from admission to ROTC or of discharging them from service is inconsistent with Harvard’s values as stated in its policy on discrimination,’ Harvard’s student handbook states.
Harvard students, however, can take ROTC courses on a non-credit basis by cross registering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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