ROTC's Uphill Battle
The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has left many observers hopeful for a repeal of elite universities' bans on ROTC. Whatever the administrations of these schools ultimately decide to do, however, there are a number of reasons for why getting ROTC back on campus will be tougher than many think.
1) Students don't need the money. With endowments in the billions of dollars, schools like Columbia can provide virtually free tuition to students from families with incomes under $60,000. For the rest, need-based loans are waived and converted into grants instead.
2) Elite academia's massive endowments offer enviable opportunities for undergraduates. Students can work alongside the world's leading scholars as research assistants, pursue their own research projects (with thousands of dollars in undergraduate grants), and study abroad. Harvard, for instance, funds programs around the globe, from Buenos Aires to Beijing. All this is still possible for midshipmen and cadets, but much more difficult to juggle alongside mandatory training exercises.
3) Other areas of government like the State Department are more attractive to Ivy League-level students. We are frequently told that counterinsurgency should be only 20% military and 80% civilian, this latter figure comprising development, diplomacy, economics, intelligence, etc. Yale graduates may rarely find their way into the military, but they are hardly absent from patriotic service.
4) Finally, the military may not want to come back directly. ROTC programs draw from multiple schools to fill their ranks. Naval ROTC at MIT, for instance, comprises about 30 midshipmen, including students from Tufts and Harvard. Similar situations exist elsewhere. With each unit typically staffed with a commanding officer, executive officer, several instructors, and other administrative support, does it really make sense to create and maintain a full unit at Harvard?
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
As a father planning for children's college, I do not want ROTC foisted onto the leftest rip-off universities. As it stands, the presence of an ROTC program is a statement, a useful discriminator in the selection process. A course catalog full of identity politicking poison is also a clear discriminator.
Jun '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
I just want to point out that the vast majority of "Ivy League-level" students don't attend schools in the Ivy League. Also, the typical kid interested in military service would recoil from most of the ivy schools. Many have Ivy-level stats & resumes, and they take them to schools that are a better fit with an ROTC program or apply to the service academies.
Jan '11
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Might not want to apply to Hillsdale College, which also doesn't permit ROTC...
Jul '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Tristan Abbey
Might not want to apply to Hillsdale College, which also doesn't permit ROTC... · Jan 22 at 12:46pm
Whoa, whoa. Hillsdale doesn't have ROTC for the same reason they don't take any funds, directly or indirectly, from government: to maintain its independence from federal mandates.
Aug '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
All of these are reasons why ROTC mightn't succeed when given the opportunity. This is a different thing from being barred -- a bit like the difference between censorship and an idea simply failing to take off. As such I think there's a qualitative difference between a campus without ROTC because the campus left has prohibited them versus a campus without ROTC because the students simply aren't interested.
I say this even though I appreciate having ROTC on my campus and I'd like to see ROTC succeed at other elite schools because I don't like the idea of a blue elite and red elite that have nothing to do with each other.
Jan '11
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Kenneth: Yes, yes, but at the end of the day, the result is the same, no? A university without ROTC.
Edited on Jan 22, 2011 at 2:15pmJun '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
But there already is a blue elite and red elite that have nothing to do with each other.
Jun '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
There is nothing anti-military about Hillsdale, though. It's pretty clear that the values instilled by ROTC programs are shared by Hillsdale.
Jan '11
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
I agree! I take it as a given that ROTC should be allowed back. ;-)
Jan '11
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Agreed, Hillsdale is a fine institution -- but the point of ROTC is to produce military officers. Instilling values is only part of that process. Hillsdale may send graduates into the military, but it's through programs like OTS, OCS, and direct commissioning -- which, in this very limited sense, is no different than Dartmouth or Brown.
Jul '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Tristan Abbey
Agreed, Hillsdale is a fine institution -- but the point of ROTC is to produce military officers. Instilling values is only part of that process. Hillsdale may send graduates into the military, but it's through programs like OTS, OCS, and direct commissioning -- which, in this very limited sense, is no different than Dartmouth or Brown. · Jan 22 at 2:30pm
Listen, any discerning individual will recognize that Hillsdale's principled stance to distance itself from government coercion is the distinction here
If your intention was to just aim a snarky arrow at Hillsdale, well, congratulations.
Jan '11
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Kenneth,
My intention was to show that we shouldn't judge schools on the basis of whether ROTC is or is not on campus. Principles are all well and good, but so are real-world consequences. In this case, the consequence is that Ivy Leagues as a group tend not to produce military officers for the United States of America. In this case, neither does Hillsdale.
Best regards,
An Apparently Undiscerning Individual
May '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
The military is overstaffed, so a lack of ROTC programs doesn't bother me much.
Jan '11
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
I graduated from Washington U. on an ROTC scholarship. I disagree with some of the points above.
1. Students do need the money. Without ROTC, I would not have attended WashU. While they often use their multi-billion dollar endowment to defray tuition costs, they tend to look for something different than the ROTC commanders do when they look for a recipient. I chose WashU over Yale precisely because WashU had ROTC and Yale does not.
2. ROTC did not hinder my studies; rather, it enhanced them. Mandatory training gave me a structure that other students lack. In fact, the mandatory training exists primarily to force cadets to manage their time. One of my best friends spent his senior year in Japan; I worked as a research assistant and studied not to the extent of my time, but to the extent of my ability.
3. With regard to whether ROTC would want to go back to Yale or Harvard, I think it depends. WashU hosts the ROTC for the entire St. Louis area (13 schools). It works because the schools are geographically close. Yale students have to travel to UConn, and I understand this is prohibitively far.
Jul '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Tristan Abbey
Might not want to apply to Hillsdale College, which also doesn't permit ROTC... · Jan 22 at 12:46pm
I know all about Hillsdale and, were matters a bit different, would consider it far ahead of other options, especially Ivy League options. I cited ROTC as a criterion, not the whole criteria.
May '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
When I went to Purdue, ROTC was compulsory, (and i was the worst cadet ever seen).
Jul '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
This is all academic, if you'll pardon the expression. The Ivy types will soon come up with a new excuse to ban ROTC anyway.
Frankly, I think the fact that the military is getting comparatively few Harvard and Yale graduates is a feature, not a bug. Not a lot of grade inflation in a firefight, after all.
Jul '10
Re: ROTC's Uphill Battle
Given the liberal saturation of the Ivies and the licentiousness that flourishes on those campuses -- Sex Week, etc. -- I think the military is well off in not drawing officers from those polluted wells.