National Overview of ROTC at Elite Universities

Ivy League:

Group: Advocates for Brown ROTC
Coverage

Cornell: (On-campus Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC)

28 September 1973 Harvard Crimson article "A Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Other Campuses". Note: A summary of the status of ROTC at several elite universities.
16 September 2002 Cornell Daily sun article "Spotlight On: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'"
7 April 2003 Cornell Daily Sun article "ROTC Confronts The War on Iraq: Cadets relate experiences". Comment: A cadet at one of the four Ivy League colleges with campus-based ROTC describes student attitudes.
12 April 2003 Ithaca Journal article "ROTC trains at Cornell".
23 November 2004 Ithaca Journal article "On the Iraq war and Cornell's ROTC program". Note: Applications to the ROTC programs have remained strong despite the war in Iraq.
1 December 2004 Cornell Daily Sun editorial "Solomon's Revenge". Note: The editors ponder the implications of FAIR vs. Rumsfeld on the ROTC issue.
5 April 2005 FrontPage column "The Campus Left's War on ROTC" by Jamie Weinstein. Note: The author is uncomfortable with the "Don't ask, don't tell" law but notes "There are reasons why men and women do not share barracks today, and it is the same reason -- or at least a major part of the reason -- for the reluctance to allow gays into the service. " He goes on to call for modification of "Don't ask don't tell" to exclude soldiers for which sexual privacy concerns are not very relevant, such as translators.
20 April 2005 Cornell Daily Sun column "DADT: Facing Facts and Summing Up" by Jamie Weinstein. Note: The author asks whether it would have been right to exclude the US military during World War II because of discrimination against blacks.
8 March 2006 Cornell Daily Sun article "ROTC Athletes Have Twice the Commitments".
14 March 2007 Cornell Daily Sun column "Orgies, Adultery and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" by Bill McMorris. Note: McMorris argues that homosexuality is but one of many areas in which the tolerance of the university and the military are, and should be different. "In July 1998, 10 United States naval personnel, seven male and three female, participated in an orgy in a Hong Kong hotel room. Every sailor, regardless of their sexual orientation, was charged, indicted and found guilty of “adultery, sodomy and fraternization.” No one had any problem with the moral judgment that was cast down upon these sailors."
14 February 2008 Cornell Daily Sun column "'Dont Ask, Don't Tell' Hurts ROTC, Too" by Gabriel Arana. Note: Arana notes that many universities shun ROTC because the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law discriminates against people who are openly homosexual, and calls upon ROTC officers to reject the military's "insularity" and address whether the law is reasonable. See 19 February response by the ROTC officers.
19 February 2008 Cornell Daily Sun Op-Ed "ROTC Officers Address ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’". The Cornell Army ROTC officers asked in a 14 February column to address whether the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law is reasonable points out that the law was passed by Congress and it "cannot be changed by the military internally". "Cornell’s discrimination policy (updated Jan. 25 2008), “assists the university to comply with federal, state and local legal mandates in relation to such misconduct.” As of now, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is a matter of federal law. We are obligated to adhere to it and we are prohibited to commission a person who openly violates this law." They did not discuss the merits of the law, and alluded to the fact that active-duty officers are expected to avoid taking stands on political issues. They raise the possibility that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law can be overruled by executive order, which is far from certain.
6 March 2008 Cornell Daily Sun column "Colonels and Campus Don't Mix: Are ROTC and Academia Compatible?" by Munier Salem. Note: Salem argues that the search for truth at a university is "self correcting", while in the military "rank determines who is right and wrong — not the merit of someone’s ideas". Yet he notes that "ROTC friends tell me that criticism of former military endeavors (Vietnam) and talks of ethics and proper leadership pervade all classroom discussions". He criticizes military officers for failing to sign up openly gay students, arguing that "The “it was against the law” argument doesn’t carry much weight in my book".
6 March 2008 Cornell Daily Sun op-ed "A Cadet Defends ROTC" by Jennifer Speeckaert '08. Note: A cadet in Cornell Army ROTC writes "How can we allow homosexuals to shower together when we don’t allow heterosexual men and women to shower together? Personally, I would not feel comfortable showering in front of men."
7 March 2008 Cornell Daily Sun column "Another Side of ROTC" by Mike Wacker. Note: Wacker concludes: "Cornell ROTC has just as much right to be here as homosexuals, and the values of our university have room for both groups. But if anyone has to be given the boot, it’s the anti-ROTC activists. There is no place at Cornell for their disgraceful attitude towards the military or their hypocritical intolerance."
7 March 2008 Cornell Daily Sun article "Digging Below the Stereotypes of ROTC". Note: The article describes the daily life of ROTC students.

Group: Advocates for Columbia ROTC
Coverage

Dartmouth: (Army ROTC: on campus, officially through "an extension school for Norwich University", but the Professors of Military Science have Dartmouth faculty appointments)

28 September 1973 Harvard Crimson article "A Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".
21 February 1975 Harvard Crimson article "Dartmouth Faculty Rejects Proposal to Reinstitute ROTC".
18 April 1994 Harvard Crimson article "Dartmouth Decides To Maintain ROTC Ties".
14 May 2001 Dartmouth Review article "Be All You Can Be in the ROTC" by Alexander Talcott
28 September 2001 The Dartmouth letter "Recognizing ROTC"
2 October 2000 Dartmouth Review column "Colleges' Housing Hypocrisy" by Steven Menashi
3 October 2001 The Dartmouth article "More students express interest in ROTC"
14 November 2001 The Dartmouth article "Apathy replaces the controversy that surrounded ROTC during the Vietnam-era, few students choose ROTC today". Reader letter.
10 April 2003 The Dartmouth article "As war continues, students prepare for military service: College ROTC trainees take conflict in stride".
12 January 2004 The Dartmouth article "Far from Hanover, military alums reflect".
6 February 2004 Dartmouth Free Press column "Student Soldiers at Dartmouth" by Welton Chang.
20 February 2004 Dartmouth Free Press column "ROTC: Five Years of Obscurity" by Welton Chang.
5 March 2004 Dartmouth Free Press column "Life in the Dartmouth ROTC" by Welton Chang.
5 May 2005 The Dartmouth article "ROTC may receive full college grants from Army". Note: A student-initiated request may lead to an upgrade of ROTC funding and status at Dartmouth.
30 June 2005 The Dartmouth article "ROTC garners student support; admin. split". Note: Dartmouth College President James Wright is described as supporting ROTC in private but being "afraid of the faculty". A poll showed students supportive of ROTC but opposing the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.
19 October 2005 The Dartmouth article "Assembly divides over ROTC statement". Note: A proposal would increase the ROTC scholarships and open them to students who were openly gay.
6 January 2006 The Dartmouth article "ROTC cadets to receive full financial support". Note: The Army is matching the arrangements already in place for ROTC students at other institutions such as Harvard and Stanford.
22 February 2006 Wall Street Journal editorial "Veritas at Harvard". Note: The Journal notes how ROTC was one of the issues of contention between President Summers and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and notes a similar conflict faced by former Dartmouth president David McLaughlin.
18 May 2006 The Dartmouth article "Three seniors to accept ROTC Army commission". Note: The three "are ranked among the top five percent of 4,500 Cadets on the National Order of Merit List".
5 February 2008 The Dartmouth column "Now Help ROTC" by Phil Aubart '10. Note: With the advent of Dartmouth's newly generous financial aid program, Aubart describes what happened to him as an ROTC cadet. "I started receiving the ROTC scholarship in winter term my freshman year. I then lost all of my financial aid, even money from fall term when I was not receiving the ROTC scholarship — I was stuck paying 100 percent tuition my freshman fall." He notes that "Over 100 schools across the country grant free room and board to ROTC scholarship recipients" and suggests the same for Dartmouth.
22 February 2008 The Dartmouth article "ROTC: Band of Brothers or 4-Letter Word?" Note: The article describes the history of ROTC at Dartmouth and the current small ROTC program.

Harvard: (Off-campus ROTC)

Group: Advocates for Harvard ROTC
Coverage

Penn: (On-campus Navy ROTC)

6 December 1968 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Can Stay on Penn Campus Despite Loss of Academic Credit".
28 September 1973 Harvard Crimson article "A Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".

Princeton: (On-campus Army ROTC. Air Force ROTC officially through Rutgers, but program courses are taught at Princeton)

Group: Alumni and Friends of Princeton ROTC
Coverage

Yale: (Off-campus ROTC)

Group and Coverage: Advocates for Yale ROTC

Other colleges:

Georgetown: (On-campus Army ROTC and Navy ROTC, and off-campus Air Force ROTC)

29 September 2000 The Hoya column "ROTC Gives Experience, Friendship: Financial Help an Incentive, But Memories Make You Stay" by Sean C. Stevens.
27 April 2003 Washington Post article "First Person Singular: Maj. Jon J. Chytka - Assistant Professor and ROTC enrollment officer, Washington". Note: Maj. Chytka is with the Army ROTC Hoya Battalion and his faculty appointment is from Georgetown University.

Johns Hopkins: (On-campus Army ROTC)

13 February 1995 Johns Hopkins press release "Hopkins Survey Respondents Oppose Both Gay Ban and ROTC Abolition".
14 April 2005 Johns Hopkins News-Letter article "ROTC offers cadets unique education".
14 April 2005 Johns Hopkins News-Letter column "ROTC policy incongruent with 'tolerant' university" by Blake Trettien. Note: The author notes that the ROTC program does not follow the university's nondiscrimination policy for sexual orientation, but does not mention that it doesn't follow provisions on age, gender, veteran status or disability either.

MIT: (On-campus Army ROTC, Naval ROTC, and Air Force ROTC)

Group: Advocates for MIT ROTC
Coverage

New York City

UC Berkeley: (On-campus Army ROTC, Naval ROTC)

28 October 2002 San Francisco Chronicle article "Cal's ROTC program is on the rise: Students in uniform feel more at home".
15 January 2008 SFGate Politics Blog item "Live Blogging Dem Debate: How They Lost the Berkeley Vote". Note: "Interesting question: Would you enforce a law that requires colleges to have an ROTC program and allow military recruiters on campus? This is a BIG deal in the Bay Area -- at least in the Berkeley/San Francisco/Oakland/Santa Cruz parts of it -- where "counter-recruting" efforts goes on campus and high school students and families regularly elect to NOT be contacted by recruiters. Start painting the picket signs: All three of them said they will enforce the law."
16 January 2008 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today item "Too Patriotic for Berkeley" by James Taranto. Note: Taranto notes how the opposition to ROTC at Berkeley puts it outside the mainstream defined by all the Democratic presidential candidates.

University of Chicago: (Off campus Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC)

28 April 2006 Chicago Maroon editorial "Bring ROTC Back to Campus".

Stanford: (Off-campus Navy, Army and Air Force ROTC, no university-sponsored ROTC Web page)

Coverage

Military Studies in England:

King's College, Department of War Studies

Reserve Officers Association representing Officers of the seven United States Uniformed Services

Other links:

Wikipedia article about ROTC

HOOAH.com military community site

Young America's Foundation ROTC page

Links for ROTC programs nationally:

Please contact us if you have more links to add.

Last updated 09 March 2008