National ROTC Coverage: 2014

• 20 January 2014 Cornell Daily Sun op-ed "Cornell ROTC Does Its Part to Make U.S. Domination Seem Normal" by Caleb Rossiter ’73 PhD ’83.  Note: A graduate from the era in which ROTC was forced off many campuses notes an ROTC poster that reads “Global Reach Starts with Community Outreach” and argues that American military actions go against American interests.  He describes an image on an ROTC poster as "uniformed marchers in an Ithaca parade and students attending classes in their camouflage uniforms, cunningly blending into the foliage of the Arts quad so they can take out unsuspecting academic malefactors".
• 5 February 2014 News at Princeton press release "Princeton University, Navy re-establish campus NROTC program".  Note:  When Army ROTC was reestablished at Princeton in 1972, Naval ROTC did not return, as Princeton refused course credit even for celestial navigation.  Now, "NROTC active duty Navy and Marine Corps instructors will lead and teach Princeton NROTC midshipmen on the Rutgers or Princeton campus".  No details were given in the press release about course credit for students or university appointments for ROTC faculty.
• 11 February 2014 American Enterprise Institute panel "Transforming Army ROTC: A conversation between Major General Jefforey A. Smith and General Jack Keane (ret.)"
• 7 March 2014 New York Times blog post "Building Bridges Between the Military and Universities" by David F. Eisler.  Note:  Eisler reflects on the efforts to reduce the civilian-military divide at Columbia and CUNY.
• 10 March 2014 film "The New Conversation".  Note:  The film is about the civil-military divide in America and exchange ideas with returning US Military Veterans at Columbia University.
• 15 April 2014 NJ.com article "Princeton U. welcomes back Navy ROTC for first time since Vietnam War".  Note:  "U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus joined the presidents of Princeton and Rutgers University at a ceremony marking the return of Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps — or NROTC — to Princeton. Starting in the fall, Princeton will partner with Rutgers to offer the program."
• 16 April 2014 Princeton news article "Ceremony heralds return of NROTC program to Princeton".  Note:  "NROTC active duty Navy and Marine Corps instructors will lead and teach Princeton NROTC midshipmen on the Rutgers campus, providing students the opportunity to earn a commission in the United States naval service."
• 23 April 2014 NJ.com editorial "Return of Navy ROTC to Princeton University is welcomed addition".  Note:  The editorial notes that "Although Princeton University never gave into demands to officially ban ROTC, the naval training program left campus during those turbulent times. Last week, it returned."  Actually, Princeton withdrew academic credit for ROTC, which meant that under the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 ROTC couldn't stay without some fiddling.  However, this was particularly difficult to do for Navy ROTC since the university gave academic credit for its celestial navigation course, while denying such credit for the Navy ROTC version, which was widely seen as significantly superior.
• 8 May 2014 St. Louis Public Radio article "ROTC Course Credit Returns To Washington University".  Note:  "Courses for freshmen and sophomores will carry one credit each, and those for juniors and seniors will carry three credits each toward the 120 credits required for a bachelor’s degree."  Connor Eulberg, a sophomore majoring in international studies and a ROTC cadet, said “Military science is not just applicable to the military ... We focus a lot on leadership skills. We focus on various aspects of critical thinking and higher-level thinking that allows us to make snap decisions with major consequences, to make the right decision in high-stress situations ... So a lot of military science isn’t necessarily only applicable to the Army. There’s a reason that so many people come out of the Army from the officer corps and immediately go into executive positions in various major companies in the United States. It teaches you to be an excellent leader, an excellent critical thinker, an excellent decision maker.”
• 22 May 2014 Columbia News article "First NROTC Graduate Since 1973 Is Grateful for the Core—and More".  Note:  A veteran, who served in the Navy before coming to Columbia's School of General Studies, becomes the first Columbia student in the University's NROTC program to be commissioned since it was reinstated in May 2011.
• 28 May 2014 Harvard Magazine article "Service, and Families".  Note:  Seven graduating from Harvard College received commissions as officers in a ceremony in Harvard Yard.  The page has links to the audio of the ceremony and a PDF of the program.
• 28 May 2014 Harvard Gazette "Moving on to the military: Ceremony launches seven ROTC graduates in Marines, Navy, Air Force".  Note:  Harvard president "Faust recalled the hundreds of former Harvard students who died in World War I and whose names and memories are preserved in the Memorial Church. She also recounted the words of Capt. Constant Cordier, commander of the new 1,000-student Harvard Regiment, precursor of the Army ROTC, who said in 1916: “In all this land, there is no better material for officers than is found in the student body of Harvard.”"
• 28 May 2014 Remarks at ROTC Commissioning Ceremony by Harvard President Drew Faust.  Note:  President Faust told the graduates "You are distinguished among your classmates and fellow citizens by virtue of your connections to two institutions with lasting and storied legacies: the Unites States military and Harvard University. Your accomplishments are intertwined with their histories, and you will and have shaped them as they have shaped and will shape you. Just as many professors and fellow classmates have learned about the military by having you in their House, or section, or classroom, there will be many—in the military and elsewhere—who will come to know Harvard through you."
• 1 June 2014 Second Line of Defense article "Harvard University and the US Military: Shaping An Effective Future Relationship".  Note:  The chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC outlines goals for strengthening the ties between Harvard and the military.
• 1 June 2014 "Harvard University & the US Military – an introspection" by Paul Mawn, chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
• 8 July 2014 Harvard Gazette article "Academic boot camp: Harvard hosts program that smoothes way for veterans to attend college".  Note:  Harvard hosted a weeklong pilot program presented by the Warrior-Scholar Project for veterans thinking of making a transition from the military to college.  “There are some important lessons in the combination of the warrior-scholar,” Harvard president Drew Faust said, including discipline, leadership, teamwork, and selflessness. “You have such important messages and lessons to bring.”
• 21 October 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed "Vote for Tom Cotton—and Redeem Harvard".  Note: A retired Harvard professor looks back at the era in which Harvard shunned ROTC, "A university conveys as much through its policies as it does in classrooms, and to dissuade students from considering military service could mean only one of several things: “Democracy needs no defenders,” or “This country is not worth defending,” or “Let some losers do the fighting for you”".  She adds that "Although ROTC is now formally tolerated at Harvard, there has been no faculty initiative to educate for patriotism and military service" but doesn't elaborate on what such an initiative would look like.  See responses on 27 October and 10 November.
• 21 October 2014 Army.mil article "ROTC cadets to lead in increasingly complex world".  Note: Brig. Gen. Peggy C. Combs, commander of the U.S. Army Cadet Command said that the Army predicts a fight that will "be taken to the enemy with Soldiers in boots" and praised the great "diversity of thought" that comes from these officers who are developed in 1,000 college campuses nationwide.
• 27 October Wall Street Journal letters "Arms and the Man: Harvard’s Long Military History".  Responding to Prof. Ruth Wisse's op-ed, Bruce S. Lane ’52 writes that he is "saddened by Harvard’s 40-year removal of ROTC from the campus—an act of overreaction to the Vietnam War that was taken at the behest of students as well as faculty at Harvard and many other colleges, including Yale and other Ivy League schools. Fortunately, Harvard’s current president, Drew Faust, and the current faculty have righted that wrong."  However, Harvard's restoration of ROTC was carried out without a faculty vote.  See another letter on 10 November.
• 27 October 2014 Chicago Maroon article "Student group looks to restart ROTC on campus".  Note:  "UChicago Students for ROTC Reform" aims to replace the off-campus ROTC option with on campus ROTC. To get around the problem of students interested in ROTC having chosen other colleges, the group "found around 20 to 30 students who already have plans to enter the military or would be interested if ROTC were available" at the University of Chicago.
• 10 November 2014 Wall Street Journal letter "ROTC Bans Still Limit Opportunity for Many" by Ron Harrison.  Note:  Commenting on letters of 27 October, the writer notes that Brown University's continued exclusion of ROTC from its campus deprives many of opportunities.
• 11 November 2014 USA Today article "ROTC students on why they joined and serve".  Note:  Army ROTC cadet Jordan Sawyers said "In general, just the way ROTC is structured, you’re given leadership positions and you’re not really told how to get something done...You’re told what the objective is, what the end state needs to be and then, they turn it on you. Having that experience and just being kind of thrust into that leadership position really forces you to be critical in your thinking and figure out how to get things done."
• 12 November 2014 Brown Daily Herald article "Serving Silently: Military culture on a civilian campus".  Note:  The article observes that "compared to other Ivy League schools, Brown lags behind in offering opportunities for students to engage with the military on campus."  James Rattner '15, student coordinator at Brown's Student Veterans and Commissioning Programs Office, " said most of his peers seem to lack enough military knowledge to ask appropriate questions".
• 29 November 2014 Truthout news analysis "ROTC Brings the Military Home to CUNY".  Note:  The article asks "why is ROTC so interested in New York City schools in the first place?" and then claims the answer is that in 2010 Defense Secretary Robert Gates "called on the Army to push its recruiting efforts East under the liberal pretense of diversifying the corps" and that "A 2011 report from the conservative Washington think tank, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), parroted Gate's thinking".  The causation in this account is backwards compared to what actually happened.  As detailed in the AEI report, several individuals with military and New York City ties, notably Stephen Trynosky, Sean Wilkes, Eric Chen and the author of the AEI report, Cheryl Miller, made the case for NYC ROTC years before there was any buy-in from the Pentagon. The article claims that the purpose of enhancing ROTC in NYC was "targeting poor, nonwhite teenagers for military service", while in fact the effort was led overwhelmingly by veterans, and many of those involved have offspring in military service.  The article also claims that a poor economy "helps explain why ROTC has returned to the more affluent Ivy League schools", while in fact, as documented in extensive detail on the Advocates for ROTC site, the 9/11 attacks were by far the most significant factor causing members of Ivy League communities to work towards restoring ROTC, and for many in these communities to enter military service.  The article additionally claims that to teach at CUNY, David Petraeus "was given a starting salary of $200,000 per year. To this day, Petraeus still holds this lucrative position" but doesn't mention that Petraeus decided to take $1 per year instead of taking an annual fee similar to what many people of his stature get for a single appearance.

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