The Sorry State of Dartmouth ROTC

By Michael J. Ellis | Friday, October 21, 2005

U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets at Harvard, Cornell, Penn, and Princeton are eligible for full-tuition scholarships of $128,000 over four years—but not at Dartmouth. Why? Cadets in most schools' ROTC programs, including Dartmouth's, are eligible for only partial scholarships. But at a few select schools, including four other Ivy League institutions, as well as Stanford, Georgetown, Duke to name a few, cadets are eligible for full-tuition scholarships. President James Wright and Dean of the College James Larimore maintain that they are fully supportive ROTC and claim to have made that point in meetings with Army officials. All of this begs the question: of why, then, is the Dartmouth ROTC program consistently under-funded? Today, only six cadets remain in the ROTC program, leaving it a mere shadow of its former self.

ROTC at Dartmouth has its origin in World War Two, when the College was the central site for the US Navy's V-7 and V-12 programs, training more than 2,000 men for the war effort. After the war, the program transformed into ROTC, enlisting between 300 and 400 men of each class, almost half the student body at the time. Cadets drilled on the Green, and national holidays were commemorated by military marches around Hanover.

Today's ROTC cadets can receive scholarships of up to $23,000 per year, but not the full scholarships. According to Army ROTC Cadet Command spokesman Paul Kotakis, for schools like Dartmouth whose tuition exceeds the standard scholarship value, the Army makes a ranking of all of the schools with ROTC programs every year. Cadets at schools that rank above a certain level are eligible for full scholarships; those at schools who miss the cut are left out in the cold. The formulae the Army uses are complex, but according to Kotakis, a school's US News & World Report rating, admissions competitiveness, size of ROTC program, and success rate at commissioning officers are all taken into account. Since Dartmouth's admissions standards and US News ranking are hardly detractors, and, according to ROTC Detachment Commander Maj. Eric Carver, Dartmouth cadets routinely rank in the top ten percent of their class at ROTC training camps, it is not hard to surmise that the size of Dartmouth's ROTC enrollment is the program's principle stumbling-block.

Dartmouth's program is considerably smaller than those of other Ivy League schools for a variety of reasons. Dartmouth students are not known to be any less service-oriented or patriotic than their peers (our hundreds of Teach for America volunteers attest to that), but the administration's attitude towards ROTC has until recently been hostile, and now could be characterized as generically supportive. At other schools, however, the administration provides additional incentives for students to enroll in ROTC: course credit for ROTC training, free or discounted room and board, or additional stipends to cover academic expenses.

But is there even latent student interest for joining the military that ROTC could exploit? Enter the Student Assembly. Normally, the Assembly is merely an outlet for preening braggarts who enjoy spending student activity fees on ill-fated bike -sharing programs, but over the past spring, they conducted an unscientific poll of student opinion on the ROTC program. Led by David Zubricki '07, the Assembly surveyed 621 students, and found overwhelming support for ROTC, a far cry from the almost universally negative student opinion of the late 1960s. Close to 80 percent of students say they support ROTC, while just 16 percent say they oppose it; more than 50 percent say they have a positive impression of the program, while just 10 percent have a negative view; and close to 70 percent believe the administration should do more to help the students who participate in ROTC.

While these numbers are surprising given the rocky history of ROTC on campus, they are less so given the question wording. One would be hard-pressed to find many students wouldn't favor ROTC, or think that the administration should do more to help the participating students, just as it would be difficult to find students who wouldn't favor more administrative support for the debate team, the Asian-American student organization, or the film club. The substance of the organization doesn't really matter—most Dartmouth students, mainly with good reason, believe the administration should be doing more for student groups.

The poll's real meaning, though, comes with the question, "would you consider joining Army ROTC if the program offered $128,000 scholarships during your four years at Dartmouth?" Close to 40 percent of students responded yes, with 59 percent responding that it would not make a difference. Even assuming that the 40 percent figure is highly exaggerated, if just one-tenth that number did join ROTC, it would make for an exponential increase in the program's enrollment.

Just this past week the Student Assembly took up the ROTC issue again, with President Noah Riner '06 and Vice President for Student Life Elisa Donnelly '07 (newly-appointed in the wake of the Kaelin Goulet faith-based imbroglio) leading the charge. Riner and Donnelly's proposal stated the Assembly's full support for ROTC and requested the Army upgrade Dartmouth to full-scholarship status. The measure was stalled, however, by Jesse Brush '06 and other members of the campus gay rights lobby. Angered by the Army's stance on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," they refused to allow the Assembly to pass the resolution this past week. Michael Amico '07, a member of the campus Gay-Straight Alliance group, said that "it is insulting for the College to concede to the demands of ROTC for increased recognition on campus." Donnelly says the Assembly will reconsider the resolution at a future meeting.

But what opposition exists on campus to the Army's homosexual policy comes largely from the faculty, not the students. The same Student Assembly poll found that 48 percent of students believe the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to be unfair, but of those students, 56 percent still believe the administration should provide more support to ROTC, and 55 percent support the program in general. While the faculty conflates an Army-wide policy with individual students who want to serve their country while attending Dartmouth, the students are able to draw a finer distinction, and object to the policy without hurting the individuals who have no say in its creation. Take note as well, of course, that a substantial proportion of Dartmouth students, 45 percent, have no objection to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a policy which even if it is discriminatory, does so with the intent of producing a more effective fighting force, ultimately saving lives.

The Army's policy on gays, though, has not been the only cause for resistance from the faculty. Zubricki cites reports of Arabic language professors denying Dartmouth ROTC's commanding officers the permission to post flyers and signs recruiting translators from Dartmouth Arabic students. At a time when Arabic speakers are urgently needed by our armed forces in Iraq, the resistance of professors to even such a trivial means of Army recruiting is yet another sign of the deep-seated resistance to ROTC within the faculty.

And according to Zubricki, ROTC's recruiting efforts have been hampered in other ways as well. While most college-recognized student organizations are permitted to send out a mailer to the incoming freshman class, ROTC "finds it very hard to recruit people because the First-Year Office won't give them the incoming freshman class mailing list."

So Dartmouth's ROTC program remains in a state of limbo—the administration professes full support, but the Army demands action to back up their otherwise hollow words before it awards Dartmouth cadets with full scholarships. In the meantime, cadets and potential recruits alike are left without the benefit of full scholarships, and ROTC's size remains perpetually paltry. The Student Assembly, with Noah Riner '06 (himself a potential soldier, training this summer at the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia) at the helm may be able to exert pressure on the administration, but it remains to be seen whether that will translate to any change in the administration's or the Army's policies. Until then, Dartmouth ROTC cadets will continue to serve our country as they have done for decades: maligned by its detractors, under-supported by the administration, but proud nonetheless.

The Sorry State of Dartmouth ROTC

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