UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, November 23, 1993
7
"On the one hand, there's a real desire to increase diversity. On the other hand, there's an undercurrent to get ROTC off campus. These are diametrically opposed goals."
Col. Cadric Hunter Commanding officer, Air Force ROTC
The Army ROTC Corps of Cadets stand at attention in Memorial Stadium. About 300 KU students participate in the ROTC program, where they receive military training and a liberal arts education, a combination that has raised difficult questions.
August 1918 the federal government establishes the Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) at 500 universities throughout the country under provisions of the National Defense Act of 1916. The corps trains young men to defend the country in World War I. KU makes a course on the S.A.T.C. unit.
October
1, 1918,
the S.A.T.C. is formally inducted when 2,500 men take the oath of service at McCook Field.
November 11, 1918 armistice ends SATC
1919- KU establishes a voluntary army A special appeal is made to secure 150 cadets.
Facing the future, inspecting the past
1935-Tom Page, a senior army cadet, resigns from the unit saying ROTC taught propaganda and anti-war War. Proponents are sparked by students who accuse ROTC of trying to militize the
1941- World War II liabilities opposition to ROTC, but critical discussion resumes soon
1952- The Kansan report that more than half of Ku's male enrollment is participating in ROTC during
1960s- The Vietnam War sparks violent protests against ROTC by students and faculty who oppose the war. The military science units are bombed and set on fire
studies investigate the role of ROTC on campus and consider arguments to abolish the program.
1968 University Senate and College of
1969- the University Senate votes to retain ROTC with modifications.
1971- CLAS votes to remove credit for ROTC courses. Credit is reinstated in 1975
1990-
ROTC
comes
under attack
by gay and
lesbian
organizations
because it
follows the
department of defense
policy excluding
homosexuals. Some
students call for the
abolishment of the program.
They delegate to
Washington to lobby for
changes in the Department of
Defense's policy.
1991 - A CLAS assembly vote to abolish CLAS credit for ROTC courses falls on a tie vote.
Micah Laaker/KANSAN
Continued from Page 1.
The ROTC program and its role on campus has been under inspection since ROTC came to the University of Kansas 75 years ago.
James Muyksen, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said ROTC's role on a liberal arts campus like KU raised difficult questions.
"It's not cut and dried by any means," he said. "I don't think we can have a semester when people aren't thinking of that issue. It's one of the issues of our times."
The experiment fusing military training with liberal arts education has taken many gigs over the years. From gays in the military to questions of academic freedom, controversial questions have followed ROTC since its founding.
Is military training compatible with a liberal arts education? Can a university that values diversity exclude a section of the U.S. population like the military? What if the military excludes homosexuals? How can a program that provides scholarship and career opportunities so often come under fire? Where would the military and the University be without ROTC? Answers to these questions are, at best, elusive.
SCHOLARSHIP, LEADERSHIP AND OPPORTUNITY
The Reserve Officer Training Corps provides more officers for the military than both the military academies and officer training schools. Because ROTC is the least expensive method of training officers, the military can supply itself with leaders at a lesser cost to tax payers.
ROTC came to KU on the heels of a Student Army Training Corps that trained young men to fight in World War I. The cold war and modern weapon systems increased the need for professional military officers, and ROTC units have expanded over the years. Today, about 300 students participate in ROTC.
ROTC is not a major. Students can choose Army, Air Force, Navy or Navy with a Marine option in addition to any University major. Cadets and midshipmen take up to four hours a semester of military science courses and lab drills. They must maintain a 2.5 GPA and pass physical readiness tests to remain in the program. Each service sponsors active-duty summer training where cadets and midshipmen put their skills to work.
When students graduate from Navy or Air Force ROTC, they are commissioned as active duty officers. Sixty percent of graduating Army cadets go active duty, and 40 percent enter the National Guard Reserves. Young officers can receive additional training in their service field. They also can continue their education in fields like medicine. ROTC graduates repay their educations usually in four to eight years of military service.
Students canjoin ROTC through their sophomore year with no commitment to the military. At the end of the sophomore year, cadets and midshipmen compete with other ROTC students nationwide for permission to complete the program and commit to the military.
top 30 percent of their summer training regiments with Athey chosen as the honor graduate from his regiment. At a New Orleans competition last year, the Air Force drill team beat the Air Force Academy.
KU'S ROTC programs are competitive both with the military academies and ROTC programs nationwide. KU's Naval ROTC is the only program in the nation that offers training in petroleum management. Ku offers both engineering and nursing, two of the Army's most valued majors. Last summer, 50 percent of KU's Army cadets scored in the
ROTC is also an important contributor to the University. Its scholarships are some of the best on campus. A fouryear scholarship consists of tuition, fees and books, plus a $100 a month stipend. These scholarships attract quality students who might not be able to afford KU otherwise.
Kari Van Hoof, Seattle senior, said she would not have been able to attend KU without an Army ROTC scholarship.
"If I hadn't received a scholarship, I would have had to stay home and go to a community college," she said. "I certainly wouldn't have come half way across the country if it weren't for ROTC."
ROTC also offers leadership training. All ROTC units have a hierarchy paralleling the active duty military. Student leaders run the units, planning events and drills. Each cadet or midshipmen holds a billet, or leadership position, at some time during his or her ROTC career.
Todd Puntney, Manhattan senior, said that his experience as the battalion commanding officer of Naval ROTC had made him a better leader.
"I think I've gained a certain maturity a lot of college students wouldn't have," he said. "I'm responsible for 110 people. I know how to run things. I know how to delegate. The program is designed so people are given the chance to be a leader."
Van Hoof said ROTC had helped her self esteem.
Ced. Coled Hunter, commanding officer of Air Force ROTC, said ROTC training was attractive to future employers.
"The military is renowned for its young people assuming more responsibility," he said. "When they get out, they've demonstrated the ability to shoulder lots of responsibility over extended periods of time and the ability to work with a complete cross section of people in a variety of surroundings."
"I have more confidence now than I ever have," she said. "The whole point of ROTC is being a leader. I feel like it's made me a better person—definitely."
Recent military cutbacks have forced the armed forces to be more selective and increase their competitiveness. According to CNET, Chief of Naval Education and Training in Pensacola, Florida, ROTC in the future will commission fewer midshipmen, grant fewer scholarships, and select fewer sophomores for advanced standing. This decrease in entrance opportunities has made ROTC programs more elite.
ROTC UNDER INSPECTION
In 1918, a fledgling ROTC program met with resistance from faculty who predicted the experiment would fail. Skeptics could not imagine the military, with its reputation for dogma and glorification of war, blending with a liberal arts campus where an open-minded pursuit of truth was considered sacred.
Despite its successes, ROTC is arguably one of the most controversial programs at KU. Some people think the military doesn't belong on KU's liberal campus. Others simply don't like the military. Controversies have, at times, threatened the future of ROTC.
In the 1930's, a student officer resigned and said that ROTC taught propaganda. This event sparked anti-ROTC protests by students who accused the program of trying to militarize the campus.
Article 10 of the University's Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities states that a student may not be denied the right of access to and participation in any University-sponsored or University-approved activity because of sexual orientation. The ROTC programs must abide by the U.S. Department of Defense's policy that excludes homosexuals.
ROTC took still more gigs during the Vietnam War. Violent protests prompted studies by the University and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences into ROTC's future at KU. Those discussions were renewed in 1990 when ROTC came under inspection over gays in the military.
These controversies have inspired attempts to abolish liberal arts credit for ROTC courses. The latest attempt came in 1991 at the height of the gays in ROTC issue when a College Assembly vote to deny credit failed in a tie.
ELUSIVE ISSUES,
UNANSWERABLE
QUESTIONS?
When ROTC comes under inspection, the issues debated are issues that have plagued the program since universities began to examine the experiment of combining the military with liberal arts. Questions raised by these issues may ultimately be unanswerable.
Questions of academic compatibility were addressed in 1969 when the University Senate voted to retain ROTC with certain modifications. An ROTC committee was formed to review the credentials of potential instructors. Military drills were stripped of credit, and ROTC courses like political science that were not purely military were integrated into the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
In the past, ROTC opponents argued that the program inhibited academic freedom because courses were prescribed by the military, and ROTC instructors' obligations were to the military, not to the open-minded pursuit of truth. In a 1968 letter to the University Senate subcommittee investigating ROTC, Burt English, then an assistant professor of political science, said, "Obedience and academic freedom are not compatible."
Is ROTC training compatible with a liberal arts education?
Some have maintained that ROTC is incompatible with a broad-based liberal arts education because it trains students to work for a specific company in a specific profession.
Del Shankel, a professor of microbiology who was acting executive vice chancellor during the gays in ROTC uproar, said ROTC was no different from any of KU's professional schools.
"ROTC isn't liberal arts, but then neither is the school of engineering or the pharmacy school," he said. "Engineers can get credits in liberal arts. So can business majors. And nobody can major in ROTC. It's an auxiliary program."
"Leadership is definitely an art. It's not a science," he said. "There's not a formula you can plug numbers into. Influencing people to do something
Van Hoof said she disagreed with arguments that ROTC was incompatible with a liberal arts education.
"The way I understand it, the point of liberal arts is to teach you to think critically," she said. "Maybe a lot of people think the army teaches everyone to think the same because everyone looks the same, but especially with the officers, that's not the case. They teach you things that are practical, that you can use."
Athey said ROTC's leadership training belonged to a liberal arts university.
they would rather not do is a difficult concept."
Why is ROTC important to a university that values diversity?
Shankel said this was one of the most important arguments for keeping ROTC at universities like KU.
ROTC advocates say officers trained at diverse colleges like KU are less likely to fall victim to self serving militarism, or "military myopia."
"Our country clearly needs a strong system of defense, and I believe that system will be better if officers get their educations from areas like KU," he said. "There are countries where they don't, and I wouldn't want to live in those countries."
Puntney agreed.
"Certainly the Pentagon doesn't want a bunch of narrow-minded machines working for it," he said.
Athey said the military also benefited by drawing a diverse leadership from a school like KU.
"You're interacting with cadets from all over the country and from all different cultures," he said. "KU is such a multicultural university. The diversity of the University has helped the program do so well."
Excluding the military from the University would undermine diversity, Hunter said.
"Diversity is highly valued here," he said. "On the one hand, there's a real desire to increase diversity. On the other hand, there's an undercurrent to get ROTC off campus. These are diametrically opposed goals. The prevailing philosophy of most of our officers is that we are nothing more or less than a reflection of our society."
But how diverse is an organization that excludes homosexuals?
ROTC claims it does not discriminate because anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, can take ROTC classes. Openly practicing gays cannot, however, be commissioned or receive scholarships under the Department of Defense's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Shankel, who went to Washington in 1991 to lobby for changes in the Department of Defense's policy, said ROTC's responsibility to both the school and government posed problems.
"I'm sympathetic to the dilemma that ROTC officers face because they clearly can't go against the Department of Defense's policy," he said. "We have this dilemma that the Department of Defense won't change its policy to come into line with the University's policy."
Shankel said that abolishing ROTC over the gay issue would probably not have much effect nationally and would remove KU's ability to be an active
player in changing national policy.
Scott Manning, Lawrence graduate student and co-director of LesBlgayS OK, said the organization, then Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, specifically targeted ROTC in 1990 because it wanted to make KU aware of gay and lesbian issues.
"The real problem wasn't with ROTC. It was with the KU administration," he said. "We wanted to put pressure on the administration to put pressure on the government. Our purpose was to draw attention to discrimination on a campus that claims it doesn't discriminate."
DOES ROTC PASS INSPECTION?
"ROTC has a lot of successes it can point to with justifiable pride," he said.
"The benefits and the good things outweigh the negatives."
Shankel, a former army corporal, said the opportunities ORC brought to KU made it valuable, regardless of any controversy surrounding the program.
"I would hope most people would look on us with a certain pride," he said. "It's scary when some people see us as a threat. It's scary when people threaten a program that is, at its heart, filled with good intentions. Some may see us as antisocial, militant, war-gaming freaks, but we're really college students who have chosen a career where we could possibly lose our lives."
Some issues surrounding ROTC may never be resolved. No doubt, liberal arts credit for ROTC courses will continue to be a controversial subject as new issues confront the program. Whether ROTC will pass future inspections remains to be seen, but Puntney said he hoped the program would continue at KU.
Photo courtesy of University Archives
Students protesting the Vietnam War offer a flower to an ROTC cadet standing at attention during a drill. Protests against ROTC have occurred since the program came to the University 75 years ago.
William Alix/ KANSAN
Naval ROTC battalion commander Todd Puntney closely examines midshipman fourth class Jonathan Koch during battalion commander inspection.