As Columbia University considers allowing the Reserve Officer Training Corps to finally return to campus after being banned during the Vietnam War, Dartmouth's Army ROTC program continues to struggle for scholarship funds, resources and support. There are signs, however, that Dartmouth ROTC may soon receive a boost from the Army in the form of full-tuition scholarships for cadets.
On June 11, College President James Wright is scheduled to meet with General Alan Thrasher, who is in charge of dispersing all ROTC funding, to discuss giving ROTC cadets full-tuition scholarships. Currently, cadets receive between $17,000 and $20,000 a year and must commute for official training not available at the College.
"General Thrasher said he'd give us full-tuition scholarships if President Wright would agree to meet with him and agree or unequivocally state that he will support the ROTC program on this campus," ROTC Detachment Commander Welton Chang '05 said.
Thrasher's trip to New Hampshire is the culmination of efforts by Chang, the ROTC program and the College. However, the road to bigger scholarships and more support for the program on campus has been long, bumpy and plagued by bureaucratic inertia.
The struggle began in January 2004 when Chang formulated a list of complaints regarding the program. First on his list was the lack of full-tuition scholarships. The $17,000 to $20,000 a year that cadets at Dartmouth receive is substantially less than the $32,000 to $33,000 that cadets receive at comparable institutions such as Princeton University. According to Chang, the Financial Aid Office also takes ROTC scholarships into account, meaning that cadets' financial aid is reduced by the size of their army scholarship.
Chang also deplored the lack of institutional recognition and assistance by the College to help ROTC promote itself to incoming freshmen. Dartmouth's Corps currently consists of a total of eight cadets
"They still have yet to invite us to orientation activities. I mean, the Dartmouth Boggle Bowl Players knew about the Dimensions Activity Fair and we didn't. I like Boggle, but come on," Chang said.
Since then, Chang has campaigned to increase scholarships and support by writing four articles in the Dartmouth Free Press and an editorial in The Dartmouth criticizing the College's treatment of ROTC, bringing up the issue in a Town Hall meeting, talking to Student Assembly representatives, contacting senators and congressmen, and even starting a congressional inquiry into the matter,
Initially, Chang didn't make much headway.
"Dean Larimore contacted me and basically berated me, saying that I'd said untrue things [in my editorial]," Chang said. "I sent him a reply refuting all his points, saying that he did not in fact support ROTC."
Following this exchange, Chang had several meetings with Dean of the College James Larimore and Senior Associate Dean of the College Dan Nelson, who then came out in support of ROTC.
Despite these gestures, the administration did little to lobby for Dartmouth ROTC, according to Chang. The College did not contact anyone in the Defense Department, although Chang claimed he provided multiple phone numbers for people in the appropriate departments and offices.
The College insists that it supports securing full-tuition scholarships for cadets, but that it is not taking rash action and that it is going through the proper chain of command.
"On the one hand, we're strongly advocating to get money equal to that of our peer institutions, but at the same time we're respectful that this is the Army's decision," Nelson said. "We're also going through Major Anthony Lowry [the ROTC unit's commander] to go appropriately through the chain of command."
Nelson also maintained that the College adequately supports ROTC, providing classroom space and administrative support. Though Wright is unable to attend the commissioning ceremonies of graduating cadets because of scheduling difficulties during Commencement Weekend. However, Nelson noted that he and Larimore attend the event.
Chang insisted that the College could have done more to help secure scholarships.
"They refused to pick up the phone. I mean, I'm just a student and I managed to get a congressional inquiry, who knows what they could do," Chang said.
Chang traveled to the Virginia Military Institute as the winner of the George C. Marshall Award and personally met with Thrasher. Thrasher agreed to provide full-tuition scholarships to cadets if the College promised to provide more support to the ROTC program, and the June 11 meeting was arranged.
Though progress has been made on the scholarship issue, ROTC and the College continue to have some differences. ROTC had office space in Leverone Field House but had to move to make room for personnel pushed out of the Alumni Gym by renovations there. ROTC was moved to the Bank of America building, which the College leases, but is scheduled to mov e back to Leverone after the Alumni Gym renovations are complete. However, according to Chang, ROTC prefers the Bank of America building to Leverone, which they were sometimes kicked out of if athletic teams needed to use the facilities.
The ROTC program has a troubled history at Dartmouth. A surge in public opinion against the military during the Vietnam War resulted in ROTC being banned from campus, but it was brought back in the 1980s. The program was almost banned again in 1994 following the enactment of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the military, which many felt discriminated against homosexuals. Though ROTC was unanimously voted off campus by the faculty, the trustees reversed that decision.
Recently, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case from the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit over the right of schools to ban military recruiters. The so-called Solomon Amendment, passed in 1994, stipulates that universities and colleges that ban military recruiters from campus can lose federal grants. However, a group of 25 law schools sued on First Amendment grounds, saying that the law limited their right to free speech. The Third Circuit ruled in favor the of law schools, but a Supreme Court review of the case is pending.
For the College, $175 million in federal grants is potentially at stake. However, because Dartmouth allows military recruiters on campus, the case is unlikely to effect the College regardless of the Court's ruling.