Wednesday, June 1, 2011

ROTCs Are Booming On University Campuses

ROTC enrollment officer Michael Pope, left, speaks with Kaitlyn Benitez-Strine, 17, at Stanford University. (Dave Getzschman / For the Los Angeles Times / April 29, 2011)

Once A Campus Outcast, ROTC Is Booming At Universities -- L.A. Times

Helped by the recession, more active recruiting and a sea change in student perceptions of the military, ROTC programs on college campuses are thriving. And some elite schools like Stanford and Harvard are welcoming ROTC back for the first time in decades.

Reporting from Palo Alto -- On an early May morning 43 years ago, fire swept through Stanford University's Navy ROTC building, destroying a structure that had been damaged in another suspicious blaze just two months earlier.

No arrests were ever made in the two arson fires, but they came at a time of angry, sometimes violent demonstrations against the Vietnam War on college campuses nationwide. Those protests often targeted the closest symbol of the U.S. military, the Reserve Officers Training Corps — with more than 200 campus ROTC units reporting vandalism during that war.

Flash forward to a much different time.

Read more ....

More News On University ROTCs

The return of the ROTC -- New York Post
Yale announces return of ROTC after 4 decades -- AP
College ROTC remains unchanged -- The Dartmouth
Yale ROTC On Deck -- Courant editorial
Will your college student get lured in by ROTC? -- L.A. Times opinion

No comments: