ROTC Enjoys Interest, but Will It Enlist More Recruits?
Long-term goals and economics play a greater role in students' decisions than short-term patriotism
By ERIC HOOVER
On September 11, the drumbeat of duty starts to sound in the young woman's ears. Days later, she strides into the office of her college's unit of the Reserve Officer Training Corps, ready to sign up for the war on terrorism.
That might make for a good television commercial, but the story is not so clear-cut. A surge of post-September 11 patriotism has rekindled the debate over military training at some colleges, like Harvard University, that banished ROTC during the Vietnam War.
It is not yet evident whether the recent spike in student interest will bolster the program's enrollment, however. "It may be a semester yet until we can really evaluate what the increases are, since it takes time for students to do their research and make academic arrangements," says Paul Kotakis, national spokesman for Army ROTC. "The image of student after student walking into the ROTC on September 12 to ask what they can do for their country is just not realistic."
Take Michelle Ausfresser, a junior at Old Dominion University. It is true that she enrolled in her college's Army ROTC program in October partly because the terrorist attacks gave her "a new sense of what it means to be an American and a new sense of duty to protect the country's freedoms."
But while Ms. Ausfresser's words might sound as natural as reiveille to military recruiters, her decision to apply was not spontaneous. Ms. Ausfresser had been studying the ROTC program for a year and a half. During that time, she determined that military service would allow her to pursue graduate degrees.
"I had had a strong feeling for a long time about what the military was offering me, in terms of a chance to travel and to continue my education,' Ms. Ausfresser says. "Knowing it would help me pay my student loans and give me a strong foundation for a future career were benefits, too."
ROTC has roughly 200,000 students nationwide. Although the most recent national enrollment data are not yet available, many ROTC officials report that student interest in the program has burgeoned in the last 12 months, particularly since September 11.
"We're definitely hearing from all over the country that there has been increased foot traffic in ROTC offices, and an increase in the number of students accessing the Web site and seeking information on the telephone," Mr. Kotakis says.
Enrollment in Air Force ROTC, for instance, rose to 17,395 this year from 13,900 last year. At Boston University, the number of ROTC cadets jumped from 70 to 100. Officials from ROTC programs in the San Francisco Bay Area report a substantial increase in applications over those received in 2000.
However, only a small portion of this year's recruits signed up after September 11. ROTC officials attribute the increases to improved marketing, including new online application forms, as well as to a faltering job market.
Traditionally, strong economies hurt military recruiting, and the booming 1990s were certainly no exception: the Army, Navy, and Air Force missed several annual recruiting quotas over the last decade. So with some economists declaring a recession, ROTC supporters say the military will become a more attractive option, even for students who ultimately want to go into the private sector.
Army ROTC students get up to $35,000 a year in scholarships in return for a four- to eight-year commitment to the military.
As a former ROTC cadet, now an administrator at a Midwestern university, explains: "When self-interest and public interest collide, there is more motivation to look to the military."
Although the attacks inspired students, like Ms. Ausfresser, who were already considering ROTC, some observers doubt that students with no prior interest in ROTC will suddenly apply.
"A lot of people want to see September 11 as a big call to arms for students," says Maj. Steve Kelly, a professor of military science and an officer in the ROTC unit at the University of Iowa. "But since then, nobody's been knocking down my door."
Mr. Kelly and other campus ROTC officials know better than most the difference between interest and action. They note that, nationally, there has not been an increase in enlistments, despite a surge in interest in military service since September 11. In the two weeks following the attacks, for example, hits on the Army's Web site increased by 116 percent. Similar increases were reported by the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. But officials from all four services say those inquiries have dwindled.
A jump in interest -- but not enlistment -- also occurred during the Persian Gulf war. Some observers say it reflects the way students need time to plan their academic schedules before enrolling in ROTC.
Michael Desch, a political-science professor at the University of Kentucky and an expert on ROTC, doubts it will see a boost.
"The immediate reaction has been to rally around the flag," Mr. Desch says. "But that seems to be all that most students are doing."
Participation in ROTC -- established in 1916 to bring more highly educated men into the armed services -- has gradually declined in proportion with that of the active military population. In 1967, enrollment in Army ROTC peaked at 177,422; last year, enrollment was 28,470. The number of ROTC programs on campuses fell to 270 in 2000 -- from a high of 413 in 1990 -- as the military consolidated its programs to cut costs.
On many campuses, ROTC was a casualty of war. Amid protests against the Vietnam War, Harvard's faculty voted to terminate its ROTC chapter in 1969. By that time, the nation's oldest university had become a hub of the peace movement, and distrust of the military was rampant. In one protest that April, about 300 students seized the administration building, forced deans out the door, and locked themselves inside.
The university has since resisted efforts to reinstate ROTC, saying the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gay service members violates Harvard's anti-discrimination policies.
The 43 Harvard students now enrolled in ROTC programs travel to the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology for drills. Anonymous donors pay MIT for the costs of training the Harvard cadets.
Arguing that universities should not discourage military participation at a time of war, however, some prominent Harvard graduates are trying to bring ROTC programs back to the university. David Clayman, a 1938 Harvard graduate, has collected the signatures of more than 1,000 alumni -- including Caspar W. Weinberger, the former U.S. secretary of defense -- asking Harvard to re-establish ROTC on its campus. Although Lawrence H. Summers, the university's president, has publicly lauded Harvard students who are enrolled in ROTC, Harvard officials say there are no plans to reinstate the program on the largely liberal campus. In early October, the university's undergraduate council resisted one member's efforts to reopen the debate.
Joe Wrinn, a Harvard spokesman, said the institution "respects students who make the commitment to serve."
The irony is that even if Harvard wanted to bring ROTC back, the Army likely would decline because it would be too costly, Mr. Kotakis says.
At other elite colleges, too, students who aspire to military service will have to continue commuting to complete their ROTC training. Stanford University, Yale University, and Dartmouth College are among the institutions that banned ROTC programs decades ago. Although officials at many of those colleges say they have heard some criticism of their polices from students and alumni since September 11, there are no plans for reinstating the units.
Some smaller institutions are also maintaining their opposition to a military presence on campus. Recently, ROTC officials at the University of Northern Iowa attempted to spread their program to nearby Wartburg College, a Lutheran institution in Waverly, Iowa. But faculty members have twice rebuffed the move, saying that supporting the armed services was inconsistent with the institution's goal of promoting peace.
So the war on terrorism has stirred the cinders of an old question: Are academe and the military compatible?
John Lestor, a sophomore at the University of Iowa, didn't always think so. Mr. Lestor, a psychology major, spent most of his teenage years garbed in the uniform of punk rock -- black clothes, spiked hair, and a sneer for authority.
"Growing up, I had always looked down on the military for its rules," says Mr. Lestor. "I saw military service as a bad thing, the antithesis to independent thinking, which is what college is supposed to be all about."
So when he put on his Army ROTC uniform for the first time this fall, Mr. Lestor had to laugh at how much he'd changed. "When I finally looked into it, I found the people there are nothing like that drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, and many of the cadets were just like me," he says.
Mr. Lestor says the highly structured ROTC program has helped him become a more focused student. He plans to pursue a psychology degree in an effort to become a psychological-operations expert for the military.
Mr. Lestor says he is not afraid of combat. But some observers say that the longer the war in Afghanistan goes on, the less appealing military service might become: The notion that a weak economy helps recruiting will be tested if enlisting means combat.
"This is a generation for which the sense of military service as a national duty is completely absent," says Mr. Desch, the ROTC expert from the University of Kentucky. "For students, the military has been off the map for so long, it may not ever come back to where it once was."
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