The Reserve Officer Training Corps, where college students prepare for the military after graduation as they study, has been on the rise at elite colleges — where programs have returned to campus and ROTC enrollments are slowly growing.
“Stemming from the repeal of the military’s sexual-orientation policy ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ five years ago, these gains suggest that a genuine resurgence is under way,” Jonathan E. Hillman and Cheryl Miller write in The Wall Street Journal.
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The program doesn’t lead to a military career for every student, but ROTC offers scholarships. Upon college graduation and ROTC completion, students can become officers in a military branch.
At Brown University, the student-run Daily Herald wrote an editorial in support of expanded ROTC options, though the university itself doesn’t host an ROTC program.
“An increase in students interested in the ROTC would likely diversify the student body politically … Students would gain more opportunities to learn from each other’s differences.” the Daily Herald wrote.
College professors overwhelmingly identify as liberal, and a move toward more intellectual and political diversity would improve educational standards and encourage intellectual respect for others.
Hillman and Miller note in the Journal that the programs help better reflect national diversity by including students across all regions and backgrounds in the military.
In some respects, an increase in ROTC programs is inevitable. A college degree is seen as the respectable way to pursue a career, and with more financial aid available to more students, enrolling in ROTC and earning a degree instead of joining the military after high school can have benefits. For now, however, it’s too early to say how popular it will be on campuses.
