University of Virginia Library

Faculty Plans ROTC Discussion

By Peter Shen
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

An open meeting to determine the
sentiment of members of the University
community concerning the status of
ROTC will be held Tuesday, March 17, it
was announced earlier this week.

According to Richard T. Selden,
professor of Economics and chairman of
a special College faculty committee on
ROTC, the meeting, to be held in 402 Wilson
Hall at 2:30 p.m., is designed to give anyone at
the University a chance to voice his opinion on
ROTC.

Mr. Selden qualified the purpose of the open
session, however. "This is to be a narrow based
investigation. We are not trying to go into the
entire ROTC question," he explained.

The special ROTC committee is not
concerned with the question of granting degree
credit for ROTC courses, Mr. Selden said. The
College faculty voted earlier this year to deny
credit for those courses and unless the faculty
votes to-reconsider the matter, that part of the
question is closed.

The aim of the committee is, according to
the chairman, "to find out the feasibility of
denying degree credit without chasing the units
off the campus."

Apparently a problem arises over the
decision to deny credit for ROTC courses. Mr.
Selden explained that the units withdrew from
Universities like Harvard and Dartmouth when
credit was taken away there and many persons
at the University fear similar action.

The College committee, besides trying to
determine the feeling at the University, is also
making further investigations into the question.

"Our main investigations include soundings
being made at the Pentagon, at other
Universities, and here," Mr. Selden said. "We
are trying to inform ourselves of the intellectual
quality of ROTC courses, their merit from a
liberal arts point of view."

Through the investigations taken elsewhere,
Mr. Selden continued, the committee hopes to
find out if ROTC units can be kept at the
University with the credit having been withdrawn.

"There's not a whole lot students or faculty
here can do about it," the chairman said. "The
final decision will be made through negotiations
at a higher level."

Mr. Selden said that no set plan can be
offered to try to keep ROTC at the University
because the military refuses to reveal its
intentions in situations where credit has been
eliminated. The chairman added that those
intentions may be revealed when the services
reach a decision concerning their programs at
Yale and Princeton.

Although nothing concrete will come out of
the Tuesday meeting, Mr. Selden said that it
was important that those people who want to
express their opinion on the matter be given the
opportunity to do so.

He added that he expected ROTC instructors
and cadets to addend the meeting in large
numbers and that he hoped others would take
part to give an accurate overview of University
sentiment.