University of Virginia Library

Academic ROTC

The College Faculty took an historic step
Thursday when it voted to terminate degree
credit for ROTC courses. It was a step as
refreshing as it was unexpected, for it showed
that the assembled scholars can, on at least
one matter, reevaluate old concepts and act to
meet the challenges of this era.

Revocation of degree credit should not, in
any way, endanger the existence of ROTC
programs here, a fact which was probably
most influential in affecting the vote. The
contracts with ROTC state that some form of
academic credit must be afforded the military
courses. Three undergraduate professional
schools here still offer full credit; and the
College still offers academic credit. ROTC
courses and grades still appear on the
transcript. It's just that academic credit isn't
worth much if you can't use it to apply for a
degree (which leads to an interesting paradox).

Non-faculty observers were almost certain
before Thursday's meeting that the faculty
would pass one of the proposals that would
only have referred the matter to a committee
for more study, and it's interesting to
speculate about why the vote went as it did.
There seemed to be no set departmental or
interest-group pattern to the voting. Perhaps
the public relations blunder of the Army in
bringing fourth-year man Paul Bishop to a
hearing had something to do with it. But the
most probable explanation is that all the
discussions about the theory and practice of a
liberal arts education had led many faculty
members to believe that the surest way to
subvert a liberal arts curriculum is to allow 10
per cent or more of it to be taken from the
ROTC departments.

In any case, degree credit for ROTC i
gone, and its departure could have some
interesting repercussions. Here at the University,
ROTC will entail a lot more work
enrollment will almost certainly go down
unless the departments make an effort
replace their courses with analogous offering
within the University, i.e. a management o
psychology course in place of a military
leadership course, and leave the strictly
military subjects to summer training.

In the Pentagon, the College Faculty
decision could start the brass to thinking
about revision of the entire ROTC program.
When Ivy League schools dropped ROTC
credit, it didn't hurt the national program too
much. But Virginia has always been considered
a model ROTC institution. And, it is a
state university. It may well be that the
example set here Thursday will be more
potent, will serve notice to the military
establishment that the old credit arrangements
may be out of date at more schools than a few
radical northern institutions. If this is the
case, the outcome can only be improvement
of the existing program.

At any rate, we eagerly await the outcome
of the committee appointed to investigate the
ramifications of removing academic credit for
ROTC courses. The committee, which will
make its report no later than the April 1969
meeting, will hopefully reconcile the faculty's
present paradoxical stance and get down to
the real issue: should the faculty award
academic credit for what are essentially
non-academic courses? We trust the Committee's
answer will be "no" and that the College
faculty will deny academic as well as degree
credit for ROTC courses.