ROTC on campus leadership development for a lifetime

Ebony, Sept, 2008 by Kevin Chappell

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It's not that Alicia Scott didn't listen to her friends at North Carolina A&T State University when they warned her that if she enrolled in the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at her school, she would go straight from commencement in Greensboro to combat in Iraq.

But for the honors finance major, the decision to join the century-old program that pays full tuition in exchange for serving four years in the Army after college was less about the emotions stirred up by a prolonged war and more about the stability a military career would provide. Like a good soldier, she stood her ground, assessed her situation and not only signed up for ROTC, but committed to serve three additional years in exchange for a preferential assignment in her area of expertise.

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"People have always asked me, 'Why?'" says Scott, who graduated with honors in May and is now stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. "I look at statistics. The crime rate on the streets is higher than in the military ... My mind-set was: 'If I was going to be able to do what I wanted to do, I might as well sign the contract and have a chance to do it in the Army.'"

Scott is among 3,307 students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who--despite the war in Iraq--were enrolled in the Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC programs last year. While recruiting students during wartime is a challenge, military officials say most times ROTC sells itself.

The financial benefits of the program are tremendous. ROTC scholarships pay full tuition (up to $20,000 per year) and mandatory fees. In addition, a flat rate of $900 for books and supplies, and a yearly stipend, ranging from $300 the first year to $500 for seniors, is also paid to cadets.

"We've been relatively consistent; in fact, we have increased our numbers in recent years, mainly due to our recruiting initiatives that we put in place to grow the program," says Lt. Col. Joshua T. Jones Jr., professor of military science and head of the Aggie ROTC Battalion at North Carolina A&T.

Jones, who has 105 cadets at A&T, says ROTC is a great program for students with good grades, top physical attributes and the willingness to learn leadership skills. To be eligible for ROTC, a student must be a U.S. citizen, have a high school GPA of at least 2.3 and score a minimum of 920 on the SAT college admissions test. However, students accepted into the Air Force ROTC program at HBCUs this year ranked in the top 12 percent of their high school class and had a 3.77 GPA with a score of 1260 on the SAT. Prospective ROTC students also must meet physical standards (including certain vision, height and weight guidelines), pass a medical exam and agree to accept a commission and serve full time on active duty (usually four years, although pilots agree to a 10-year active-duty service commitment).

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ROTC, as it exists today, began in 1916, and it's the military's largest officer-producing organization with more than 500,000 second lieutenants commissioned since its inception. In the Army alone, more than 20,000 students are enrolled in 272 ROTC programs at colleges and universities across the country. Meanwhile, the Air Force has ROTC programs at 144 colleges, and at more than 1,000 affiliated schools, and the Navy ROTC program is offered at more than 160 colleges and universities. Marines don't have a specific ROTC program, but the branch does offer Platoon-Leaders Class during the summer and Marines can take part in the Navy's ROTC's program.

While students at HBCUs sign up for ROTC for various reasons, in the end, it's the challenge of being a leader and the desire to be a part of the military culture that keeps them in the program. However, Jones and other recruiters do admit that sometimes the bitterness toward the military from adults, particularly parents of Black students who sometimes distrust the government, can be palpable. "Sometimes they never give the student the opportunity to make a decision themselves," Jones says. "So one of the challenges that I pose to the parents is please let the student hear the presentation and let them decide for themselves."

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"We definitely have to sell the parents," says Lt. Col. Bob Williams, professor of military science and head of the Bison ROTC Battalion at Howard University in Washington, D.C. "I always tell parents that not all students come in because they are so patriotic; most of nay kids come in strictly for economic reasons, and that's OK too."

In today's tough job market, an officer's salary is very competitive with the private sector. According to Army figures, a second lieutenant working as a telecommunications engineer with four years of service will make an annual salary of $68,149, when free health care, and housing mid food allowances are added to a base salary of $47,908.

Those benefits have been particularly appealing to women like Scott. Surprisingly, while it wasn't until 1972 that the program began accepting women, today, women constitute 20 percent of the Corps of Cadets, and even a higher percentage at Black colleges, which are campuses where women dramatically outnumber men. At Howard and A&T, for example, nearly half of the graduating class of cadets is female.