ROTC enrollment rises on campus

While most Princeton students were still in bed at 6:30 on a Monday morning, members of the Princeton Army ROTC had already started their morning workout routine.

The number of students performing these calisthenics is greater than those in past years, though. Following an especially large influx of freshmen and sophomores enrolling in ROTC, underclassmen now outnumber their upperclassman cadets, Lt. Col. John Stark, director of Princeton’s ROTC program, said in an e-mail. This growth in the number of enrolled students is consistent with a national trend of increased ROTC enrollment, but the reason for the trend remains unclear.

“I am unsure if it is the economic downturn that has done it, but we have seen about a 30 percent increase in the number of applicants for scholarships,” Stark said. “Army ROTC does have a limit to the number of scholarships it will fund based upon the number of lieutenants the Army projects it will need in a given year. Currently Princeton Army ROTC has not reached its production limits or goals. The recent growth in interest in ROTC may change that.”

Typically between 50 and 100 applicants seek ROTC scholarships at Princeton, but “due to Princeton’s very stringent admissions requirements, and 4 to 8 percent acceptance rates, only 2-6 ROTC scholarships would be expected to be awarded to incoming freshmen,” Stark explained.

The New York Times reported on Oct. 28 that enrollment in ROTC programs nationwide has increased by 26 percent, a fortunate surge for U.S. Army recruiters trying to overcome an officer shortage. ROTC programs currently yield 60 percent of all new U.S. Army officers each year, so in the last five years the Army has tripled the amount of money devoted to ROTC scholarships.

For Princeton students, this money translates into tangible benefits: an Army ROTC scholarship that includes full tuition, $450 per semester for books and a stipend of between $300 and $500 per month. Some undergraduates said that, with the economic downturn, some students could be drawn to the ROTC scholarships as a way to pay for college. But cadets were hesitant to attribute the increased enrollment solely to increased concern over personal finances.

“The money may be a partial factor, but Princeton has such a great financial aid program that few people get interested in ROTC for reasons to pay for college,” Sam Gulland ’10 said. “Princeton students have many chances to make a lot of money after school. If you want to make a lot of money, becoming an Army officer is not the route to take.”

At Princeton, the ROTC program not only consists of physical fitness training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6:30 a.m., but it also requires students to attend ROTC classes, leadership labs run by the upperclassmen for their younger peers, and field training exercises. The classes take up one to four hours each week, the labs are run every Friday from noon to 5 p.m., and the exercises are completed in one weekend each semester. Additionally, every cadet must complete the 40-day Leadership Development Assessment Camp at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Cadets Josh Prager ’13 and Margaret Fox ’13 are no strangers to the military: Both have fathers who participated in ROTC in college.

“The money was a little bit of a factor, but I definitely feel like ROTC is something you have to want to do,” Prager said. “If you’re doing it for the scholarship money, you’ll have a tough time in the program.”

“I don’t think anybody enrolls just for the money, because you’re going to have to become an Army officer,” Fox explained. “You don’t want to take the money and then hate the Army. People who choose to do it are already interested in the military. Of course money was a factor in my decision — it’s a great deal — but no one not interested in the military is going to sign up for ROTC just for the money.”