THE ROTC ISSUE. President Carmichael, to assist in the national war effort, enhance the close partnership between government and higher education to which he was firmly committed, and provide a cushion against the ravaging of the male student body by the military draft and other disruptions, obtained authorization to establish at Tufts a unit of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC). The unit began operation in 1942. When World War II ended in 1945, the NROTC unit not only continued to operate on campus; it expanded. By that time it had trained hundreds of officers through the "contract" system and by a series of special programs. (The "regular" program, introduced in 1946, was intended for those planning to follow a naval career and in effect provided a four-year college subsidy.) A concerted effort was made to integrate the naval instructional staff, ROTC students, and the naval program as a whole as closely as possible into Tufts life. The trustees approved all appointments made to the teaching staff, who were given full faculty status. The university also made periodic "effectiveness reports" on all commanding officers to naval headquarters, and exercised the privilege more than once of refusing to accept military personnel as faculty members because they lacked the proper academic credentials. All military staff who taught courses were assigned equivalent academic ranks. Courses in the naval curriculum for the four-year sequence were adopted in normal fashion, and separately, by the faculties of Liberal Arts and Jackson and of the College of Engineering, except that they were subject to review by the Navy Department. Students who completed the first two years of the program (including drill) could fulfill their science, hygiene, and physical education requirements and receive credit toward graduation with a bachelor's degree. Because the naval program made impossible the complete fulfillment of foundation, distribution, and degree requirements, the special

Adjustments were made after World War II by the Navy to broaden curricula to correspond more closely to the regular undergraduate degree program. Consequently, a special degree for NROTC students was no longer necessary after 1946. At the same time, Tufts contracted with the Navy to admit a number of career officers to enable them either to complete their college degrees or to do graduate work. Known as the "Halloway Plan," the arrangement provided tuition, books, and a monthly allowance for participants. They numbered seventy in 1946-47, and the program continued for several years. (The program was arranged through James L. Halloway, Jr., who in the mid-1950s was a vice-admiral and Chief of Naval Personnel.) In the spring of 1958 the Navy announced that, effective in the fall of that year, the Tufts quota for NROTC students in the "regular" program, like those at many other private institutions, was being reduced. The reason given was that rising tuition, which the Navy was paying for such students, was becoming prohibitory in expense. Naval officials remained adamant in spite of vigorous protests from Wessell and his presidential colleagues elsewhere concerning the cutbacks.

Until the late 1960s the presence of the NROTC program on the campus was not only not questioned but worked successfully and harmoniously. The public military exercises and commissioning ceremonies added life and color to the campus, and the program broadened the base of the Tufts population by bringing in faculty and students from all over the nation.

The advisability of applying for an Army ROTC unit was considered in 1945, and military personnel visited the campus that year with the suggestion that a unit of approximately 100 might be established. However, the possibility was not explored further because it was thought that, with a naval unit already present, and with a relatively small student body, the college would be unable to support more than one program. Army ROTC units were established in the medical and dental schools during World War II and were continued for several years thereafter. The NROTC program at Tufts was so successful that in 1945 the institution was approached by military officials to consider the possibility of establishing a unit of the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFROTC). At the time, Carmichael gave the same answer to the Air Force that he had given to the Army. He did not consider Tufts to be in a position to operate

The AFROTC program, never as popular among the Tufts students as the NROTC unit and always much smaller, was the first to leave when pressure against the military in general forced the two units off the campus. In 1956, only five years after its installation at Tufts, Air Force authorities announced that the unit would be disestablished because of low enrollment. The decision was then reversed. This, of course, injected a note of uncertainty, lowered student interest, and contributed in turn to small enrollments. The AFROTC unit also suffered from considerable instability because it was subjected to a whole series of curricular revisions, all of which had to be voted on separately by the faculties of Liberal Arts and Jackson, and that of the College of Engineering. Another difficulty (shared with the naval unit) was the constant turnover of military personnel who were usually at Tufts on a three or four-year rotation and whose constant replacement resulted in an element of discontinuity. Whether or not to allow degree candidates academic credit for certain courses taught in the AFROTC unit (particularly international relations) was also a source of much discussion and disagreement.

While at Tufts the AFROTC teaching staff was accorded the same faculty status as the naval unit, and the curricular and degree arrangements with the institution were roughly the same as for the NROTC. There were, however, two differences. The AFROTC unit offered a two-year as well as a four-year program; and no special degree ever had to be authorized for their students. Like its naval counterpart, a Visiting Committee to the Air Force unit was appointed by the trustees.

The high point in the ROTC population in the two programs occurred in the early and mid-195os, when well over half of the undergraduate male student body was enrolled. The greatest appeal was to students in the College of Engineering. The naval unit boasted a net enrollment of 246 in 1953-54, 57 having dropped out for a variety of reasons, including inability to pass physical requirements and academic deficiencies. There were 118 registered in the AFROTC the same year. However, the situation changed radically after American involvement in the increasingly unpopular Vietnam conflict and the traditional confidence in American invincibility in war was badly shaken. Protests against the military draft mounted, and a

The effect on ROTC enrollment was immediately apparent. The number of AFROTC cadets on campus had dropped to such a low point between 1964 and 1967 that the announcement was made in 1968 that the unit would probably cease operation by 1972. The "production" minima were ten graduates per year in the two-year program and fifteen in the four-year program, while the Tufts annual average in the latter program was less than twelve. The decline was not as drastic in the NROTC program, but obtaining the full quota of students each year was becoming more and more difficult. The minimum annual "officer productivity" was set at twenty-five. The high point had been reached in 1959-60 when forty-one received commissions at public ceremonies. By 1968-69 the number had declined to eighteen of the total of ninety enrolled in the program. Discussions concerning ROTC increased in frequency and intensity during the winter and early spring of 1968-69 and reached a tumultuous climax on 16 April. The administration called off classes as of mid-day, and the faculty and students devoted the afternoon to further informal discussions before the Faculty of Arts and Sciences convened in special session later in the day. A loud speaker was set up outside Ballou Hall to enable those standing in the rain to hear the proceedings. Twenty-five students were present at the meeting

The Educational Policy Committee presented a choice among the four proposals for faculty consideration. The vote within the committee had been badly divided on most alternatives. The first proposal - to abolish immediately all ROTC programs and activities - had been defeated in the committee. The second was to discontinue the two ROTC programs as academic departments, give no further college credit, and remove faculty status from all except the commanding officer of each unit. The third possibility presented by the committee was to work out a cooperative program with the Navy so that those already enrolled in a degree program could continue their training, but at a base off the campus. The fourth alternative was to allow both ROTC units to continue their programs unchanged.

After three and one-half hours of heated discussion and acrimonious debate the faculty adopted two resolutions. They recommended to the trustees that "the Tufts Naval ROTC program be discontinued as soon as possible and that the University withdraw from the contract which set the program up, provided that all present contractual obligations to current students be honored, but that under no circumstances will the program continue beyond the end of the academic year of 1972-73." The resolution included originally

The faculty also recommended to two of its constituent faculties (Liberal Arts and Jackson, and the College of Engineering) that "the Naval ROTC program at Tufts University be discontinued as an academic department, that no academic credit be given for NROTC courses, and that these Faculties take those steps required by their bylaws to insure that ROTC instructors not be accorded faculty status, these measures to be effective as of September 1973." The vote on this recommendation was 100 in favor and 20 opposed, with 16 abstaining.

It was painfully evident that the ROTC issue had polarized the Arts and Sciences faculty. The Liberal Arts and Jackson faculty, who greatly outnumbered their colleagues in engineering, generally opposed a military presence on campus, especially in a civilian setting. However, there were non-engineering faculty who voted to retain ROTC. One confirmed pacifist on the liberal arts faculty supported its retention on the ground that he preferred officers with a liberal arts education to those trained exclusively in military schools such as the Air Force Academy and West Point. Some other faculty argued for continuing ROTC as long as enrollment in it was voluntary (which it was). Freedom of choice was a principle to be supported.

The College of Engineering faculty overwhelmingly supported the retention of ROTC on the campus in some form. They had, in fact, reviewed the status of the program in 1963 and had voted to allow academic credit for two naval science courses. After the Arts and Sciences meeting the engineering faculty, voting separately, not only favored retaining the program but of continuing the current credit arrangement. They went so far in September 1969 as to recommend to the trustees that the NROTC unit become a department in the College of Engineering and that the naval commanding officer on campus become a member of its faculty.

The trustees were fully cognizant of the serious implications of a decision on the ROTC issue, whichever way it might go, and devoted much time, effort, and thought to a resolution of the problem. A special meeting was held in May at which President Hallowell presented a prepared statement in which he supported the faculty resolutions. He offered several reasons for his decision. He pointed out that the prime responsibility of the faculty was the educational program, over which it had to have control. The ROTC deparments were created and staffed by individuals not selected through the usual

Following additional deliberations the trustees recommended that "further efforts should be made to preserve the many valuable aspects [of the program], while eliminating from it those features which are objectionable for academic reasons." (The Trustee Statement Concerning ROTC, dated 31 May 1969, was prepared by Alumni Trustee Warren Carley.) The trustees therefore requested the administration and faculty "to enter into discussions with the Department of Defense to determine whether it is possible to have a Naval ROTC program on the campus under arrangements consistent with the academic guidelines adopted by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences." Final trustee action on the recommendation was to be taken no later than their regular annual meeting in October. (Final action was actually postponed to a special meeting held in December.) The president, in compliance with the trustees' recommendation, appointed a small committee which visited naval headquarters in Washington, D.C., and found the Navy Deparment "inflexible" in its determination to close out the program at Tufts. The Navy refused to accept the alternative suggested by the committee of remaining on campus as a non-credit, extracurricular program. Even the possibility that a naval unit could be maintained through the College of Engineering was unacceptable to the Navy. Admiral Kinney, Chief of

Tufts was, in the meantime, in the "frustrating and delicate position" of attempting to give advice to candidates for admission in an atmosphere of confusing uncertainty as to the future of NROTC. After the final decision of the Navy was made known, the trustees voted in December 1969, some with obvious reluctance, to discontinue the NROTC unit "as soon as possible, provided that all present program obligations to current students are honored, and that the program be fully discontinued not later than the end of the academic year 1972-73." Their vote seems to have been a clear indication, in light of their earlier action, that the trustees were being responsive to the majority of the clientele which they officially represented. The vast majority of the alumni apparently thought that the vote should have been otherwise, for a questionniare returned to the Alumni Council meeting in May 1969 indicated that the respondents voted 80 to 8 to retain NROTC. By the fall of 1972 several institutions such as Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth had reviewed their policies regarding NROTC and had either decided to retain their units or begin negotiations for reinstatement of their programs. The Navy Department had indicated its willingness to make adjustments that would satisfy faculty requirements.

The Alumni Council, taking these various developments into consideration, requested in May of 1972, in a petition addressed to the president, the board of trustees, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, to reconsider the decision that had been made in 1969. The trustee Executive Committee, to which the petition was referred in the fall of 1972, concluded that there was "nothing constructive to be gained by taking further steps in this matter at this time." The full board concurred in this decision, which was also supported by President Hallowell, to take no further action. Hallowell had been informed by a past chairman of the Alumni Council that simply to drop the matter would be "the most imprudent move you can make." There was indeed no action taken by Tufts regarding ROTC until the fall of 1976. In the preceding year three students (two men and one woman) approached the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and expressed an interest in the ROTC programs then being conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although none of the three actually enrolled, in the fall of 1976 the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approved of participation in the programs by Tufts

This modified program was made effective without the uproar of the late 1960s, but there was continued sensitivity almost a decade later among some students and faculty. The issue centered around a military presence (Army and Air Force) at registration time, but enrollment of Tufts students at MIT continued. Sixteen Tufts students were cross-registered in the Army ROTC in 1979, together with five in the Air Force unit.

The faint outlines of the ROTC programs of the 1950s which had been almost obliterated by the agitation of the 1960s, had begun to reappear by the 1970s and 1980s. But the wheel had yet to come full turn.