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The Princeton program is headed by Lieut. Colonel John Pope, 43, whose credits include a Ph.D. in education from the University of California at Berkeley and experience as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. Pope is quietly lobbying to restore academic credit to some ROTC courses. Although the faculty remains opposed, Pope argues: "If programs like dance, theater, painting and arts can go for credit, there should be room for credit courses in the cause and effect of war." Most oth er ROTC schools grant the courses at least some credit; Northwestern does so for about half of its Navy ROTC courses.
Financial pressure is another reason for the growth of ROTC. At Northwestern, tuition, room and board cost $8,285. Observes the school's commanding officer, Captain Manuel B. Sousa: "If students here can keep their noses above water academically and pass the physical, it's virtually guaranteed that we can put them on full scholarship." Nationally, 10% of the Army's ROTC cadets receive full scholarships for up to four years. All the services pay for attendance at advanced summer camps; upper-level ROTC members also earn up to $1,000 annually for their campus training. Scholarship students are required to serve after college for a minimum of four years, while other commissioned ROTC graduates owe up to three full-time years to the military.
Another boon to ROTC is the fact that patriotism is big again among many students. At the University of Delaware, Cadet Peter Pfeiffer explains, "I thought the Army was a joke. It sounds corny, but now I want to serve my country. I've seen there are a lot of places where you can't do what you want." The program's resurgence is welcomed by the military: 70% of the Army's 98,000 officers came up through ROTC, as did about 30% of the Air Force's 359 generals.
For still others, though, the most welcome fact about ROTC'S return has less to do with patriotism or practicality than with sound democratic principles. Observes University of Delaware President E. Arthur Trabant: "More students have come to the conclusion I came to many years ago, that the best army is a citizen army. The ROTC program contributes to that.''
By Kenneth M. Pierce. Reported by Don Sider/Washington and James Wilde/Princeton.