I would like to update the campus community about the efforts
being made to reinstitute ROTC at UTC. This summer Acting Provost Herbert
Burhenn named a faculty committee, chaired by myself, to initiate steps for
the approval of a ROTC program. Other members of the ROTC Committee include:
Professors Jim Cunningham (Engineering), Bruce Hutchinson (Economics), Bill
Prince (Library), Manuel Santiago (Chemistry), Tom Ware (English) and Steve
White (Management). 

 

            Since the Fall 2006 semester began, our ROTC faculty committee
has been adapting the Army's standardized syllabi and UTK course materials
to fit UTC's curriculum proposal format. The curriculum is standardized by
the Army for all 273 ROTC units across the country. Initially UTC's ROTC
program would be a satellite campus of the ROTC program at UT-Knoxville. We
found that 31 other Tennessee higher education institutions already have
ROTC programs on their campuses.

 

Our ROTC faculty committee spent over a month developing a UTC needs
assessment survey, administering it to 944 undergraduate students (primarily
freshmen) enrolled in English 121 classes, and analyzing the results. The
data we obtained clearly revealed substantial UTC student interest in an
ROTC program that would help high school recruitment, provide an additional
source of scholarship assistance and offer future career options. We
obtained a Hamilton County Department of Education survey that highlighted
the interest of local high school students, JROTC cadets in nine Hamilton
County high schools, in attending UTC if it offered a ROTC program. We also
contacted community leaders who indicated their willingness to fund new
scholarships for ROTC cadets at UTC.      

 

            The UTK commander Col. Marshall Ramsey, who would serve as
department head of a UTC ROTC program, informed Chancellor Roger Brown,
Acting Provost Burhenn and myself that if the faculty approve the
reinstitution of ROTC at UTC this fall semester, the regional commander will
assign an Army officer to Chattanooga in January to recruit students and
make the arrangements to launch UTC's ROTC program in Fall 2007. We have
already received a number of inquiries from parents and students about when
the ROTC program will be available. The ROTC faculty committee has worked
diligently to prepare the ROTC proposal for consideration by the Curriculum
Committee on October 30.

 

            The ROTC Committee has tried to obtain answers to key concerns
of the faculty, some expressed in the survey conducted by Professor Townsend
this summer. We have prepared a ROTC Fact Sheet to address many of those
matters. The plan is to bring the ROTC proposal to the Faculty Senate on
November 2 and the full faculty on November 8, 2006. The scheduled date of
the general faculty meeting, and the goal of initiating the program next
fall, have created a tight time frame clearly not of our choosing. We
concluded that the ROTC proposal has considerable merit to attract new
students to UTC, provide additional financial assistance to our students and
prepare interested students for careers in the Army, National Guard, Army
Reserves, Nurse Corps and Chaplain Corps. 

 

            Professor Gavin Townsend, President of the Faculty Senate, will
send out the ROTC Fact Sheet which should provide answers to most of your
questions. He will post the full curriculum proposal next week for your
consideration.

 


* UTCSTAFF home page:  http://raven.utc.edu/archives/utcstaff.html *
* unsubscribe:  mailto:[log in to unmask]  *
*   subscribe:  mailto:[log in to unmask]    *