In the fall of 1948, Trinity College established a Reserves Officers Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) program in conjunction with the newly formed United States Air Force. On an elective basis, students could study military science and receive a stipend from the Air Force during their four years of study before graduating as commissioned officers. After critical examination in 1969, the program was dissolved in the fall of 1970.
Although the College's experience with the military had ended with the disbandment of the V-12 unit in 1945, the hundreds of veterans who attended Trinity had done much to keep the spirit of service alive. President G. Keith Funston, several administrators, and a considerable number of junior faculty had recently experienced military service, many of them as commissioned officers. In his announcement, President Funston said that “this participation in the Air Force R.O.T.C. program gives Trinity a timely opportunity to contribute to the national military preparedness program. Trinity has always endeavored to serve the nation to the best of her ability and military preparedness is today certainly in the nation's best interest.”
Trinity's program opened in the fall of 1948 on a voluntary basis, though it was open to all students regardless of major. The elementary courses taught basic military training (about three hours per week per course) to non-military experienced students while the advanced courses took about five hours per week and paid a $24-per-month stipend. Veterans with at least one year's service could enroll in the advanced classes immediately. The newly created United States Department of Defense assigned three officers and three non-commissioned officers to staff Trinity's unit. They were appointed to the faculty, with Air Force Major William E. Taylor in charge of the unit with full faculty rank as Professor of Military Science and Tactics. Though no flying was required in the R.O.T.C. program, it would “clear the way for later flying training for graduate officers who desire it” and “provide an opportunity for young men to learn to fly if they wished…as an extracurricular activity.” 1)
Trinity's unit was one in a network of 175 supplying the Air Force with close to a third of its officers. It occupied the old psychology labs and classrooms on the third floor of Boardman Hall, where an American flag flew above the fire escape. 2) At the height of its enrollment in 1953, there were 553 students, or more than half of the undergraduate student body participating. 3)
Student enrollment in the program declined sharply during the 1960s due to the conflicts in Vietnam and Cambodia. By 1969, 22 were enrolled and in 1970, there were only eight students enrolled, all upperclassmen, which fell below the minimum of 10 set by the Air Force. In the spring of 1969, President Ted Lockwood asked both the Trinity College Council (TCC) and the faculty to submit their recommendations on the program. Petitions and editorials demanded the College sever all connections with the Department of Defense, in order to assert its opposition of American foreign policy, namely, complicity with military imperialism. “Already, for example, 85% of the Army's second lieutenants are ROTC graduates,” one Trinity Tripod editorial stated. “Where is the humanism these ROTC graduates are expected to impart to the military? Undoubtedly any Vietnamese whose home and nation has been destroyed by our military would be interested in knowing what happened to the humanism of officers trained on America's campuses.” 4) Other arguments against the R.O.T.C. included it being a vocational and pre-professional program, not an academic one. Originally, faculty voted to keep R.O.T.C. with academic credit, while students participated in protests against “U.S. military exploits and political repression” including “the elimination of all defense department related activities on college campuses, including research and ROTC.” 5)
In 1969, the TCC voted 7 to 5 to disband the R.O.T.C. program. In the fall of 1970, the Air Force and Trinity College mutually agreed to discontinue it, citing its low numbers. The program terminated in June 1971.
Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, pp. 142-144.
Trinity Tripod, 09/15/1970.
Trinity Tripod, 04/22/1969.
Trinity College Bulletin, July 1948.
Trinity Tripod, 05/19/1948.