March Enrollment
DARTMOUTH WILL OPEN its Spring Term, rounding out the second year of operation under the Navy V-12 program, on March 5 with a Navy enrollment of more than 900 and a civilian enrollment of approximately 225. The V-12 enrollment will be quite a bit lower than the quota of 1,280 for the Winter Term, while the civilian enrollment will be only a little below the total of 240 in attendance this past term.
Approximately 45 new civilian freshmen, the vanguard of the Class of 1949, will enter Dartmouth in March, and five or six discharged veterans are expected to join the seven already in college. These two groups probably will not completely offset the loss of civilians leaving for military service at the end of the Winter Term.
Earliest information from the Bureau of Naval Personnel gave Dartmouth a quota of 933 V-12 trainees for the March term, but a later directive stated that the Unit would consist of all trainees remaining on board after the detachment of those graduating from V-12, transferring to aviation, or being separated for academic failure. No new Navy trainees are expected on March i, but a group of 37 new marines, will join the 90 remaining on board. Although academic attrition cannot be accurately estimated in advance, the final V-12 enrollment is expected to come close to the 933 quota originally set for the term. A total of 223 trainees, including 178 bluejackets and 45 marines, finished the V-12 course in February. The estimate of 835 Navy trainees carrying over into the Spring Term includes 324 regular basics, 145 deck candidates, 239 supply corps candidates, 49 pre-medical candidates, 73 engineering candidates, and five pre-chaplain candidates.
Starting July 1. 1945, the Navy will incorporate its V-12 training program into the enlarged NROTC which was approved by Congress and President Roosevelt last month. Twenty-three new NROTC units will be established in addition to the 27 now existing and enrollment will be increased from 7,200 to 24 000. Dartmouth filed application for such a unit before Pearl Harbor, but the Navy has not yet announced where its new NROTC program will be conducted.
