Army Unit Added

WHILE girding up its loins for whatever the future may bring and wrestling with the myriad problems of the present, the College has not neglected to explore every possibility for placing its plant and teaching resources at the disposal of the government. On January 8, through a newspaper story out of Washington, Dartmouth learned that it had been chosen by the Army for an ROTC unit in ordnance, and a short time feter official confirmation, although nO details, arrived. The new unit, which is in addition to the NROTC program now offered at Dartmouth, will probably involve a relatively small number of men.

If conducted under regulations presently governing the Army's regular peacetime ROTC units, undergraduates physically qualified and with at least two years of college remaining may voluntarily enroll in the "basic" unit. Completion of the "basic" portion of the program leads to the "advanced" special branch of ROTC, which in Dartmouth's case will be ordnance. Since students going into this advanced training must in their civilian college course major in engineering or one of the physical sciences, the new Army ROTC Unit at Dartmouth offers possibilities for only a limited number of men now enrolled in the College. The program is expected to have much greater attraction for incoming freshmen, who can plan their study programs accordingly.

Not precluded is the establishment at Dartmouth of other advanced ROTC courses growing out of the basic training to be inaugurated for the year 1951-52. The College has informed the Army of its ability to handle advanced training units in a variety of fields. Pending in Washington are proposals that advanced special branches be increased in number, and, moreover, that there be adopted for all college ROTC units the Navy's "Holloway Plan" whereby certain competitively selected men would study at government expense to be reserve officers.

At the present time, there is no indication of any impending expansion of the Navy's ROTC program, although here again some mobilization proposals call for an NROTC expansion in which Dartmouth possibly would share.