ROTC

The issue of ROTC is heating up nicelyagain in The Dartmouth. Several alumni, faculty, and students have recently writterlong-ish letters and essays defending thenotion of campus military training on thebasis of freedom of choice, the need for a strong military to keep the peace and to thwart potential "Hitlers," and the need to leaven the armed forces with liberallyeducated officers. Equally long - and sometimes equally bellicose - communicationsfrom students and faculty have protested the spectres of "regimentationof mind" and the "tramp-tramp-trampof boots" on the Green, and arguedthat military training - training in the"management of violence" - is incompatiblewith the education environment.One student essayist, who took a swipe atthe anti-ROTC position of another write,also admitted that "I don't give a goodgoddam one way or the other."

The people who must contend with these opposing views are the military, which has yet to make it publicly clear that it wants to return to Dartmouth (the fact that only a handful of students are enrolled in a revived Army course at Princeton may have left a sour taste), the Board of Trustees, and the committee the Trustees designated to study the question of ROTC. That committee is composed of seven members of the faculty, three students, and three alumni. The alumni are J. Clarence Davies Jr. '34, New York City real estate broker, major general in the Air Force Reserve, and member of the Alum" Council; Richard M! Page '54, Boston insurance broker, participant in the Army ROTC program as an undergraduate, and member of the Alumni Council; and Robert B. Reich '68, a former Rhodes Scholar and recently appointed Assistant U.S. Solicitor General.

In somewhat guarded comments Gene M. Lyons, Professor of Government and chairman of the ROTC study committee, said that the group has had only one meeting but that several more are scheduled for this spring and summer. It is also possible that one or two open forums to "set out options and invite views" will be held in the fall. "We also have had lots of letters from alumni," said Lyons.

The committee was originally instructed to finish its report in time for the Trustee meeting next October, but Lyons conceded that it might be delayed until the winter meeting of the Trustees.