ROTC to return

On March 12, President McLaughlin held a press conference to announce the return of ROTC to the College campus.

The proposal accepted by the admin istration is from the Army and will be an extension of the current off-campus program at Norwich University. However, under the new program, all ROTC instruction will take place in Hanover, and the ROTC instructors will be adjunct members of the Dartmouth faculty.

McLaughlin noted that the Army plan was designed to address the specific academic concerns leveled at a Navy plan under consideration a year ago. However, the executive committee of the faculty had voted 17 to 5 advising rejection of the Army proposal, too, and the full faculty subsequently voted similarly, by a margin of 113 to 39. Faculty concerns included the effects of ROTC on the regular academic program and the incompatability of preprofessional training with a liberal arts education.

The Student Assembly had also expressed its opinion on the Army plan, voting in favor of it nearly unanimously with one abstention and no negative votes.

The text of President McLaughlin's speech at the March 12 press conference is in this issue (see page 36).