Fall 2011

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The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, a campus fixture for more than 50 years but absent since 1969, is coming back.

Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus signed an agreement on May 26 to reinstate NROTC programs at the University after more than 40 years. The agreement was signed at a ceremony on board the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, which was docked in New York for the Navy’s annual Fleet Week.

Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus sign the agreement on May 26 reinstating NROTC at Columbia. Photo: Michael Dames“Repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law provided a historic opportunity for our nation to live up to its ideals of equality and also for universities to reconsider their relationships with the military,” Bollinger said when the agreement was announced in April. “After many months of campus discussion, open forums and a strongly favorable vote in the University Senate, together with consultation with the University’s Council of Deans, it is clear that the time has come for Columbia to reengage with the military program of ROTC … and thereby add to the diversity of choices for education and public service we make available to our students.”

Under the agreement, Columbia will resume full and formal recognition of Naval ROTC after the effective date of the repeal of the law that disqualified openly gay men and lesbians from military service, anticipated to come later this year.

“NROTC’s return to Columbia is good for the University, good for the military and good for our country,” said Mabus at the signing. “Columbia’s tremendous support to our men and women in uniform returning from the recent wars is overwhelming, as are the growing numbers of veterans who are woven into the fabric of this great institution. The return of Naval ROTC to campus will only serve to enhance and strengthen our institutions.”

Under the agreement, there will be an NROTC office on campus where active-duty Navy and Marine Corps officers will meet with Columbia NROTC midshipmen, who will participate in NROTC through a unit hosted at SUNY Maritime College in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx.

Columbia had one of the first Naval ROTC detachments in the nation in 1916, and for more than 50 years, ROTC students took Naval Science classes, drilled on College Walk and worked on ships and submarines in New York Harbor. More than 20,000 officer candidates trained at Columbia during WWII, but following the Spring 1968 demonstrations, the University terminated its relationship with the NROTC program.

“When I was president of my senior class in 1968, Columbia students were at the forefront of expressing dissent with the war in Vietnam,” noted Arthur B. Spector ’68. “But the LBJ era is a long time ago. The decision to allow ROTC on campus is long overdue. We need Columbia-educated professionals in the military.”

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