Spring Break
Hopkins ROTC numbers increase 56 percent from last year
Issue date: 9/18/08
Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) enrollment at Hopkins has increased significantly over the past year, despite the national drop in average ROTC enrollments.
The Blue Jay Battalion, which includes students from satellite programs at UMBC and Stevenson University, has jumped from 48 cadets in the program last year to 85 cadets this year. This represents a 56 percent increase over the past year, though nationally ROTC enrollment has dropped an average of 16 percent from 2005-2007. Enrollment numbers for the 2008 school year were unavailable.
Two years ago the total number of cadets in the ROTC program was 60, and prior to that it was 74.
According to Bushyager, of the first-time recruits this past year, 15 of them are non-freshmen. One possible explanation for the increased enrollment, especially among non-freshmen, is the Army's recent changes to the national ROTC program itself, which has created more offerings to cadets who join the program after completing at least one year of undergraduate study. Through the new program, the Army offers these recruits a loan repayment program that will repay the cost of the student's first two years in college as well as the tuition for the two years that they spend in ROTC. Like other ROTC scholarships, this does carry with it the obligation of service after college.
The jump in enrollments, while signaling success for the program overall, does put some added pressure on class structure and on cadets in leadership positions. However, Major Steven Pomper does not believe the higher numbers will have a negative impact in the classroom.
"I have 10 students in my class right now," he said. "We can easily double that without a problem and split the class into two sections."
UMBC senior Malcolm Royer supported this opinion. "I think it's great," he said. "You have more people to work with, and they all have clean slates. Teaching them is also like a refresher course in all the basics for the juniors and seniors, but it's exciting because it's all new [to the new recruits]."
The Blue Jay Battalion, which includes students from satellite programs at UMBC and Stevenson University, has jumped from 48 cadets in the program last year to 85 cadets this year. This represents a 56 percent increase over the past year, though nationally ROTC enrollment has dropped an average of 16 percent from 2005-2007. Enrollment numbers for the 2008 school year were unavailable.
Two years ago the total number of cadets in the ROTC program was 60, and prior to that it was 74.
According to Bushyager, of the first-time recruits this past year, 15 of them are non-freshmen. One possible explanation for the increased enrollment, especially among non-freshmen, is the Army's recent changes to the national ROTC program itself, which has created more offerings to cadets who join the program after completing at least one year of undergraduate study. Through the new program, the Army offers these recruits a loan repayment program that will repay the cost of the student's first two years in college as well as the tuition for the two years that they spend in ROTC. Like other ROTC scholarships, this does carry with it the obligation of service after college.
The jump in enrollments, while signaling success for the program overall, does put some added pressure on class structure and on cadets in leadership positions. However, Major Steven Pomper does not believe the higher numbers will have a negative impact in the classroom.
"I have 10 students in my class right now," he said. "We can easily double that without a problem and split the class into two sections."
UMBC senior Malcolm Royer supported this opinion. "I think it's great," he said. "You have more people to work with, and they all have clean slates. Teaching them is also like a refresher course in all the basics for the juniors and seniors, but it's exciting because it's all new [to the new recruits]."
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