'A Case Study of ROTC in New York City'

Cheryl Miller, at the American Enterprise Institute, has written an informative report on ROTC, titled "A Case Study of ROTC in New York City." Here are some of the reports key findings:

Current policy has resulted in many missed opportunities for the armed forces.

• The ROTC is absent from two of New York’s most populous and diverse boroughs. Although Manhattan Island is host to over 1.5 million people and forty colleges and universities, there is not a single school in the borough of Manhattan with an ROTC host program. Nor is there any ROTC presence in Brooklyn, which would be the fourth-largest city in the United States if it were its own city.

• The ROTC’s one-size-fits-all approach fails to account for the unique needs of each market. New York’s ROTC programs have logistical, outreach, and transportation challenges incomparable to the more typical ROTC detachment at a Southern state school.

• There are alternatives to establishing new ROTC host programs in New York City. Given budgetary constraints, the military should be ready to think creatively about how to broaden its reach. One option is to headquarter and administratively consolidate an ROTC program at one centrally located institution but quarter full-time cadre at other universities across the city.

• The twenty-first-century security environment requires a new breed of officer—one who is innovative, creative, and versatile. However, knowledge and skills take time to develop. If the military intends to grow its cadre of warrior-scholars, it will need to look outward—to the next generation of military officers.

• The absence of ROTC units on urban campuses, especially in the Northeast, prevents the military from taking full advantage of their large, ethnically diverse populations. This is particularly true in the case of the City University of New York (CUNY), the third-largest public university system in the country and the alma mater of nearly half of New York City’s college population. Yet today there is not a single ROTC program at any CUNY school.

Whole report here.