Penn State Army ROTC - Penn State Army ROTC

Penn State Army ROTC

Penn State's role in national defense dates from 1863, when it was designated a place for boys to be land-grant institution under the Morrill Act. Congress included military training as part of the mission of land-grant colleges. The Civil War was then raging, and the concept of broad-based military preparedness was very important to lawmakers. In 1917, to address World War I's need for trained military leaders, the University established a component of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). The ROTC provided military instruction in addition to standard academic studies and awarded reserve officers' commissions to students upon graduation. During World War I, in a gesture that would become a hallmark of Penn State's commitment to the military, the University volunteered the use of the University Park campus grounds and buildings to the War Department and the Pennsylvania National Guard for training purposes. In addition, the University provided technological training to students headed off to war, as well as national defense research through its schools of engineering and agriculture. Penn State's involvement in defense-related activities expanded during World War II to include additional personnel-training programs, as well as government-funded research projects. Penn State furnished defense-related training to more than 140,000 at 200 communities across the state, and provided instruction to thousands more at the University Park campus.

Currently, 19 of Penn State's 24 locations offer at least one ROTC program either as a host unit or in partnership with another Pennsylvania college or university. Penn State's Tri-Service ROTC is consistently in the top of the Big Ten in ROTC enrollment. All three programs are top-ranked nationally and have received high marks during external inspections and audits compared with their counterparts across the country.

In the fall of 2010 a team of 10 students from the Penn State Army ROTC came out on top of squads from 43 other northeastern schools in the regional Ranger Challenge Competition held on Oct. 24, near West Point, N.Y. The Penn State's victory propels them to the historic Sandhurst Military Skills Competition, which has been held annually since 1967, where they will compete with squads from across the nation and around the world. This year’s competition will be held on April 16, 2011, at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Penn State has been the largest ROTC program in the Big Ten Conference. Females comprise 14 percent of Penn State ROTC students, which is close to each service's norms; however, ethnicity percentages are lower than each service's norms. Penn State's Army ROTC enrollment comprises 16 percent of all Pennsylvania schools' Army ROTC enrollment. Army ROTC cadets most favor the crime, law and justice major, followed by engineering. About one-fourth of all Penn State ROTC students are on the dean's list. All ROTC students must meet and maintain academic, aptitude, medical, and physical requirements. Beginning in the Fall semester of 2008, a special living option in Brumbaugh Hall in East Halls has been offered to freshman ROTC students, which has proven popular, as male student spaces are at capacity. One-fourth of Army students have chosen to live in this residence hall.