After four decades of exile from top-flight schools, here’s why military scholarship programs are making a comeback. 

Harvard, Brown, Stanford and Columbia University are all softening policies that kept Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programs off-campus. These schools had been resistant to the programs as a response to Vietnam War protests, and sometimes cite the military’s discriminatory ban on gays as a present-day reason to reject ROTC.

Harvard University had even gone so far as to bar military recruiters from operating on campus.

But with ROTC applications increasing between 12-15% each year, and public support for the military growing after 9/11, these colleges are reviewing their policies and showing greater support to student cadets.

Signs of change:

• Harvard now allows a small number of students involved in the ROTC at MIT to be commissioned as officers in Harvard Yard following graduation
• Brown University is searching for ways to award ROTC students with academic credit for their military courses
• Stanford University has established a committee to study whether its ban should be overturned, and
• Columbia University expects to rebuild its relationship with the military following a recent meeting with top officers, like Admiral Mike Mullen.

How is ROTC received at your school? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tags: Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, ROTC on campus, Stanford University