Spring Break
Enrollment increases in ROTC program
Drita Dogjani
Issue date: 1/30/09 Section: News
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The ROTC programs at Drexel University provide its members facilities such as free housing, full tuition, book stipends, regular monthly stipends, and all necessary uniforms. Drexel also provides ROTC students with discounts on meal plans and priority class registration.
Col. Brian Manthe said he does not believe students join the ROTC merely for the monetary advantages. According to Manthe, they need to have interest in the program itself in order to put in the grueling labor the job requires.
The Navy ROTC at Drexel is a joint program including students from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel and Temple University. The program is also affiliated with its counterpart at Villanova University, which is known for its Navy ROTC.
Through the ROTC programs, students can receive scholarships before or after starting college.
Scholarships are awarded based on various physical tests, a required level of academic excellence and scores in various scholastic aptitude tests.
Students compete nationally for a given number of scholarships. According to Col. Manthe, each ROTC head is responsible for distributing a specific amount of scholarships that can be given a certain amount of scholarships to be given out to deserving students. These scholarships vary by major and change in amount on a yearly basis.
"I don't know for sure if I will get the scholarship, but I know within myself that this is the best route for me personally to take midshipman," Matthew Morlock, freshman and criminal justice major, said.
There are five extra scholarships for students this year as opposed to years prior, according to Manthe. This means that although the NROTC is receiving less funding for things such as supplies, they are receiving a bit more funding for scholarships.
The U.S. government has also expressed interest and promised extra support to all the ROTC programs for which it provides aid, according to Manthe.
This is not the case for Air ROTC. According to C/lt. Col. Nick Tassos, a junior operations group commander at Drexel the Air ROTC program is downsizing manpower and therefore accepting less students with every new freshmen class.
This makes it harder to accept many cadets and then consequently to keep them. The amount of scholarships given for the Air ROTC program, however, has not changed at all.
"It is definitely hard. But if you have the willpower and the drive for it, the ROTC program has rewards greater than a few years of school paid off," Tassos said.
According to Manthe, though the Navy is decreasing in size, the Marine Corp has increased its ranks. Manthe added that the Army ROTC program has also expanded in the last few years.
The trend in most of these programs is to decrease manpower within the staff and many of the members, however the opportunities for success when taking the military route through school still do remain very much attainable.
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