The Army has announced that the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at UW-La Crosse will be phased out over the next couple years.
For more than 40 years, the ROTC program at UW-La Crosse has helped students get scholarships and leadership training in exchange for a commitment to the Army. But that program and 12 others across the country will end in 2015. The Army says it’s not a reflection on the schools, but a way to “better align resources.”
The ROTC’s Eagle Batallion is based on UW-La Crosse's campus, but also works with students at Viterbo University, Winona State University, and St. Mary’s University.
UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow says juniors and seniors will be able to complete the program and graduate, but first and second year cadets will be the most affected. “The freshmen, they’ll have to make a big decision. If they want to stay in ROTC they’d have to transfer to another university and certainly, we don’t want to see that happen.”
Gow says he can’t envision campus without the program, so he’ll see if there’s any way elected officials can help keep ROTC at UW-La Crosse.
Lieutenant Colonel James Hill is a professor of military science and the battalion commander. He says he was surprised by the news and he feels for the affected students. “Knowing that some of them won’t be able to complete that part of what they wanted to do ... it’s something that’s hard to take but it is a fact of Army life,“ Hill said. ”We’ll go on. They’ll go on. We’ll do everything we can to help them and they know that.” Army staff will be reassigned.
UW-La Crosse is one of five ROTC campuses in Wisconsin.
