Defense Dept. Modifies ROTC Loyalty Pledge

The Department of Defense yesterday announced that it has radically revised its ROTC policy by altering the Loyalty Oath required of all students in the three ROTC groups--Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Under the new plan, only students in the advanced ROTC group, which consists of juniors and seniors, will have to swear whether or not they had been affiliated with any subversive organization on the Attorney-Ceneral's list. Students in the basic group, consisting of freshmen and sophomores, will only be required to take a simple pledge of allegiance to the United States.

Radical Policy Change

By this sudden change in policy, the Defense Department has probably answered most of the criticism leveled at it for the past year, especially from land grant colleges.

Since last October, when Congress added a rider to the Armed Services Appropriation Bill which forced all ROTC men to list any subversive groups they men to list any subversive groups they had belonged to, college newspapers, administrations, and other organizations have complained to the government.

The main criticism was that students of land grant colleges, where ROTC is compulsory for two years, were often discriminated against by this old oath. If a student put down on his questionnaire that he had belonged to a subversive group, he was deprived of his uniform, but was forced to take a similar "military training" course by himself.

Students Liable to Expulsion

If the student refused to take this alternate training, he was faced with expulsion. Critics argued that the old oath should just be given to students who had signified their willingness to continue in ROTC after their sophomore year.

Under the revised oath, if an advanced student notes that he had belonged to a subversive group, he is denied a uniform until the military department has completed a full investigation.