Air Force Will Allow ROTC To Stay Here

Officials announced late last night that the Air Force has withdrawn a plan which would discontinue operations at 24 AFROTC units throughout the country, including the installation here, by July 1957.

This action will affect some 47 sophomores and freshmen in the unit here who might not have been able to receive their commissions if the original decision had been carried out.

Continuance of the ROTC program at each of the colleges now hinges on the approval of the schools concerned. If a college president requests continuation, the Air Force will withdraw plans to drop the unit. Col. Waldo Jones, professor of Air Science and Tactics, said last night that "the whole thing depends completely upon the decision of the administration," and declined to elaborate.

He had previously devised a plan which would have permitted sophomores who were eligible to complete training, but 30 freshmen in the program would have been forced to drop ROTC or transfer to another unit.

In early December, the Air Force announced that it had decided to discontinue the AFROTC units at 24 different schools throughout the country. Officials said that the number of flight candidates produced by these units did not justify the expense.

Both the Army and Navy ROTC's here have announced that they would accept AFROTC students. In fact, many such students have already signed papers with the Army ROTC.