Withdrawal of Credit

THE PUBLIC LAW requires only that 1) the senior officer of each ROTC Unit hold the rank of full Professor 2) that course offerings be included in Harvard's curriculum and 3) that Harvard and the ROTC Units meet all the stipulations of the contracts between Harvard and the Secrearies of the participating Military Services. The withdrawal of academic credit would not specifically challenge the law, but would challenge the stipulations of the contracts. At the joint consent of Harvard and the Military Services, the contracts could legally be modified.

In accordance with paragraph two of Section 2102, a separate contracts is made between Harvard and the Secretary of each Military Services participating in the ROTC program. Among the conditions required by contracts, but not specifically by law, are the following:

* Harvard is to establish each ROTC Unit as an academic and administrative Department.

* Harvard is to grant credit toward a degree for completion for ROTC courses.

* While the law requires that ROTC courses be included in the Harvard curriculum and be prescribed and conducted by the Secretaries of the Military Services, the Army contracts alone specifices that the Military may prescribe and conduct their courses only with Faculty approval.

* Harvard has the right to approve or disapprove of the assignment of any ROTC instructor and to request the removal of any instructor for just cause.

* The Naval contract specifies that the NROTC Professor be given a place on Harvard's major administrative board and receive the same privileges as other Department heads. The Army contract requires that a member of the Department of Military Science be given a seat on any Faculty committee whose jurisdiction includes ROTC.

* Harvard should, in general, promote the programs' purposes, and aid the Units in meeting maintenance quotas, and to encourage students in the programs to complete those programs.

If credit for ROTC courses were withdrawn, what would become of ROTC at Harvard? There is no specific legal requirement that ROTC courses be granted academic credit towards the A.B. degree. Though the contracts specify that academic credit is to be granted, there is no legal reason why the contracts cannot be amended. It has in fact proved possible to amend the Army contract to waive, in a given year and with the permission of the Secertary of the Army, the requirement that 100 members be enrolled in the basic course whenever the basic course is given.

There is no clear indication that withdrawal of credit would affect ROTC scholarships.

It is difficult to determine how the Military Services would respond to the withdrawal of credit. According to information presented by the Harvard Undergraduate Council in its fact sheet, Major Folk of Air Force ROTC "was of the opinion that a loss of academic credit would mean a loss of prestige and participation, and the eventual withdrawal of AFROTC."

Colonel Pell indicated in a written statement to the HUC that academic credit is a definite inducement to take ROTC programs. Is academic credit an inducement at Harvard? Of 142 NROTC members, 79 per cent take Naval Science as a fifth or sixth course. All 49 members of the Air Force program take Aerospace Studies as a fifth course. ROTC grades are, however, counted in computation of a student's rank list group, and a grade in a ROTC course will substitute for any lower grade.

IT IS DIFFICULT to determine what extent credit for ROTC courses is an inducement to take ROTC programs, although the inducement does seem less than has been claimed. ROTC programs should not be made appealing at the sacrifice of essential principles of the liberal arts institution, especially when the basis of their appeal is unclear in the first place. Colonel Pell is concerned about a potential "disservice to the maintenance of the national defense establishment, as now constituted." We contend that any aspect of the status of ROTC at Harvard which is a disservice to the principles of the liberal arts institution cannot possibly be a true service to the national interest, for whose physical protection a national defense establishment exists. At present the ROTC programs render a disservice to Harvard through the incompatibility of several aspects of their goals and structure with the liberal arts spirit and the prinicple of academic freedom