13 AROTC Battalions scheduled to close

Jcleppe

10-Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
6,714
Here is a list of the 13 AROTC Battalions that are scheduled to be closed. These closures were scheduled before the Gov. Shut Down.

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/03/army-will-close-13-rotc-programs

A few questions I had from a previous post:

What will happen to the Contracted, Scholarship, and SMP cadets at your school.

Are their any Battalions close by that these cadets can continue to participate in as a crosstown cadet.

Will these cadets be able to transfer to another school and take their scholarships with them.

Will cadets be able to finish out this year with the program, are any of the programs being shut down right away. The article says the shut down's will be complete during the 2014/2015 year. Does this mean that the programs will continue for this year.

Jcc123, thanks for the link to the article.
 
Last edited:
Here is a list of the 13 AROTC Battalions that are scheduled to be closed. These closures were scheduled before the Gov. Shut Down.

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/03/army-will-close-13-rotc-programs

A few questions I had from a previous post:

What will happen to the Contracted, Scholarship, and SMP cadets at your school.

Are their any Battalions close by that these cadets can continue to participate in as a crosstown cadet.

Will these cadets be able to transfer to another school and take their scholarships with them.

Will cadets be able to finish out this year with the program, are any of the programs being shut down right away. The article says the shut down's will be complete during the 2014/2015 year. Does this mean that the programs will continue for this year.

Jcc123, thanks for the link to the article.

This may only be Round One of program closures.
 
This may only be Round One of program closures.

I have a feeling this will be more of a realignment in the future. AROTC has already opened or is working to open new battalions, in NYC and other more Urban areas, and are working to open more. The new Urban Scholarship is a good sign as to where new Battalions will be located. These battalions will have higher budgets due to their location and logistics for training. While the number of battalions opened may not be a physical tradeoff, I would imagine it will be a financial tradeoff.
 
Looking at the list and based upon my limited knowledge of some of the institutions involved, here are my thoughts...

1)This was a list of smaller, public BNs or public BNs that had other similar BNs that could absorb cadets of similar interests in the region. Although the article mentions Arkansas State serving 122, the question here is how many do they commission. There are many schools that have a large MSI class because they grant PE or other required credit for taking ROTC and therefore have a lot of "tire-kickers" in the program. Not that giving a broad exposure to ROTC is a bad thing, but in these austere times, this is not as much a priority.

2) I could see a list of private BNs coming that could be trimmed if they do not serve a critical mission and have other similar programs in the region.

3) Yes, there is a move to create more urban BNs and this may be the vehicle they use to keep the O4/O5 and office staff count for the overall program constant, not to mention the overall commission targets.
 
So what happens to a contracted cadet in a school where the battalion closes? Do they have to transfer schools?
 
Alot of Tennesse Universities on the list, wonder why? 50 States in the US and Tennessee has three of the 13 batallians that are closing. Just curious as a TN resident.
 
Just noticed that, too, since someone close is at ETSU.
 
Looking at the list and based upon my limited knowledge of some of the institutions involved, here are my thoughts...

1)This was a list of smaller, public BNs or public BNs that had other similar BNs that could absorb cadets of similar interests in the region. Although the article mentions Arkansas State serving 122, the question here is how many do they commission. There are many schools that have a large MSI class because they grant PE or other required credit for taking ROTC and therefore have a lot of "tire-kickers" in the program. Not that giving a broad exposure to ROTC is a bad thing, but in these austere times, this is not as much a priority.

2) I could see a list of private BNs coming that could be trimmed if they do not serve a critical mission and have other similar programs in the region.

3) Yes, there is a move to create more urban BNs and this may be the vehicle they use to keep the O4/O5 and office staff count for the overall program constant, not to mention the overall commission targets.

Alot of Tennesse Universities on the list, wonder why? 50 States in the US and Tennessee has three of the 13 batallians that are closing. Just curious as a TN resident.

I would say look at #1 in my list of reasons. All are about 2 hours from the next closest ROTC school and are not by themselves large BNs.
 
Here is a list of the 13 AROTC Battalions that are scheduled to be closed. These closures were scheduled before the Gov. Shut Down.

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/03/army-will-close-13-rotc-programs

A few questions I had from a previous post:

What will happen to the Contracted, Scholarship, and SMP cadets at your school? if they are MSI or MSII they can void their scholarship and contract or they can transfer schools and their scholarship will be accepted there.

Are their any Battalions close by that these cadets can continue to participate in as a crosstown cadet? I am part of the UW-L ROTC and yes there are a host of other Army ROTC UW school programs available but not close by. The very annoying thing is, is that UW-L is the second largest UW school (14,000+ students strong) in the state but we are the only one to get shut down. Smaller schools with only 4,000-6,000 students will still have Army ROTC programs! If I wanted to continue in Army ROTC I would have to transfer...probably to UW-Madision or UW-Whitewater

Will these cadets be able to transfer to another school and take their scholarships with them. Yes..at least this is what your cadre told us

Will cadets be able to finish out this year with the program, are any of the programs being shut down right away. The article says the shut down's will be complete during the 2014/2015 year. Does this mean that the programs will continue for this year? MSI and MSII will be able to finish the 2013/2014 school year and then have to quit or transfer. Only current MSIII's and MSIV's will be able to continue after that.

Jcc123, thanks for the link to the article.

I answered in the bold!
 
Yes they have to transfer or they can voided the contract

Since it is rare for all credits to transfer, I would assume they would get extra time to graduate. Still it's a big pain and possible expense - with application fees, loss of other scholarship $ etc.

I hope it is a small number of impacted cadets.
 
I answered in the bold!

Thank you.

I am so sorry to hear about your battalion and all the others, I wish you the best of luck.

This makes me wonder, did any of these battalions receive 4 year scholarship cadets for this year. I would think Cadet Command would have had an idea these battalions were going to close.
 
Our son was offered a 4 yr to North Alabama, but chose elsewhere. So they were offering scholarships....
 
I can see one reason the Universities would be upset -- The Army pays a University it's full rate tuition and fees for scholarship cadets. This especially matters with Private schools.

I've always found this absurd, for two reasons:

1) If the Army would reimburse the cadet, the amount would be for tuition and fees the school is charging the cadet after grants and merit money, instead of paying the school directly its full rate. If that were the system, the reimbursement amount would be based upon that student's true tuition/fees as defined by that schools financial aid department. At private schools I believe that tuition+fees rate AFTER NEED BASED GRANTS AND MERIT scholarships is typically 30-40% less than the full tuition+ fees. I am not talking about loans, but true grants and merit money. It is not uncommon for a student with a household income family of four of $60,000 to pay only $10,000 - $15,000 tuition+fees, vs. the full rate of $40,000 that the Army would pay for that same Scholarship cadet.

2) When a Scholarship cadet is separated (voluntary, bad grades, arrest, etc.) from ROTC after the first day of MSII year, the cadet is required to reimburse the Army all tuition and fees paid out by the Army to the college/university for that cadet. Suppose that student with household income of $75,000 without ROTC would get a 50% need based grant, or merit scholarship, discount from the $40,000 tuition, leaving $20,000 tuition. But with ROTC, the full $40,000 is paid to the school. When that student separates from ROTC and incurs the repayment obligation spelled out in section 3 c (1) of the ROTC Scholarship Cadet Contract, that cadet doesn't owe the Army the $20,000 per year they would have paid without ROTC, but the full $40,000 per year. By getting separated, the student owes twice as much as they would have owed if they had simply paid the tuition without Army help.

Another way the Army might approach the tuition issue is to ask the college or University what is the amount of tuition collected across all students, compared to the full rate. If the answer is 70%, then the Army could propose to pay 70% vs. 100% for each of its scholarship students. That is not as student specific as the reimbursement method, but it's better than 100% for sure.

I don't know how much the Army would save by either of these alternate methods: reimbursement, or paying the average actual tuition at a school, but I'll bet it is enough to keep every closed campus open. If this is about cost cutting, why is the Army paying a lot more to a school in tuition for its average cadet than non-cadets are paying the same school?

Just a thought.
 
Last edited:
Probably the same reason the Army pays $1200.00 for a round trip airline ticket when the same ticket can be found through Expedia for less then half that cost.

Both are absurd in my opinion.
 
A number of cadets will have only 1 semester left when the cutoff hits in Tennessee. Really rough.......
 
A number of cadets will have only 1 semester left when the cutoff hits in Tennessee. Really rough.......

I agree, this is going to be really tough for the MS1 and MS2's currently at these Battalions. MS1's may be able to transfer without too much trouble, the MS2's will have a harder time.

It sounds like the MS4's will be able to commission this year. The MS3's will stay next year and then commission. That will be an odd year for next years MS4's, they will have the Battalion Command positions with no battalion to command, it will be inetersting to see how that works.
 
I agree, this is going to be really tough for the MS1 and MS2's currently at these Battalions. MS1's may be able to transfer without too much trouble, the MS2's will have a harder time.

It sounds like the MS4's will be able to commission this year. The MS3's will stay next year and then commission. That will be an odd year for next years MS4's, they will have the Battalion Command positions with no battalion to command, it will be inetersting to see how that works.

I thought about that too but in reality the presence of a battalion is really inconsequential. The leadership positions don't really reflect what a 2LT/1LT in the Army actually does.

The training meetings were somewhat useful though.
 
Wow! I feel sorry for the cadets affected by this. These kids are settling in if not already settled in. And the leadership question in 2014 is a good one. I wonder if perhaps these kids get an option to stay or go now?

Anyone heard anything about something similar coming down the pike for Navy or Air Force? Just curious.
 
Back
Top