This article simply rehashes the points from the "Underserved" article without actually providing any recommendations that would correct the deficiencies addressed in the article.
As someone who was born in New York City, graduated from a New York City university on ROTC Scholarship, and now works for an ROTC Battalion that is headquartered in New York City, I find this article is ridiculous on many levels:
1) The article indicates that there are not enough ROTC Battalions in New York City. OK, I'll play along. Lets add one. Where do we add it ?
A - Columbia ? They just ended a 40+ year ban on ROTC. Students there already participate in ROTC at Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus, less than 3 miles away. Guess how many incoming Columbia University freshmen will be contracting next year. Zero. Not one incoming Columbia student has been offered an Army ROTC Scholarship. There are only 4 returning Cadets that attend Columbia. 4 is not enough to build a Battalion around. To make matters more bleak, 3 of those 4 graduate this year.
B - A CUNY School ? Why ? Just because Colin Powell attended City College in the 50s ? A lot has changed in the 54 years since he graduated. Here are some stats from the CUNY webpage: "Forty-seven percent of undergraduates have a native language other than English, 41 percent work more than 20 hours a week, 63 percent attend school full time, and 15 percent support children. Nearly 60 percent are female and 29 percent are 25 or older. Of first-time freshmen, 37 percent are born outside the U.S. mainland". Some other stats: Less than 25% of incoming freshmen scored higher than 1200 on the SAT. Less than 40% of students graduate within 6 years. There is an incredibly small percentage of students in the CUNY system that could possibly qualify for ROTC. Of those that could qualify, very few are interested. There are only 12 returning CUNY Cadets. 6 of those graduate this year. Only 1 incoming CUNY student has been offered and accepted an Army ROTC Scholarship to CUNY. The caliber of student that qualifies for an Army ROTC Scholarship simply does not want to attend a school of the caliber of the CUNY system.
2) One of the Cadets that this article focuses on has a 1 hour and 40 minute commute to ROTC. This is true. This student does not live on campus. Adding another ROTC battalion would not solve his problem. He has to attend MS class at his battalion unless he transfers schools. Most NYC College students commute. Almost all CUNY students commute. Increasing the number of CUNY Cadets would invariably create additional scenarios like the one listed above. Adding a Battalion at Columbia would allow a small handful of highly qualified Cadets to reduce their commute to PT by 3 miles, because most Columbia Cadets live on or just outside the campus.
3) At what cost ? An O-5 in NYC makes $120,000 per year. An O-3 and E-9 make $85,000 per year. An E-7 makes $65,000 per year. Add a couple of GS employees for Admin and Logistics, and a couple of contractors for Operations. You are now talking about a $500,000+ budget per year on salary alone. The result would be a very expensive battalion, with no organic training areas, that commissions a very small number of 2LTs per year. This is not cost effective.
4) ROTC needs to get more "urban". Does adding ROTC Battalions to Northeastern cities address this ? What percentage of The Cadets at the newly created battalions would actually be residents of those cities ? Is a student born in Brooklyn suddenly not "urban" because he attends a SUNY program in upstate NY ? Does a student from a small town in upstate NY suddenly become "urban" because he receives an ROTC scholarship to a newly created battalion at CUNY ? If that is the case why not give that student a Scholarship to a better school, that already hosts an "urban" program.
A more obvious solution to the issues addressed in the article and is to increase the number of ROTC scholarships given to students that attended "urban" high schools. Stop trying to grow wheat in the desert. Stop concentrating on schools like CUNY where only few of the students are even marginally qualified to be Cadets. Stop concentrating on schools like Columbia where only few of the students are even marginally interested in becoming Cadets. Instead focus on increasing the recruiting efforts at superior "urban" high schools like Regis or Bronx Science.