Thinking of joining the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to help pay for college? The cost of college tuition continues to drastically increase and has far exceeded the rate of inflation the past 30 years, making it nearly unaffordable for large swaths of the population.
Compare, for example, that gas in 2007 cost approximately $2.50 per gallon and today the national average, while higher in recent years, is back around $3. If gas had risen as much as college tuition during the same timeframe, the average cost of gas would be in excess of $6 per gallon and everyone would be justifiably outraged.
With the insane cost of college tuition in mind and limited family budgets, many parents look for options to help their college-aged children pay for college. One seemingly attractive option is for students to enroll in college and join the university's ROTC program. The U.S. Army currently offers more than 275 programs at various universities in every corner of the country, in addition to the option to go to West Point. ROTC offers college students an opportunity to enjoy "the college experience," while also training to become a future military officer and leader in the Armed Forces.
The way the ROTC program works is that each student signs a contract agreeing to live life in accordance with the standards promulgated by the military in exchange for the financial benefit of paid tuition and a promise from the college student to serve as an officer in the military upon graduation. This sounds appealing and rather innocuous.
Yet, as with any offer to provide money—including payment of full tuition to obtain an undergraduate education—as usual, the devil is often buried deep in the fine print.
The Fine Print
Army Regulation 145-1 and Army Pamp 145-4 outline the regulations governing the Army ROTC Program. The Air Force and Navy have similar regulations with basically the same provisions governing their respective ROTC programs. Although each differs slightly in how disciplinary matters are handled, it is an area in which students and parents should make themselves familiar.
What many find out later is that failure to disclose high school drug use or other offenses could come to haunt them years later, or worse, an allegation of "misconduct" could set in motion the disenrollment process, which may result in the eventual dismissal from the ROTC program with the bill for the full cost of the scholarship money. At some four-year degree-granting institutions, this could land one in debt more than $200,000 with no military commission and the stigma of having been released from a future military service obligation under a cloud of scandal.
Serious consequences
Simply put, just one night of poor judgment could derail the arrangement and set in motion a lifetime of indebtedness that is, in reality, completely unpayable. Current bankruptcy laws don't allow for student indebtedness to be discharged unless one can prove severe hardship, such as complete medical disability, making one unable to ever hold any gainful employment.
When someone is accused of "misconduct" while contracted with the U.S. Army, they are usually entitled to a "disenrollment board" to "investigate" the situation. Often these administrative "investigations" are pure kangaroo-court proceedings, where the rules are arbitrarily disregarded—analogous to having an attorney perform dental work—and the professor of military science, investigating officer and recorder conducting these hearings are usually line officers like field artillery or infantry and have minimal legal training. I have yet to review a disenrollment board conducted by Army officials that wasn't severely deficient in its compliance with the applicable regulations.
When facing disenrollment, an Army cadet is authorized to consult with an attorney, but the attorney generally is not permitted to take an active role in the hearing, other than to present a legal brief prior to the commencement of the proceedings, to help articulate the student's contentions. In the Navy and Marine Corps, the midshipman is authorized to have counsel present for what they call the "Performance Review Board" and the attorney for the midshipman is allowed to make both an opening argument and a closing presentation. The Air Force handles disenrollment investigations purely through a report prepared by an investigating officer, so the only real opportunity for an attorney to advocate for an Air Force cadet is through the one-on-one interview where the cadet is given an opportunity to try and explain away the alleged purported "misconduct" that resulted in the disenrollment investigation.
ROTC Disenrollment
ROTC disenrollment cases are very complicated for a number of reasons. Parents, upon learning their child is in trouble, often overreact emotionally, sometimes even calling the military cadre at the university and cursing them out. Such emotional response only harms the student, even though it is clearly wrong to attribute sins of the father to the son. Often I have encountered professors of military science who have lost rational judgment on a disenrollment case because of their personal animus and disgust with the student's parent(s), not the cadet.
ROTC cases are further complicated by the fact that witnesses to the alleged "misconduct" often try to "circle the wagons" and unfairly throw one person or another "under the bus" unethically to try and prevent their own culpability. Sometimes, for various reasons, witnesses embellish, lie or fabricate to try and paint a narrative that is simply not supported by the evidence, or a student engages in conduct he feels is relatively minor, such as admitting to prior high school drug use, without realizing the alleged "failure to disclose" may come back later to haunt his ability to commission.
Some people mistakenly assume minor transgressions will be forgiven by military officials because "back in their day" such misbehavior was often excused as "boys will be boys" or "college students will be college students." That is very different than the standard to which future military officers are held today by ROTC programs in the country.
All future military officers are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is beyond reproach and any lapse in judgment could set in motion the disenrollment process and result in dismissal from the ROTC program—and a bill for recoupment of all tuition and fees paid—which potentially could be more than $200,000. Yes, some students have been dismissed from ROTC with over $200,000 in ROTC indebtedness, which is generally not dischargeable in bankruptcy.
Additionally, while the military has a shortage of those to sign up to enlist, there is a surplus of young adults who want to commission as an officer. The military is generally more "forgiving" of minor misbehavior for those in the enlisted ranks, but for officers and those training to become future officers, the standard of conduct for proper behavior and decorum is set very high, arguably and in my opinion, as an advocate for these students facing severe repercussions, snobbishly aloofly high in opposition to common sense and awareness of youthful development progress as a young adult.
Accused of Misconduct?
If your son or daughter is in an ROTC program and has been accused of "misconduct," the best thing you can do is to immediately retain civilian military law counsel with experience in the uniformed services—one who understands the language of the regulations, one who can work with the chain of command to come to a reasonable disposition of the matter and one who can work aggressively and tenaciously to advance the interests, goals and objectives of your loved one.
Going to a disenrollment hearing without legal counsel is a recipe for an entirely avoidable disaster. So before your child commits to ROTC, make sure they are aware that any alleged "misbehavior" or conduct beneath the standards demanded could result in a bill for unpayable debt and a lifetime of potential misery.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
