ROTC returns to S. Oregon University campus
ASHLAND, Ore. - ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — After 16 years, the ROTC has returned to the Southern Oregon University campus.
The school on Thursday enrolled its first two students in the Reserve Officer Training Corps since 1993.
The program provides up to $10,000 annually for tuition, $5,000 for expenses and $1,200 for books.
"Our phone's been ringing off the hook," said Staff Sgt. Jesse Austin, an Oregon National Guardsman who is an assistant professor in military science and a veteran of the Iraq War.
"A lot of high school seniors or their parents are asking about ROTC for the four-year scholarships," Austin said.
Southern Oregon students previously had access to military commissions only through Officer Candidate School, or OCS, a program administered through the Oregon National Guard but which is not campus-based.
"It changed my plans dramatically," said Ryan Holley, a junior in criminal justice who is married with children.
"I was going to go in the active Army and OCS and try to finish my degree online, while juggling my Army work," said Holley. "This makes it so much easier."
Holley said he expects to qualify for more than $15,000 in assistance for tuition, expenses, books and computer supplies.
National Guard Lt. Col. Keith Ensley, chairman of the university's Military Science Department, said students could take military science courses on campus under the OCS program but had to go to OCS "boot camp" elsewhere and were eligible for far fewer benefits.
Jessie Hecocta, a senior from Klamath Falls majoring in health and physical education, says she hopes to join both the ROTC and the Guard soon and get help repaying existing college loans.
"But it's not about the money," she said. "I've always been interested in the military and planned on enlisting. It's about the experience and my passion for it."
The first two students in SOU's new ROTC program, Cadet Thomas Blaser of Milwaukie and Sgt. Justin Neville of Cave Junction, said the scholarship means they will graduate debt-free.
"I'm excited to go in ROTC and be an officer," said Neville, an Iraq War veteran and criminal justice major, who's getting the full amount. "I'll come out of college with extra money."
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