Section VII

Volunteer Organization: The Ripon ROTC Unit, 1970-1991

Although trustee pessimism seemed well-founded, the ending of the mandatory Basic Course actually had relatively little impact on the problem of fulfilling annual commissioning quotas. Later years would show that in a stable environment the ROTC program could, with a little luck, recruit enough volunteers to meet its quotas. But, the student opposition to the requirement and the faculty action in terminating it was seen as a virtual repudiation of ROTC by major sectors of the college community and the immediate impact of this demonstrated loss of support on the program was devastating. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the battalion still enjoyed preeminent status and the nearly unanimous support of students and faculty, continuation in the program offered cadets the opportunity for increased prestige on campus. In the atmosphere of the early 1970s cadets choosing to enter the Advanced Course faced a degree of social isolation and condemnation. The fact that cadets in ROTC units all over the country were facing similar problems provided some consolation but no solutions to the problem.

The battalion's worst fears regarding the future seemed vindicated by its experience during its first year as a voluntary organization in academic year 1970-71. Despite major efforts to woo incoming new students, only 58 of 181 freshman males chose to enroll in ROTC. At the same time, the attrition of the previous year's freshmen going on to the second-year program was unusually high. Meanwhile, student demonstrations against the Unit continued even after the termination of the mandatory requirement. In February, a plan by a large number of antiwar students to embarrass the battalion during the Ripon Invitational Drill Meet by disrupting the presentation of awards was thwarted only by surreptitiously moving the presentation to another building at the last moment.

At both the national level and at Ripon, the Army sought to overcome this hostility and win new recruits to ROTC by means of a major advertising campaign. The campaign stressed the benefits to the individual of scholarships and training in leadership. The Ripon Unit also carried out advertising along the same lines in the College Days. While the national advertising campaign lasted a number of years, it became clear fairly soon that the campaign in Ripon was having little results and it was dropped.

Instead, Colonel Max Vancil sought to deal directly with the perception that ROTC was not a legitimate part of the liberal arts. President Adams invited several faculty members to join with officers in forming a military science committee to study the problems of the ROTC and to suggest solutions. The committee discussed these issues and made a number of suggestions, including integrating the military science curriculum more closely with that of the College and admitting women to the Unit. Over the next several years, the Unit began acting on these proposals with positive results. Women were admitted to the Unit in the fall of 1973 and one of them, Denise Nicholls '77, became the first woman to receive a commission from the Ripon College ROTC Unit.

Despite the controversy swirling around the Unit in these years it continued to perform well in comparison with other units in the country. In 1968, in a competition involving 20,000 cadets all over the country, the Army selected William B. Cramer '68 of Ripon to represent all Army ROTC cadets at the celebration of India's National Republic Day. At the same time the women's drill team, the Cadettes, placed second among women's teams in the state and the men's team placed fourth. The Ripon cadets also continued to shine in advanced camp where they placed fourth among 52 competing units in the summer of 1969. In that competition, Cadet David L. Fonda '70 won the American Association of the U. S. Army Award as outstanding cadet.

Moreover, after the dismal 1970-71 year, the Unit slowly began to recover. In academic year 1971-72 only 24 percent of the freshmen males enrolled. Although this was even lower than the percentage enrolled in the previous year, it still placed Ripon 10th of the 286 schools in the nation hosting ROTC units. Active American involvement in Vietnam ended in 1972 and as it did tensions on campuses eased and ROTC enrollments began to increase. By 1975, Ripon again had 55 freshmen enroll and a total participation of 92 overall. At the same time, hostility toward the Unit on campus subsided. The College Days once again began publishing articles that were positive in attitude toward the battalion and its activities.

Nevertheless, despite this rebuilding, Ripon and many units in the country were still unable to meet their assigned quotas of commissioned graduates, and in 1974 Ripon was placed on an ominous "Evaluation Status." The Army responded to the national crisis by seeking economies in the program that would allow for a reduction in the quotas sufficient to allow units such as Ripon's to survive. In the case of Ripon, it was decided in 1976 to achieve this economy by consolidating much of the instruction and administration of the ROTC programs at Ripon, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and St.Norbert College into a single organization called the Fox Valley Senior ROTC Instructor Group. The consolidation reduced the number of officers and enlisted personnel assigned to the three units and allowed other economies as well. A single instructor was assigned to each school while other instructors commuted between them. The three schools were then assigned a common quota of 40 newly commissioned officers. At the same time, Ripon was taken off "Evaluation Status."

This arrangement was received with enthusiasm, with President Adams heralding it as "the most promising development since the ROTC 'crisis' set in." Nevertheless, it did not work well. An ROTC unit usually depended heavily on its regular officer and enlisted cadre for its coherence. With the formation of the instructor group, Ripon cadets lost the almost daily contact they had had with the cadre.

Furthermore, there was an unusual amount of turnover among officers in the instructor group, reducing coherence in the Unit further. The size of the battalion had risen to 103 in academic year 1976-77, but then it began to fall drastically to 84 in 1978-79 and 60 in 1979-80. By 1980-81, greater officer stability in the instructor group helped to slow but did not stop the decrease. Finally, in 1982 the instructor group arrangement was discontinued and the Ripon battalion again became independent.

On the other hand, the battalion benefitted during the years it was part of the Fox Valley Instructor Group from several major curricular changes in the program. In 1977, several courses taught by civilian instructors at Ripon, including military history and physical education, were included as part of the ROTC curriculum. In 1981 the ROTC program was expanded to include electives taken from English, psychology, politics and government, business management, and sociology. These changes were made in response to earlier recommendations of the military science committee and to directives coming from the Department of the Army. Although the new curriculum increased the academic burden on the cadets, it gave the program far more academic rigor and a much more distinctive liberal arts character. After it was adopted, criticisms from faculty members and others that ROTC was contrary to the liberal arts all but vanished and the prestige of the program on campus increased.

As well as adding civilian-taught courses to its curriculum, the Unit reorganized its own courses to add to their appeal. In 1981, new courses focused on orienteering, first aid, and cold weather operations. For several years, the first-year course, "MS 111," was also allowed to be counted towards the physical education distribution requirement in order to improve its attractiveness. In addition, the Unit sponsored a judo club as well as ad hoc extracurricular physical activities such as canoeing, white water rafting trips, classes in cross-country skiing (using war surplus skis), and classes in rapelling in order to enhance the visibility of the Unit and its attractiveness to students who enjoyed such outdoor activities.

Finally, to help with the quota, Ripon entered into a cross-enrollment agreement with Marian College of Fond du Lac making the small ROTC program at the latter school a part of the Ripon program. The Ripon Unit provided administrative support for the Marian Unit and Ripon instructors commuted to Marian several times a week to teach courses. In return, Ripon was allowed to count the number of officers commissioned at Marian towards its own quota.

With the return of the Ripon Unit to independence in 1982, the quota issue became the focus of concern for the rest of the decade. Although the Ripon quota had been reduced to 15, the Unit was almost never able to produce the numbers called for. Its peak came in academic year 1983-84 when 15 officers were actually commissioned. In other years, however, the number was closer to 10. While this production was unsatisfactory from the point of view of the Department of the Army, Ripon was able to avoid termination on a year-to-year basis by pointing to its heritage, the quality of the officers it produced, and its plans to increase production in the future.

To increase that production the Unit attempted to enhance the popularity and visibility of the Unit in ways reminiscent of the 1920s while also appealing to the sense of professionalism of the cadets in a way reminiscent of the 1930s. Using the programs already developed at the beginning of the 1980s, the Unit tried to enhance its campus visibility by establishing itself as the principle organizer of physical outdoor programs at the College. At the same time, the Unit tried to build cohesion among the cadets by publishing an internal newsletter called The Shield, and remodeling unit spaces to include a TV and coffee lounge for use by cadets as a military oasis from the civilian world of the campus.

The College reinforced these efforts by offering special scholarship support to attract holders of four-year ROTC scholarships who might elect to come to Ripon. At the same time cadre officers were aggressive in seeking three- and two-year scholarship aid for underclass cadets as a means to retaining them in the Unit. By the middle of the 1980s the dependence on scholarships was heavy and there were very few cadets in junior and senior years on the Ripon campus who were not holders of scholarships.

By 1985 these efforts began to be rewarded with success as ROTC began to stage a comeback. The overall enrollment for the year was 99, a record for the 1980s. In addition, Ripon cadets continued to distinguish themselves at summer camp. In 1988, six of the 15 who participated were ranked among the top 10 percent of their peer group. Finally, in 1987 the cadets reestablished a Pershing Rifles company on campus. Its first president, Christopher J. Hahn '87, sought to emphasize a non-military orientation in the organization's activities sensing that this was the clearest route to success at Ripon.

Reminiscent of the spirit of the 1920s, the Pershing Rifles organized the campus blood drives, sponsored study breaks, and organized campus activities to raise money for local charities. And, equally reminiscent of the successes of the 1920s, in 1989, under the leadership of Robert Ruffolo '89, the Ripon Company was ranked the best of the 125 Pershing Rifle organizations in the country.

Despite these improvements, the end of the Cold War and the resulting drive for economies in the Defense Department led to the decision in Washington to terminate a number of smaller, more expensive units including the one at Ripon. As the result of a last-minute flurry of negotiations the Ripon program was allowed to continue as part of a new combined Fox Valley Instructional Group with its headquarters at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. With that agreement in place in the spring of 1991, the Redmen Battalion held its last commissioning. That ceremony, held in Demmer Recital Hall on May 18, 1991, concluded with the official reading of the orders of the deactivating of the Redmen Battalion and the ceremonial casing of its colors.

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