A new beginning for Metro State students participating in the Senior Reserve Officers Training Corps Program (SROTC) was established last week when the College signed a Memorandum of Agreement to provide an agreed basis for cross-enrollment of students from Metro State in the University of Colorado SROTC program.
The new agreement is part of an effort to rebuild the College’s program, and eventually become an independent program separate from the Golden Buffalo Battalion School hosted at CU Boulder, according to Maj. Joshua Dalton.
“(The agreement) postures our program here to become a host program in 2013, and puts (us) on the same level as other academic programs on campus,” says Dalton, senior assistant professor of military science. “Prior to this, we were an affiliation only. Now we have an official seat as a department within the School of Professional Studies.
The ROTC program was first offered to students in Denver in 1980, when the University of Colorado at Boulder established an extension center at Metro State. In 1997, due to funding cuts and a reduction in the size of the military, the extension center was closed and replaced with a cross-enrollment agreement. Consequently, until 2007 when the program began offering classes again on the Auraria Campus, students who wanted to participate in the ROTC program drove to CU Boulder to take classes. Now, classes are offered in three locations: Auraria Campus, School of Mines and CU Boulder.
Maj. Dalton says students will now also have access to more space for offices and training equipment storage. Currently, 44 of the 66 cadets are Metro State students.
“We are on the list for 2013 on the master plan to get space to support our program fully. We anticipate this could happen at the same time we break off from Boulder and get our own host status and lieutenant colonel and professor of military science,” he says.
Army ROTC is an elective program that can lead to a commission as an officer in the army. Students can participate in the program for the first- and second-year courses with no obligation. The program is now the 11th largest ROTC program out of 272 programs in the nation.
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