With only 16 Tufts students involved in the Army, Navy and Air Force branches of the ROTC program, when in uniform, Tufts' ROTC students tend to stand out.
“It’s definitely been interesting ... certain remarks you hear from students while [you're] in uniform," Ryan Friedman, a sophomore in Air Force ROTC, said. "A lot of people think it’s a costume or an outfit.”
The ROTC at Tufts is one of thousands of college-based programs that train students to serve as officers in the United States Armed Forces, according to Friedman. Students involved in the ROTC attend college while also receiving basic military training and officer training.
Those training to serve come from a variety of backgrounds and have different reasons for joining the program, including gaining leadership experience. ROTC students, however, face challenges that come with wearing a uniform on a campus that can be critical of the military and government that the students serve, according to the four ROTC members interviewed for this article.
The history of the ROTC program at Tufts dates back to September 1941, a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Tufts partnered with the U.S. Navy in the creation of the program, according to a 2011 article posted on the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life website.
During the height of anti-war protests in 1969, Tufts faculty voted to ban the program from campus. It was not until 2011 that faculty voted again to recognize the ROTC program on student transcripts. Training today takes place on the MIT campus, where Tufts ROTC students join students from MIT, Harvard University, Wellesley College and other neighboring schools.
When asked about their day-to-day life in ROTC, the responses from these four students focused on the rigorous training in which they take part. They start their days early, waking up around 5:30 a.m. to go to MIT for physical training two to three times per week. From there, they take military science classes specific to their branch and attend Leadership Labs, which also take place at MIT. Their schedules differ depending on the leadership roles that they each take.
Friedman decided to commit to ROTC in order to give back to his family — his grandparents in particular. As immigrants and Holocaust survivors, they motivated Friedman to join the ROTC and the armed forces at large.
"They played a big part in raising me and they always told me that I didn't know how lucky I was to grow up here," Friedman said. "They always encouraged me to think of ways I could give back, not necessarily through military service, but that's how I interpreted that."
For Keith Henzer, a junior and midshipman in Navy ROTC, 9/11 and its aftermath had strong personal significance. A visit to the US Naval Academy during high school moved him to take action.
"I think especially after 9/11, watching on TV all the soldiers and marines dying definitely hit home," he said. "I asked myself, 'Why did they have to do this? What am I doing? How do I deserve not to do that?'"
For other students in the program, it served as an opportunity to enhance their college experience. Toluwanimi Akinyemi, a junior and a cadet in the Army ROTC, joined for the opportunity to improve her leadership capabilities and to try something different at college.
"I felt like it would be an awesome opportunity to gain leadership and because I'm pre-med, I thought it would be a different experience through the military," Akinyemi said.
Renée LaMarche, a junior in Army ROTC, said she joined when she transferred to Tufts in her sophomore year.
"As a young, new student at a school, I was so taken by the fact that these women were so professional," LaMarche said.
Additionally, LaMarche explained how the ROTC lifestyle demands a work ethic that she has applied to her life as a student.
“Staying on top of things is huge, and that’s the thing: most cadets are better at [that] than a lot of other students, because we might not have the luxury of putting things off," she said. "You could ask for an extension or leave an email for a day, but in the military, if you’re not early to something, you’re late. So I feel like that translates into civilian life and our classes too. In a lot of ways, it’s helped me be a better student."
Henzer and Friedman said they believed that the hardest aspects of their experiences in ROTC were also the most rewarding. For Friedman, that aspect is committing to a particular standard for himself.
“By signing yourself up for this program and by associating yourself with the military, you’re really setting to keep yourself to a certain standard," Friedman said. "And that might be seen as something that is tiring at times, but it also keeps me going. It’s motivating to know that you wake up every day ... working toward a certain set of core values.”
For Henzer, the most difficult aspect is growing leadership and the additional duties it entails.
"What ROTC is, at its core, is a leadership program," Henzer said. "Every semester, you get more and more responsibility within the battalion and sometimes the hard stuff is the time you have to put in as a result of being in a higher leadership role.”
However, Akinyemi said that her involvement in the ROTC is not always understood by other Tufts students. She explained that students have questioned what her participation in the ROTC program means given her identity as an African-American student.
"Because I'm a person of color, my friends see things going on in parts of the country and ask me, 'Why do you feel the need to serve this country that doesn't even appreciate you as a person?' It's been very tough trying to find that middle ground. I've asked myself before, 'What am I doing here, why am I doing this?'" Akinyemi said. "But I've got to go with my gut and I know this is what I want to be doing."
She said that a disconnect can form between Tufts ROTC students and students of color who don't believe that the country that the ROTC serves values them.
“It’s very hard, especially at a liberal school like Tufts where people don’t feel wanted or supported in the country that they’re living in, and then they see their peers serving that country,” she said.
LaMarche noted that while women are well-represented in her unit at MIT, women in the U.S. military face challenges darmue to their underrepresentation.
“My unit is very unique because it’s almost 50-50 men and women, which is very special,” she said. “But also it’s way more difficult in the [actual] Army in that the percentage of women is much lower.”
LaMarche added that she hopes her role in the ROTC can be an opportunity to provide Tufts students with a more nuanced perspective on the U.S. military. She also hopes to show them that some of those who serve recognize the need for change within the military.
“One of the things that makes Tufts students so amazing is that we’re very vocal of our opinions and the injustices that we see,” she said, “Some of us [in the ROTC] joined because we want to change the military. Having the opportunity and the platform to make change is a very unique thing and I’m glad I’m coming from a place like Tufts, because as frustrated as I get at the critics, it also forces me to have a critical eye about why I’m doing this.”
All four students emphasized that, despite the differences between them and the rest of campus, they're a lot like other students.
“We eat in the same dining halls, we go to the same classes, we live in the same dorms.” Friedman said, “We’re still Tufts students. That doesn’t change.”
In uniform on campus: Tufts students in ROTC
