Lt. Colonel Donald Hazelwood – Northeast Ohio ROTC Commander and Professor of Military Science, John Carroll University

Dear Colleagues:

In 1970, after the deaths at Kent State, CWRU banned ROTC from campus. Some students would still do Reserve Officer Training on their own at other institutions, such as John Carroll University, but entirely unofficially.

In 2006, the Faculty Senate rescinded the ban, and the university affiliated with the Army ROTC program at John Carroll and the Air Force program at Kent State. This allowed students with ROTC scholarships to use them for study at CWRU, but potential and actual students found commuting to John Carroll a substantial burden. Some cadets in 2011 therefore met with University President Barbara Snyder and Provost Bud Baeslack to ask if the university would allow ROTC back on campus. With their support, the Faculty Senate in March 2012 approved having ROTC classes on campus.

Since Fall of 2012, therefore, first and second-year ROTC classes have been offered on campus to the CWRU cadets. Junior and Senior ROTC classes still require travel to JCU. One result has been more ROTC cadets: eight in the 2013-14 sophomore class. What do ROTC students do? Which students are particularly interested? What is the content of their instruction? How does it fit into the missions of undergraduate education? How does it fit into the Army? Is the program likely to grow? How similar is ROTC now to what some university veterans may remember from the Vietnam era? Join us to learn about and discuss the return of ROTC to CWRU.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

Lt. Colonel Donald Hazelwood graduated with a B.S. from the United States Military Academy and received his MBA from SUNY Oswego, Lt. Colonel Hazelwood was appointed Chair of the Department of Military Science at John Carroll University in 2010. He came to John Carroll from Fort Bragg, N.C., where he was an operations officer specializing in chemical defense operations for the special operations community. (That is, his family was at Fort Bragg during that time because he spent a good portion that assignment overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.) In Afghanistan, he said he learned that “we live in a fluid, dynamic environment and our leaders have got to be flexible and adaptive. As your foe changes tactics, you have to change your tactics to adapt to his.”

Where We Meet

Mather House is located next to the Thwing student center two buildings to the right of Kelvin Smith Library on Euclid Avenue. Please enter the front door to Mather House and turn right. Mather House Room 100 is at the end of the hall.

Parking Possibilities

The most reliable parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level labeled as Thwing Center. Upon exiting there, visitors would walk around Thwing on their right, between Thwing and the new University Center. Follow that walkway, with the University Center on the left, and Mather House is the next building on your right. Continue past Mather House and then turn right to go down the walkway, between Mather House and the Church of the Covenant, to the Mather House entrance. It is sometimes possible to find closer parking in the lot for the Church of the Covenant, off Euclid. From that parking lot, walk west to get to Mather House.

November 14: Perspectives on Human Subjects Research Requirements. With Suzanne Rivera Ph.D., M.S.W., Associate Vice President for Research and Assistant Professor of Bioethics. ***Alternative Venue: LL06 B & C at Kelvin Smith Library***

November 21: Local Government in an Age of Austerity. With David B. Miller, Associate Professor in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and Council President, City of South Euclid.

November 28: Thanksgiving Break

December 5: Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans: Party Activists and the Mythical God Gulf. With Ryan Claassen, Associate Professor of Political Science, Kent State University.