Page A2 6-The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 5, 1985
.Students foktROC
By KATIE WILCOX
The University's Reserve Officers Training Corps is
recruiting higher quality students than in past years, and
iore people are applying than ever before, according to
ROTC officers.
"We've probably never had it so good," said John man-
tei, an Air Force ROTC detachment commander. "It's
been a great last two years in terms of quality and number
of students."
THIS YEAR'S Air Force ROTC students have better
Scholastic Aptitude Test scores - about 100 points higher
- than the University's average, Mantei said.
He added that the increasing prestige of the University
is partially responsible for the high quality of ROTC
recruits.
Last year, Mantei's recruiting group won the Superior
Performance Award. "We've been crediting the Univer-
sity of Michigan for this award for the quality of students
that it brings here," he said.
Applying for ROTC scholarships is a competitive
process, based on SAT and Achievement Test (ACT)
scores, grade point averages, and extra-curricular ac-
tivities, especially athletics, said John Costello, a Navy
ROTC lieutenant.
ROTC SCHOLARSHIPS are awarded for two, three, and
four years, and pay full tuition, supplies, textbooks, and
$100 a month.
Scholarship recipients are required to serve active duty
after graduation for the same number of years that they
participated in ROTC. They also attend summer
programs and take the required ROTC classes.
Although getting scholarships is becoming more com-
petitive, this does not mean that more people are ap-
plying, but that more qualified people are applying,
Costello said.
FEWER STUDENTS than last year are enrolled in the
Navy ROTC program though. "NROTC enrollment
probably peaked last year or the year before. Now it's
leveling off at the University of Michigan," Costello said.
Enrollment fluctuations are probably related more to
economic factors than conservative political trends,
Costello said.
In troubled economic times, paid college tuition and a
guaranteed job are enticing.
"Job security is probably the best thing about the
ROTC," said Tim Green, an NROTC ensign, (a com-
missioned officer).
BUT FINANCIAL reasons are not the only incentives to
enroll in ROTC. "The best thing about the job is that it's a
job where you're actually doing something for your coun-
try," said Rodney White, another NROTC ensign.
Many students enroll in ROTC because businesses ap-
preciate the specialized skilled learned in ROTC courses,
one recruitment pamphlet says. The corps fosters this
assumption by focusing ad campaigns on businessmen
citing the merits of an ROTC education.
But recent studies conducted by Chase Manhattan
Bank, AT&T, and Standard and Poor's show that
businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the
benefits of employing graduates with a broader
knowledge in the liberal arts.
ALTHOUGH ROTC may be recruiting a more highly
qualified group, most of the students attracted are
studying engineering, computer science, physics, and
math. These students like the ROTC training in highly
technical skills.
And for engineering students, the attraction is
multiplied, because most credits from ROTC courses can
be used for College of Engineering required classes.
This is not true for LSA.
In one case, ROTC textbooks for a class were identical
to those used in an LSA class, but no credit was granted to
the ROTC students in the LSA class, Mantei said.
The regents are now considering granting credit to
students who take ROTC courses. "It (the credit controver-
sy) is one of the most significant issues we're involved
in," Mantei said.
0
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Daily Photo
ROTC students stand at attention in their army greens.
Affordable housing need studied by city
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(Continued-from Page 3)
"WE'VE BEEN having a heck of a
time getting people to agree on num-
bers," he said.
A minority opinion included in the
Affordable Housing Task Force's
April report concurred: "The student
factor has irredeemably skewed the
data, the assumptions, and the out-
comes projected. Students, who are
almost by definition low-income,
would present an insatiable drain on
rent subsidies."
But Councilmember Lowell Peter-
son (D-First Ward), chairman of the
task force, said "the bias that might
have been brought in by the students
was minimal." Besides, he said, even
without the students there is an over-
whelming need for more affordable
housing.
THE TASK force came up with
numerous recommendations how to
encourage developers to build low-
cost housing, but most of the attention
was focused on more controversial
ways to lower housing costs, such as
"inclusionary zoning." Under that
plan, developers would in effect be
forced to contribute to low- or
moderate-income housing when
building a new project. In return, the
developers would get certain
building restrictions lifted.
The idea, which the task force in-
cluded in its report, immediately drew
fire from Republicans and
developers who saw it as an unfair
attack on the free market. The
minority report, backed by many
Republicans, said the inclusionary
zoning proposal "smacks of extor-
tion."
Peterson defended the idea as one
that has worked in Republican areas
such as Orange County, Calif., but he
also said controversy over the in-
clusionary zoning proposal has ob-
scured the other things the task force
advocated. "The overall thrust of the
report is simply to encourage the
private sector," he said.
PETERSON said doing things, like
easing building codes without
sacrificing safety could have a
significant impact on the housing
market. He added that the city can
more aggressively pursue the federal
funds for housing that still exist, and
Republicans don't seem to object to
simply making it easier for
developers to build or rehabilitate
housing for low- and moderate-
income people.
Former GOP Mayor Louis Belcher,
who is developing office space down-
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town with two partners, approved of
the low-key approach. "The only way
they're going to get it is to encourage
it," he said. "I've often thought that
you can get more with sugar than by
beating someoe over the head with a
baseball bat."
Peterson and/a large majority of the
task force wrote that the city should
set up or contribute to numerous fun-
ds, trusts, and pon-profit corporations
to pick up where the market leaves
off.
PETERSO pointed out that
homeowners ready receive tremen-
dous subsidies in the form of tax
breaks, so "the government is
subsidizing housing no matter what.
It's just a question of what income
level."
But Deem said that because state
and federal money for housing
projects is nearly exhausted, the city
would be forced to pay the bill. And
that, he said, would be "a completely
new direction."
Deem said any major expenditures
on public housing should be approved
in a referendum. "Before anything
like this is undertaken, you're going to
have to take it to the public," he said.
"You better be doggone sure that
people who are going to be picking up
the tab want to do it."
"I DON'T think you can just shove
these things down people's throats,"
he said.
Another problem the task force
identified was a pressing need for
single-room dwellings. Since the
Downtown Club on Fourth Avenue
closed a few years ago, the only
remaining single-room occupancies.*
are in the Embassy Hotel on East
Huron.
Peterson and his wardmate Larry
Hunter (D-First Ward) tried to keep
Belcher from turning the Downtown
Club into office space after he and his
partners bought the vacant building in
1984, but the effort came up short
when Belcher "just called Peterson's
bluff," Belcher said.
Peterson had said that the building
could be rehabilitated for around
$250,000, but Belcher said it would cost
ten times that amount. "He got front
page publicity on this for three mon-
ths, and it was totally unfeasible,"
Belcher said.
Peterson said the project could
have been done before the winter of
1984, but "the winter killed it."
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