UAF ROTC named best small school in the brigade

Submitted by Anita Hartmann
Phone: 474-2633
02/03/05

The University of Alaska Fairbanks ROTC program has recently been recognized as the Best Small School Program in their brigade by U.S Army Cadet Command Headquarters in Port Monroe, Va. The ROTC program was recognized as at the top of their category, and among the top 15 percent of programs nationwide.

Lt. Col. Cameron D. Carlson, professor and chair of the Department of Military Science in the College of Liberal Arts, says the recognition is based on a series of metrics from annual program evaluation. The evaluation includes several measures of students’ scholarship such as: grade point average, their performance in the ROTC program, their competitive rank on the ROTC National Order of Merit List and their success at the leadership development and assessment course.

The course, conducted at Fort Lewis, Wash., provides the best possible professional evaluation for all cadets since a primary focus at the camp is to evaluate each cadet’s officer potential. It represents the only opportunity for cadet command to gather all cadets on one level playing field for the purposes of making this assessment as accurately and as professionally as possible.

The ROTC National Order of Merit Score, OMS, is computed based on performance in three categories: 50 percent of the OMS is scholarship which includes general academic studies and military science, 35 percent of the OMS is from the military program, and 15 percent of the OMS measures physical and athletic performance.

"A year ago we were barely making mission,"? said Carlson, " Our program had greater capacity. We’ve made such a transition in a year’s time. I’m very proud of our cadets."?

UAF’s ROTC program is part of a brigade that includes 17 other school programs and eight partnership programs in a vast region encompassing Alaska, Guam, Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon and Washington.

Contact: Lt. Col. Cam Carlson, at (907) 474-6854 e-mail ffcdc@uaf.edu or visit UAF’s ROTC program website for more information.