Finding Aid for Military Education Council (MEC) Administrative File, 1984-2002 | University of Illinois Archives

Title: Military Education Council (MEC) Administrative File, 1984-2002

ID: 27/3/4

Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Department of Military Science

Extent: 1.6 cubic feet

Arrangement: Ordered chronologically.

Date Acquired: 03/03/2016

Subjects: Budget, Faculty Appointments, Military Training

Languages: English

Administrative File of Military Education Council (MEC) chairs Jerry S. Dobrovolny (1984), Robert D. Espeseth (1994-1995), and Frederick L. Neumann (1995-2001) contains correspondence, budgets, reports, course outlines and proposals, and meeting minutes concerning the establishment of a military minor, recruiting and training of students, courses, funding, events, and hiring faculty. The series also includes information on the annual meetings of the Association of NROTC Colleges and Universities and its Executive Committee (1995-2000).

Military training has been a part of the University of Illinois curriculum since 1868. In that year, the Illinois Industrial University was officially opened in compliance with a requirement of the Morrill Land Grant of 1862.¹ By laws of Congress and the state, the University was required to teach Military Tactics to its students. All able-bodied male students of the first and second years were enrolled in the companies of the University Battalion, and received instruction from one to three hours each week.² World War I severely affected the University ROTC program. By the end of the school year 1916-17 all the officers were ordered away. Only one officer, Major Edward W. McCaskey, U.S.A. retired, was assigned for 1917-18. The Student Training Corps, coming in the fall of 1918, was a further serious set back. This program converted the University into a military school for all practical purposes. It lasted for only four months and, in effect, replaced the ROTC. It left the ROTC in a position of much reduced effectiveness for this period.³ In 1961, the name was listed as Department of Military Science.⁴

1. A Brief History of the University of Illinois ROTC, 1918, p. 1.

2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 10th Report, 1881, p. 39.

3. A Brief History of the University of Illinois ROTC, 1918, p. 2.

4. University of Illinois Undergraduate Study Catalog, 1961, p. 93.

Budget
Faculty Appointments
Military Training

Repository: University of Illinois Archives

Acquisition Source: MSG Jeffrey Price, Senior Military Instructor

URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/2703004.pdf

PDF finding aid for Military Education Council (MEC) Administrative File (27/3/4)