NROTC Publications, 1974-88, 1983-91, 1993-98, 2007-10, 2012-13 | University of Illinois Archives

On March 20, 1945, President Arthur C. Willard applied to the U.S. Bureau of Naval Personnel for the establishment of a Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NROTC) program at the University of Illinois.¹ Under the terms of the agreement the University agreed to provide adequate facilities for classrooms, offices, equipment and drill; to promote the objectives for which NROTC was established; and to conform to the regulations of the Navy Department relating to the operation of the unit.² The NROTC program was established in November 1, 1945, in conjunction with the Navy V-12 College Training Program.³ The V-12 program had been established at the University in July 1943, to train men ordered to duty by the Bureau of Naval Personnel.⁴ The Department of Naval Science and Tactics was organized as a department of the University to administer the curriculum for the INT NROTC and V-12 program.⁵ The V-12 program was terminated in June 1946.⁶ The University department conducting instruction for the NROTC unit was renamed the Department of Naval Science in 1946.⁷

In 1977 the NROTC unit offered three programs; the Navy Scholarship Program, the Navy College Program (non-scholarship), and the Naval Science Program (non-scholarship, non-contractual).⁸ Students completing the NROTC Scholarship or College Program are commissioned in the Regular U.S. Navy or Marine Corps or in the Reserve units.⁹

1. "Applications for Establishment of NROTC Unit at the University of Illinois", NROTC Unit Organization & Regulations Manual, (University of Illinois, 1 May 1957), Chapter 1, Section 20. NROTC Issuances, RS 27/4/0/1.

2. Naval ROTC Unit, University of Illinois, (ca. 1957), p. 5. NROTC Issuances, RS 27/4/0/1.

3. Catalogs and Registers, 1945-46, p. 253.

4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 42nd Report, June 19, 1943, p. 401.

5. Catalogs and Registers, 1945-46, p. 253.

6. Illio, 1947, p. 342.

7. Catalogs and Registers, 1946-47, p. 269.

8. Undergraduate Study Catalog, 1977-79, p. 115.

9. Ibid., p. 116.