266 ROTC CATALOG COMEBACK ROTC program approved for inclusion in fall 2020 catalog. In February 2020, the Harding administration approved the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program to have its classes and minor, Military Strategic Studies, added to the fall 2020 course schedule. The last time the University incorporated ROTC in its curriculum was in 1993. That fall, Harding introduced two ROTC business management courses, which could be taken at either the University of Arkansas in Little Rock or the University of Central Arkansas. Shawn Fisher, ROTC Liason, said adding on-site classes in the Harding catalog on campus was a long process. The last time ROTC appeared in the school catalog was in the 2001-02 school year. Students commuted to Conway until classes were offered at Arkansas State University in Beebe (ASUB). Fisher said Harding had arrangements to have ROTC courses on campus in 2014, when there was enough interest to bring instructors on campus. “We are still in partnership with [ASUB], in that our instructors at Harding are also the instructors at ASU,” Fisher said. Senior Ethan Bond, a cadet in Harding’s ROTC program, said it was difficult to register for classes through a different school and continually transfer credits. “There are always payment issues because it was always difficult for the Army to pay two separate schools,” Bond said. “So now that everything is through Harding, it’s a lot more streamlined.” Senior Jessica Bond, another cadet in Harding’s ROTC program, said the program was difficult to find, especially because classes were not in the catalog. “Oftentimes we’d end up scheduling classes at Harding during our ROTC class, so we’d have to have a separate class time,” Bond said. Jessica Bond said for the fall 2020 semester, students could add ROTC classes to their schedules like any other class, so there was no longer any confusion. For the first time, any student who took an ROTC class took it through Harding exclusively, and students could earn the new minor. Fisher said the minor provided a place for the skills learned in the ROTC classes to apply if a student decided they did not want to join the military in the middle of the program. Captain Chance Hall, one of two ROTC professors at Harding, said they wanted to be officially on the catalog for some time, and they are in the catalog now because the program proved its reciprocation of Harding values. He said ROTC at Harding cultivated faith based leaders who would go all over the world. “We uphold the same values,” Hall said. “We are a community of mission.” story by Gael Langdon ROTC cadets walk together in the field on Nov. 8, 2020. ROTC catalog courses allowed cadets to get University credit toward a minor. | photo by Stanley Morales
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