The ROTC program will face downsizing next year because of budget cuts.

It is not Furman’s budget that is forcing the cuts however; it is the “big army” according to Military Science Instructor and Advisor to Sophomore Cadets, Bill Price.

“[The cuts are] not just happening to Furman,” said Price. “Furman isn’t being singled out. It’s a systematic reduction to meet goals of defense budget.”

Some of these cuts predated sequestration and were simply planned government cuts because of the army downsizing. As the United States withdraws from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress has pulled money out of national security and the army has downsized.

“America gets into war, [and the] national security budget swells,” said sophomore cadet William Ballard.

“When it shrinks, we need less people active.”

The ROTC program will be losing two staff members and will redistribute their responsibilities to the rest of the Military Science department.

A third position will be eliminated but will be replaced by another government official. But the government is in a hiring freeze so the department does not know when they are going to be able to make the hire.

The employees being cut are Training Non-Commissioned Officer Sergeant Luis Fragoso; Recruiting Operation Officer Henry Anderson; and Senior Military Science Professor William Price.

“Mr. Price has been one of my favorite professors overall at Furman so it’ll be sad to see him go,” said Inman. “Plus all those guys are great. They come to all the training and workouts every morning.”

Many other members of the program share her sadness over losing beloved instructors. Price agrees that things will definitely be different but knows the program will be okay.

“The cuts have to happen; they will impact the program but we can only hope the impact will be benign,” said Price. “The people who remain will have to pick up excess duties, but the program will survive.”

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gilleran echoed Price’s statement.

“The program will continue to be strong,” said Gilleran. “We will continue to produce quality and capable officers no matter how many [department members] we have.”

The ROTC program has been around since 1950 and has enrolled an average of 50 to 60 cadets per year since 2000. Traditional retention rate is just below 90% according to Price.

“Furman has a good track record, but we are expensive,” said Ballard. “A lot of people join for the scholarship, but with budget cuts, it’s been very hard to get scholarships.”

While 14 of the 15 graduating seniors have full tuition scholarships, only two freshmen in Ballard’s sophomore class were offered full ROTC scholarships.

“People just say, along with academics this is too hard if I’m not getting paid for it,” said Ballard. “For a lot of people it’s simply a way to get through college.”

Many members of ROTC also are worried that it is going to be a lot more competitive to get into active service when they graduate.

What branch of the army students go into is determined by their preference, GPA, and military performance on campus and at the Leadership Development Assessment Course, which an ROTC member takes his or her junior year.

Today only about half of the Furman ROTC members who graduate the program get into active service.