ROTC Instructor Welcomes 'Cliffie As First Girl to Enroll in Course

"This is Military Sciences 1b," the Colonel began. ROTC members had filed in with amazing regularity for a 9 0 clock class. "Promptness is the courtesy of kings," the colonel said. "I guess I'll have to get up ten minuets earlier," the Cliffie thought. The walk from the Radcliffe dorms to Shannon Hall is a long one.

"You are the first young lady to come to this class in all the years I've been teaching it," the colonel went on. "Are you thinking of auditing this course?" "I'd like to take it, sir," she answered. The colonel laughed. "You're welcome." Before the experiment, skeptics had warned she'd be thrown out on her curls.

"Open to non-ROTC students with permission of the instructor," the course catalogue said. There was no gender qualification. The instructor seemed willing to give his permission.

Would girls in ROTC courses cause a breach in military atmosphere? The colonel didn't think so. "I always tell my boys to forget the fact that I'm wearing a military uniform. This is first and foremost an intellectual exercise, not just a military program.

"But if you do decide to take the course, there might be one problem. Most people drill on Monday afternoons as part of the course. You'd have to write a stiffer paper to make up for those sessions." He didn't comment on the possibility of girls drilling with the other students.