protest rotc

The Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), a two-year military training program establishes a branch at CCNY following World War I. CCNY students campaign successfully to eliminate it as a requirement, but it remains on campus in the Department of Military Science until 1972.

Frontiers, a newsletter published by the Social Problems Club at CCNY, in its initial February 1931 issue, questions the legitimacy of ROTC on campus. President Frederick Robinson confiscates the newsletter, suspends eleven leaders from the club and bans the club from campus. Mounting student protest forces the NYC Board of Higher Education to rescind these measures, and Frontiers resumes publication.

Students march in a “Jingo Day” anti-war demonstration on May 29, 1933 to protest a Memorial Day ROTC review in Lewisohn Stadium.

On “Jingo Day,” President Robinson calls the police to disperse demonstrators. Students accuse President Robinson of attacking them with his umbrella; the administration accuses the students of “preventing the normal functioning of the school.” The Social Problems Club, the Student Forum, and the Liberal Club, as well as The Campus, the student newspaper, are suspended for supporting the demonstration. Twenty-one student leaders are expelled.

President Robinson reviews a ROTC drill dressed in his full academic regalia, June 1928.

Student attacking jingoism, depicted as a German soldier.

"This department is the College’s chief token of loyalty to the institutions and ideals of the country. Its purpose in large measure is to offset the reputation for radicalism which the College has in prejudiced circles.”

-Department of Military Science CCNY

Abolish the ROTC