After cancelling military members’ attendance at top universities, the Department of War recently selected UNC to host a new program for senior military officers.
Announced last week in a university release, the Senior Service College (SSC) Fellowship will serve as an alternative to traditional war colleges. According to the statement, the 10-month program is designed to prepare senior military officers for strategic leadership roles by “deepening their understanding of national security strategy and strengthening their leadership, critical-thinking and decision-making skills.”
“We are deeply honored to participate in the Senior Service College Fellowship program,” UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts said. “The program fits well within the context of our mission of service, and we take tremendous pride in our deep, longstanding relationship with the United States military.”
Carolina’s ties to military service date back to its founder and Revolutionary War commander William Richardson Davie. During World War II, a Navy Pre-Flight School on campus trained nearly 20,000 cadets. Connected to the program were three former U.S. presidents: Gerald Ford, who served as an instructor; George H.W. Bush, who trained as a cadet; and Ronald Reagan, then a Hollywood actor, who visited campus to provide entertainment.
UNC currently serves about 1,200 military students, more than 1,300 military dependents, and 150 ROTC cadets and midshipmen. It ranks No. 7 among Military Friendly Schools and No. 8 among Best Colleges for Veterans by U.S. News & World Report. Also selected to participate in the fellowship program is Virginia Tech, with other university partners yet to be announced, according to the defense department.
“Senior officers who come to Chapel Hill will contribute to nationally significant work in artificial intelligence, public policy, global security and more, and they will have access to one of the world’s great research universities,” UNC-Chapel Hill Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Magnus Egerstedt wrote in the UNC release. “We are ready to receive the fellows, and we are ready to give them an education worthy of their service.”
Public schools are favored for the revamped SSC fellowship, as starting this upcoming academic year, military officers are barred from attending elite universities like Harvard University, Brown University, Princeton University, and Yale University.
The decision comes from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Kennedy School. In a video shared in February, he argued how Ivy-League and similar institutions have become subject to “woke indoctrination,” stating how he believes senior service colleges should train “war fighters on genuine national security issues, not social justice activism.”
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