Challenges to Military Tradition

Cadets in Rat Parade on Upper Quad, c. 1920s (Image: Henry F. Turner Collection, Virginia Tech Special Collections)

VPI President Julian Burruss believed that the First World War demonstrated the need for change at VPI extended beyond just curriculum, but to the institution’s fundamental identity. In his estimation, similar to that of many faculty members, VPI should be an institution which provided students with an academic technical education rather than a military one.

In June 1923, following a rise in student hazing incidents and misbehavior, Burruss and VPI’s faculty recommended that the Board of Visitors either reduce or eliminate the requirement for VPI’s male students to be members of the Corps of Cadets. Prior to the war, many faculty supported military education because they believed that it helped develop young men. After the war, they believed that the military environment actually encouraged and facilitated student misbehavior.

First-year students in the Corps of Cadets were called “Rats” and were often subjected to hazing. This cartoon made by a student in 1913 characterizes first-year cadet life at VPI. (Image: 1913 VPI Bugle, Virginia Tech Special Collections)

Faculty also pointed out that VPI was one of only three land-grant institutions which required students to complete a military education for all four years. Additionally, they believed that since military training was federalized through the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) program in 1916, it was no longer necessary for the institution to provide its own military education.

President Burruss worried that the four-year Corps of Cadets requirement would hinder VPI’s future growth. He argued that if the four-year military requirement remained, it would prevent VPI from obtaining “a place in the group of standard colleges [in the nation.]”

Ultimately, the Board of Visitors made a more conservative decision. Instead of eliminating the Corps requirement, they reduced the requirement to only the first two years of a student’s education. The two-year Corps of Cadets requirement remained in place for 41 more years. It was finally dropped completely in 1964.