In June, Lt. Col. Michael Murphy had a decision to make: retire, or extend his career in the U.S. Army and go into teaching. He chose the latter, coming to CMC as a professor of military science and director of the College's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program to replace retiring Lt. Col. Kevin Arnold. "I really wanted to do this job and work with young people," Murphy recently said. Happy with his decision, he said, "I feel lucky to be here. I'm really impressed with the caliber of students at CMC, the quality of the faculty, and how supportive the staff is."

Murphy is no stranger to education. After receiving a bachelor's in psychology from the University of California, Davis, he earned a master's degree in education at Boston University, then a teaching credential in secondary education at Chaminade University in Hawaii. Murphy taught in the ROTC department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before being stationed in Italy.

His 20-year Army career has kept him moving. Murphy completed infantry officer basic and advanced courses at Fort Benning, Ga., and at the Combined Arms Staff School and Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He was a rifle and mortar platoon leader and executive officer at Fort Bragg, N.C., then moved to Fort Carson, Colo., as battalion and mechanized infantry company commander. Murphy has also served as operations officer in Heidelberg, Germany, and as a training officer in Vicenza, Italy. His first connection to CMC came when he briefed four-star Gen. William Crouch '63, CMC's most recognized ROTC graduate, who was then vice chief of staff on security at Tuzla Airbase in Bosnia. Murphy's last assignment was in Hawaii as training and doctrine command liaison officer to the U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter.

The idea of military training at civilian colleges goes back to 1783, when statesman and New York governor George Clinton created a plan to introduce military instruction to a civilian college in each state of the Union. Nothing immediately came of the plan, but colleges started initiating on-campus military training programs during the first half of the 19th century. By 1861, the land-grant college bill included a clause that recipient institutions must teach military tactics. Prior to America's entrance into World War I, the modern ROTC program was created, and was incorporated into the National Defense Act of 1916.

ROTC in Claremont was established that same year, when the War Department assigned Maj. Charles B. Vodges to serve as professor of military science (PMS) at Pomona College. Three years after the founding of CMC, with Army veterans comprising the majority of the College's student body, the program was designated as a joint unit between the two colleges. The office moved from Pomona to its current home in the basement of Bauer Center South in 1968.

Pomona stopped offering academic credit to cadets after controversy in the 1960s when ROTC opponents claimed that Army doctrine and thought, which emphasizes duty and following orders, was contradictory to a liberal arts environment, which emphasizes creativity and individuality, and stepped back further in 1993 with the passage of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" legislation. Feeling the policy was discriminating to homosexuals, Pomona withdrew its ROTC sponsorship, making CMC the sole host institution of the program.

Murphy believes that ROTC fits with CMC's mission of training the leaders of tomorrow, even including military science courses in the Kravis Institute's leadership sequence, where retired Lt. Col. Arnold is now on staff. "Everything we do is leadership training," Murphy explains, "from the day you are a freshman in ROTC to the time you are a senior and running the program." While military skills are involved to a degree, the primary focus is on leadership training to become an officer. "It is not boot camp," Murphy emphasizes, "but an educational process that integrates what you learn on campus with practical training and exercises to produce the best possible leader. We balance the theory with a lot of training."

Balances are crucial to the program, especially to its presence on campus. "We don't want students to see cadets marching around the quad, but we don't want to hide, either," says Murphy. Training exercises are conducted on Fridays on campus, but Murphy doesn't want to overdo it. "You don't just wear your uniform around campus for a Tuesday afternoon class," he says.

The participants need to maintain a balance between being a cadet and being a student. "A cadet should feel like a student first. They shouldn't feel they have to give up student experiences like participating on an athletic team or studying abroad."

A balance also needs to be maintained between the number of CMC students enrolled in the program and the number of off-campus students. Currently, about 20 percent of the cadets are CMC students, but Murphy would like to increase that to 30 percent. The program draws students from the other Claremont Colleges and surrounding schools, such as Cal Poly Pomona, Azusa Pacific, and Occidental. "It's great to have other schools involved, too, because they can learn different perspectives from each other," says Murphy. "But I fully realize that the home team is CMC."

In the wake of September 11, Murphy has recommitted himself even further to providing the best education and training that he can to his students. "We need to support our leaders by doing our jobs," he says. "The best thing to do is to 'stay in your lane'and do it the best you can."

Murphy lives in Claremont with his wife, Yvonne, and their three daughters: Erin, 9, Clara, 8, and Maureen, 6. He enjoys spending his spare time with his family, going to the beach, and staying in shape. He is currently training to referee his daughters' soccer matches and is thinking of joining an adult soccer league. "But things have to slow down first," he says.