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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, October 22, 2009

Army ROTC at IU receives national recognition -- twice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 22, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Army ROTC cadets at Indiana University Bloomington have something to be proud of as the school year gets into full swing. Once again, the program has ranked among the best in the nation in two major evaluations of leadership skills.

IU Army ROTC earned a fifth-place ranking out of 273 ROTC programs in the nation in this summer's Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC), which took place from June until August at Fort Lewis in Washington.

Also, the IU program in 2009 had one of the highest percentages of Distinguished Military Graduates, or DMGs, of any U.S. college or university. Nine of 21 seniors achieved the DMG designation in a program in which every cadet in the nation is ranked on a national merit list.

The Leadership Development and Assessment Course is a 29-day individual leadership assessment, attended by all ROTC cadets nationwide between their junior and senior years of college. At the end of LDAC, each cadet is rated as Excellent, Satisfactory or Needs Improvement.

IU Army ROTC had 10 cadets earn Excellent ratings out of 23 cadets who attended -- a 43 percent rating that is significantly higher than the national average of 16.7 percent. Additionally, six IU cadets were rated in the top five cadets in their 48-cadet platoons. Highlights of the IU cadets' performance included:

• An average Army physical fitness score of 275 (out of 300), significantly higher than the 258 national average
• An average score in land navigation of 87 (out of 100), again much higher than the national average of 82.

IU outperformed several senior military colleges whose programs are much larger and whose cadets live in a military environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During the past three years, 45 percent of IU cadets have earned a rating of Excellent at LDAC, the third-highest percentage in the nation, exceeded only by Iowa State and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Over the same period, 18 of 64 IU cadets rated in the top five of their platoons.

For the Distinguished Military Graduate designation, this year's list contained 4,702 names from 273 ROTC programs across the nation. The top 20 percent on the list are designated DMGs. A cadet's ranking is determined by academic grade-point average (40 percent), leadership (45 percent) and physical fitness (15 percent).

IU had the fourth-highest percentage of DMGs in the nation, trailing only Cornell, the Massachussets Institute of Technology and Gonzaga University. Again, IU outperformed several senior military colleges.

IU Army ROTC is the fifth-oldest Senior Army ROTC program in the nation, commissioning some of the nation's top leaders since 1840. Besides academics and leadership training, Army ROTC cadets enjoy extracurricular events sponsored by organizations such as the Pershing Rifles, Ranger Challenge, and Little 500.

This winter, IU Army ROTC will host its fourth-annual German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency completion, hosting Army ROTC programs from universities throughout the Midwest region. IU ROTC was designated as the No. 1 program in the nation in July 2008 for school year 2007-2008.

For more information on Army ROTC at IU, see https://www.indiana.edu/~rotc/.

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