ROTC strikes it rich

By: Calli Turner

Posted: 7/24/08

Texas A&M received a $500,000 grant from the Department of Defense to help strengthen critical language programs for future military officers.

Randy Kluver, director of the Institute for Pacific Asia at Texas A&M and the principal investigator of the project, said the University was notified of the grant in late spring.

Kluver said the bulk funding of the grant will be used toward creating new study abroad experiences, scholarships and stipends, and creating on-campus experiences such as immersion camps.

The funding is available for Corps of Cadets students with an interest in learning a critical language.

Kluver said if a cadet had an interest in learning a critical language, such as Korean, not offered at A&M, the grant may help provide a scholarship for the student to study at a different University or external program.

"Many of them would not be able to travel and have these kind of language experiences otherwise," he said.

Kluver said the on-campus experiences allow the grant to benefit the Corps and other students.

He said he plans to bring in guest lecturers with the funding.

The grant is a collaboration between the Institute for Pacific Asia, the Corps of Cadets, the Study Abroad Programs Office and the Arabic and Asian Language Office in the College of Liberal Arts.

Kluver said the four units joined together to achieve the grant.

"We worked for probably six months to formulate a proposal, develop a plan and a strategy as to how we would execute the grant," he said.

Kluver said the University sought the grant because it identified a couple of key benefits.

"It could significantly raise the capacity of our critical languages programs," he said. "It would also provide funding to generate more interest and create new programs, such as immersion camps."

Kluver said the Corps of Cadets was an additional motivation for applying.

"We saw Texas A&M as a natural recipient of the grant, given the overall purpose of the grant for ROTC students," he said.

Charles Johnson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said A&M's Arabian and Asian Language office was established in 1997 to answer to the campus and national need for fluency in Arabic, Chinese and Japanese,according to a news release.

"As interest in these languages continues to expand, we will be able to offer advanced classes in each language," Johnson said.

Kluver said the grant will help improve the Chinese and Arabic programs in place.

"The specific requirement to the grant was it could not be used to start new programs, but only to strengthen programs," Kluver said. The grant initially lasts for two years but is renewable for a third year.

Texas A&M is one of eight recipients of the grant.