The Citadel is a state run publicly funded military-oriented college. However, I’m not so sure the students are considered official military personnel as students attending the FSAs.
While nearly all Citadel students are required to join the corps of cadets and enroll in ROTC training of their choice with the exception of a few who are exempted for some special reasons, they aren’t required to join the military after graduation as students at FSAs or students who received ROTC scholarship money/enrolled as ROTC cadets for the last 2 years of undergrad at other colleges*.
And a large percentage of Citadel graduates end up not joining the military/accepting commissions after graduation. Instead, they go into the civilian workplace/attend grad school like graduates from civilian colleges.
- Unless the military/federal government chooses to release them from their service obligation at their complete discretion based on the needs of that particular service.
True. However, several have argued on other threads that public colleges’ codes of conduct are, by virtue of being part of some level of government, legally subjected to constraints due to First-Amendment considerations as opposed to private colleges.
Am interested in seeing how such factors apply to the Citadel…especially from attorneys or legal scholars.