Faces of Michigan

Robert Lance Hilton: Building our Nation’s officer corps while broadening access to higher education

Since his arrival at the University of Michigan in Summer 2004, Lt. Col. Robert Lance Hilton, chair of the University of Michigan Army Officer Education Program, has led numerous successful initiatives to increase diversity in the U-M Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). His efforts have helped achieve 15 percent growth in U-M Army ROTC (Wolverine Battalion) enrollment annually, from a previous all-time high of 54 in 2004-2005 to nearly 90 in Fall 2007, including a 250 percent increase in minority enrollments and 200 percent growth in the enrollment of women.

Under Hilton’s leadership, the Wolverine Battalion launched a multi-faceted effort in metropolitan Detroit in 2006-2007 to produce significantly higher levels of community engagement with ROTC, and to expand access to higher education in the minority communities of Southeast Michigan. Hilton has reached out to Arab American and African American communities to discuss the benefits of the Army Officer Education Program, and has established relationships with educational and cultural leaders in those communities—relationships that are already taking root.

The goals of this initiative include increasing awareness of academic, scholarship, and advancement opportunities available through ROTC; developing an environment of support with secondary school officials; building a foundation and relationship for recruiting future ROTC cadets at participating and interested secondary schools; and incrementally increasing the overall minority ROTC cadet enrollment from Southeast Michigan.

In collaboration with the Arab American community, and with the assistance of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, Hilton has conducted meetings with Arab American community organizers and leaders, and has had interviews on Arab American television and radio programs. He has established ties with the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), the Arab American Chaldean Council (ACC), and other important Arab American organizations.

Hilton also has increased interactions with community colleges, including the collaboration he has developed with Dearborn-based Henry Ford Community College through their Partners Plus program, in which the Wolverine Battalion assists community college students prepare for transfer to four-year institutions.

Hilton’s work at the high school level includes support and advancement of the Detroit Junior ROTC (JROTC) program, which has 22 Army JROTC programs and one Naval JRTOC program, accounting for more than 4,000 high school cadets. Together with ROTC programs at Eastern Michigan and Michigan State universities, the Wolverine Battalion partners with the Detroit JROTC programs. Hilton works closely with Detroit JROTC head, Lt. Col. (Retired) Lee, to conduct inspections, participate in Detroit JROTC’s Annual Summer Training and Staff Camps, and leverage the availability of JROTC instructors to provide information and opportunities to Detroit JROTC cadets.

To advance the high school initiative, Michigan ROTC recently introduced new programs to encourage and provide further information to minority students, including JROTC Discovers Michigan Day, offered in collaboration with the U-M Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Office of Financial Aid to provide campus tours for JROTC cadets.

Historically, the Wolverine Battalion has commissioned 14 officers per year, a number that promises, with Hilton’s leadership, to grow in both numbers and diversity.