USD Magazine Summer 2010

T

he chill of a February morning lingers over Alcalá Park as a small army quietly assembles in the fading night. It’s 5:30 a.m., a time of day most college students know only as a vicious rumor, yet dozens of uniformed figures are emerging from the shadows all across campus. The dusky apparitions move quickly, purposefully, through the hazy glow cast by sidewalk lampposts before disappearing down the long staircase leading to Valley Field. In the darkness, they cluster into small groups that form a giant rectangle of humanity whose physical presence is confirmed less by sight than by the chattering buzz of some 300 young men and women standing in close quarters. Then, abrupt silence. For a brief moment, the only sound is the wind rustling softly. Suddenly, the voice of Johnny Cushing ’10 thunders through the morning abyss. “Battalion, uhhh-tennnnnnn-shun!” Cushing bellows. In one fluid motion, a few hundred pairs of shoulders straighten, arms tighten and feet snap to position with an audible pop. “Re-port!” The commanders of Alpha, Bravo and Charlie Company offer their curt “present and accounted for” replies in turn. Moments later, the inspection is complete. The San Diego Naval Reserve Officers Corps (NROTC) student battalion is dismissed to a training presenta- tion at the Hahn University Center. When they emerge nearly two hours later, the first of their bleary-eyed “civilian” classmates are just starting to arrive on campus, coffee cups in hand. For some, it’s a jarring juxtaposition. USD’s core academic and altruistic values reflect its billing as a “university of peace,” but it’s also an institution with extensive military ties that effectively make it, as one NROTC student noted, a “university of justice.” In fact, it’s both. USD is not only home to the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, but also one of the largest NROTC programs in the nation. Beneath the surface of this seemingly incongruous union, USD is fostering a far more complex dynamic in which warriors and humanitarians are increasingly intertwined as they rethink and reshape conventional ideas about war and peace.

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