The Military Science Department was established when the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) was created in 1956 as a result of the merger of the Wisconsin State Teachers College, Milwaukee, with the University of Wisconsin Extension Division. Prior to that time, each institution had a separate Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, with the Wisconsin State Teachers College program dating back to 1952. The Military Science Department was termed a "department at large"; it was not placed within any school or college for administrative purposes and did not report to any university administrative officer. A basic ROTC course was mandatory for male students. In 1960, a statewide university decision made ROTC training voluntary for UWM male students. A new ROTC curriculum was developed, whereby, for the first time, both academic and military faculty taught courses. The new professor of military science in the 1974 fall semester was reduced in rank from a colonel to a lieutenant colonel as a result of diminished support from the Army for UWM's ROTC Program. Administrative responsibility for the department was transferred to the College of Letters & Science, with the director of officer education reporting to the dean of the college.
