The Naval ROTC unit at Morehouse College held a ribbon cutting ceremony for their new facility on campus, Aug. 31.

The new facility, White Hall, is being billed as a Military Center of Excellence that provides office space for all ROTC military staffs; dorm rooms for midshipmen, cadets, and military affiliated students; a computer lab and lounge.

Morehouse College President John Silvanus Wilson Jr.; Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command; and Navy Capt. Baron V. Reinhold, commanding officer, NROTC Atlanta Consortium, were joined at the ceremony by university officials, NROTC staff and midshipmen and guests in the courtyard next to White Hall.

"What an amazing day; I am impressed and honored to take part in this great ceremony," said Evans. "This building is impressive and I thank President Wilson for his dedication to the NROTC unit here at Morehouse."

"I want this program to go from the margins of the periphery of the campus in a trailer to the center of the campus in a brick house and that's what we are celebrating today," said Wilson. "What motivated me to give the order to converge our team to get from where we were to where we are now is the alignment of our values. I want to elevate this program just like I am trying to elevate this institution."

For years the unit had been located in a mobile building off the campus grounds. In the past year it became a priority to find a space back on campus for the NROTC unit.

"During an office call with Rear Adm. Evans last year, President Wilson pledged to get this unit back on campus as soon as feasibly possible and 10 months later, here we are," said Reinhold. "This building is the hub and will continue to be the hub of military excellence on campus for years to come."

The ceremony closed with a cake cutting and tours of the facility for all in attendance.

NROTC was established at Morehouse College in 1987 after initially standing up at Morris Brown College as a cross-town to Georgia Institute of Technology. The Morehouse College unit is part of a consortium with the NROTC unit at Georgia Tech. A NROTC consortium is formed when two or more host units are located geographically close to one another. NROTC courses and professional instruction will be held on both campuses, however the units may share resources as the Navy and Marine Corps deem appropriate, in order to maximize available funds and promote program consistency.

The NROTC program was established to educate and train qualified young men and women for service as commissioned officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. The NROTC scholarship program fills a vital need in preparing mature young men and women for leadership and management positions in an increasingly technical Navy and Marine Corps.

Evans and his NSTC staff oversee 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC includes Recruit Training Command, the Navy's only boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes, NROTC at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, Navy Junior ROTC and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NROTC, visit http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/.

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For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit http://www.navy.mil/.