Event: Military and university officials will formally decommission Russell A. Steindam Hall (RAS) as a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) facility. University President William Powers Jr. and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (Ret) Lawson W. Magruder III will lead the ceremony, which includes removing the ROTC plaque and lowering the American flag outside the building. The ROTC units are preparing to move into a newer, permanent home on the same site in about two years.
When: Friday, Aug. 27, 10 a.m.
Where: Russell A. Steindam Hall on East Mall.
Background: With ROTC enrollment at record levels in the 1950s, the university commissioned the construction of a new building to house the program. The building was officially renamed the Russell A. Steindam Hall on Veterans Day, 1972. Steindam was a University of Texas Army ROTC graduate who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1970 for giving “the last full measure of devotion” in service of the nation in Vietnam. Steindam Hall has housed classrooms, study areas, office space and training facilities for the university’s three ROTC units (Army, Navy, Air Force), which are part of the College of Liberal Arts.
The U.S. Army and Navy units recently moved to the George I. Sanchez Building and the Air Force Unit moved into Bellmont Hall. They will be there for about two years until the new Liberal Arts building is complete on the East Mall on the site of Steindam Hall. The new building will house ROTC and other academic units.
