A private college that doesn't charge tuition now requires a class on American flag protocol and refuses to play against schools that kneel for the anthem

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A private college that doesn't charge tuition now requires a class on American flag protocol and refuses to play against schools that kneel for the anthem

College of Ozarks

College of Ozarks Facebook

The school has a "no pledge, no play" policy.

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  • College of the Ozarks is a private college that requires students to take a class on respect for the American flag.
  • The school's "no pledge, no play" policy states its sports teams won't compete against schools whose athletes kneel during the anthem.
  • The school is tuition-free for all four years.

College of the Ozarks, a private Christian liberal-arts college located in Missouri, requires students to take a class on military customs and respect for the American flag, Fox News reported.

The class, called Patriotic Education and Fitness, also reviews flag protocol and map reading and marksmanship.

"There is too much of an indifference toward the military in this country, and people seem to have forgotten that people in the military are the ones that continue to make the sacrifices for the rest of us," Ozarks President Jerry Davis told Fox.

The college also instituted a "no pledge, no play" policy which means its sports teams won't compete against schools whose athletes kneel during the anthem, Fox reported.

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Davis said the move is unusual for non-military institutions, but spoke to a need for understanding the sacrifice of service members.

"We think in the culture there is a problem in the division between the 1% who serve in uniform and the 99% living the good life because someone else made a sacrifice in a military uniform," Davis said. "Colleges should be more intentional about teaching young people about the military and such things as leadership and cooperation and teamwork, things the military does very well."

The school is unusual in other ways, too. C of O, as it's often called, has accumulated a nearly $500,000,000 endowment all while offering four-year degrees to students tuition-free.

The 1,512 students who attend must maintain their campus jobs in addition to staying on top of their school work to remain enrolled at the college.

Dubbed "Work Hard U," C of O seems to have sense of pride in its somewhat gritty style of subsisting.

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"If I were an employer, I'd take our graduates over those at most any other schools," Davis told the Wall Street Journal in 2014. "The kids at these East Coast colleges strike me as being a little spoiled."