Admissions, Curriculum, and Diversity of Thought at the Military Service Academies

The House Armed Services Committee held a hearing today to receive testimony on admissions criteria and process, curriculum development, standards, and content, and impacts on thought and learning at the Military Service Academies.

Witnesses:

Lieutenant General Steven W. Gilland
Superintendent
United States Military Academy, West Point

Vice Admiral Sean Buck
Superintendent
United States Naval Academy

Lieutenant General Richard M. Clark
Superintendent
United States Air Force Academy

Watch:

Rep. Cory Mills expresses the wish of many of us older graduates, but more importantly, of the cadets themselves and many parents as well:

Rep. Mike Waltz Presses U.S. Military Service Academy Superintendents on CRT:

Gaetz stumps Air Force general on gender identity labels: ‘I’m not really sure’ (Fox News, 19 JUL 23)
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., stumped the head of the Air Force Academy on Wednesday during a tense hearing about race and gender-based admissions practices at military colleges and universities.

Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark was unable to define gender identity terms like “agender” and “demigender” that were listed in eligibility guidelines for a fellowship that’s open to Air Force cadets and other Americans, something Gaetz noted during their heated exchange.

“You’re literally pushing a program in the academies that says, ‘If you’re a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender…’ What’s ‘demigender’?” Gaetz asked.

“Sir, that’s a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship, that is available to,” Clarke said.

“It’s a person who looks at their gender in a different way than I do, sir,” Clarke said when the congressman cut him off to further question him.

“Well, sure. That’s all of these people. You’re a cisgender man, you don’t even get to apply. Do you know what ‘demigender’ really means?” Gaetz asked.

“I’m not really sure, sir,” Clark said. Gaetz then asked if he knew what “agender” meant, and the general again said he didn’t know. . . . .

“Right. So, here we are, pushing a fellowship calling for people that you don’t even know what the words mean,” Gaetz said. “And the No. 1 group of people, the cisgender men, are excluded. In the name of diversity, equity and inclusion, should we be pushing programs that we can’t define, that exclude the largest group of service members?” . . . . (read more)

Related to the above:

Air Force Academy promotes fellowship that bans ‘cisgender’ men: ‘This program isn’t for you’ (Fox News, 23 SEP 22)
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado is encouraging cadets to apply for a fellowship program for “gender minorities” that specifies “cisgender” men need not apply.

The academy sent an email on Sept. 14 informing cadets that the 2023 application for the Brooke Owens Fellowship for “undergraduate women and gender minorities interested in aerospace” is due by Oct. 10.

The application on the fellowship’s website says, “If you are a cisgender man, this program isn’t for you.”

“If you are a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority, this program is for you,” the application states. “If you are a cisgender man, this program isn’t for you… but we encourage you to check out our spinoff programs, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship and the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program.” . . .

‘We Have Goals’: West Point Head Dodges Question About Race-Based Goals For Academy Student Makeup (Daily Caller News Foundation, 19 JUL 23)
The superintendent for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point defended racial admissions goals while denying that the academy has quotas for race or gender at a hearing Wednesday.

Indiana Rep. Jim Banks pressed Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland on the difference between a “quota” and a “preference” in admissions at a hearing on diversity, standards and freedom of thought at military academies, but the Army service academy superintendent did not answer the question.

Instead, he defended the academy’s diversity goals after Banks revealed a West Point report describing “race-based composition goals” that Republicans have described as divisive and distracting from warfighting priorities.

“What’s the difference between a preference and a quota?” Banks asked.

“We don’t have quotas,” Gilland said. “We have goals to meet as I stated with regards to leader goals, categories of young men and women as regards to background,” as well as goals for the composition of scholars, leaders and athletes, he said.

The House Armed Services Committee organized the hearing on the heels of a Supreme Court decision overturning race-based admissions at universities that did not address military service academies.

Leaders at West Point, the Naval Academy and Air Force Academy said they were still assessing the legal implications of the ruling. They declined to explain how, if at all, policies would change if the court expressly applied the decision to military service academies.

Banks presented a chart from a 2017 report to the academy’s Board of Visitors describing in detail the composition goals for classes up to the class of 2020, including goals related to racial categories black, Hispanic and Asian.

“We have class composition goals. If we don’t meet them, we don’t meet them,” Gilland told Banks. He confirmed that West Point has not abandoned the practice, setting composition goals for the most recent incoming class graduating in 2027.

“Those goals are established on the basis of the composition of our officer corps. We would like our graduating classes to look similar to the officer corps,” he said. . . .  (read more)

Military academies’ diversity efforts draw GOP concerns, Dem support (Military Times, 19 JUL 23)
Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday took aim at the military service academies’ diversity and inclusion efforts as a potential distraction from war fighting prowess, and pledged to force changes in the future to end those practices. . . .

Military academy leaders, lawmakers clash over ‘woke’ policies (Washington Times, 19 JUL 23)

A quota is goal; a goal is a quota (CDR Salamander reviews the proceedings)
We’ve been waiting a long time for Congress to do this. Bit by bit the covers are being pulled back – but this is a good start.