Academia of all stripes is all in on DEI, and blatently ignores the Supreme Court holding that race cannot be a criterion for admissions. UCLA (my alma mater - alas) is now being sued for setting up and continuing a race based admission process to its medical school.
Gordon: I'm five minutes from UCLA. I used to enjoy biking around campus but don't like going there anymore. It's too disturbing. Westwood Village is a dump. High retail vacancy. Homeless and crazies, wandering around or passed out along the sidewalks.
My concept of affirmative action is that you actively seek out candidates from underrepresented groups. For USNA this could involve visiting schools with significant minority students to make them aware of USNA and to encourage applications. But once an application is received, all applicants should be subject to the same merit based standards.
Interestingly, USNA applicants come predominantly from suburban schools. Both urban and rural school districts are underrepresented at USNA.
Because urban school districts often do not have supporting test scores and grades, being captive to democratic rule and Department of Education tyranny, and rural schools, trust me, those areas know about USNA but may get scholarships with ROTC units or go through OCS.
My experience is a bit dated, but as a recruiting district CO in 2011, you could not get a recruiter effectively interacting with a qualified student in a large urban high school in Seattle to talk about ANY Navy opportunities from enlistment to NROTC or Academies. The school admin was very effective against all attempts to contact the students. Ultimately we made our recruiting goal outside of Seattle. Missed opportunities for those kids, but they got what their parents tolerated/wanted.
I live in a skool district that bars all military recruiters from all campuses, except for a display table on Nov. 11, Veterans' Day. We have three school districts adjacent, and they welcome military recruiters. These kinds of policies are board-level decisions, and you can guess the politics.
to that last sentence.... an example needs to be made. Anyone involved in that office needs to be sent to Diego Garcia until career termination for insubordination.
Why bother with the service academies. They are probably too hard to change institutionally -- a kind of mafia, bound up with their own version of "Omerta." Change the wording and hide behind them.
What is the measurable difference between an Academy O-1 and a non-Academy O-1, in terms of productivity and leadership? Probably not a whole hell of a lot, unless thing have changed in the past few years.
Second question: how much does it cost the US taxpayer to commission an Academy officer compared with a non-Academy officer? OK, then do the basic cost-benefit analysis. But even with that simplistic/basic approach, I doubt we'll see any meaningful changes. In a non PC expression, they are "old boy clubs."
Since the Clinton years, the "incentive structure" of the military officer promotion system has been very biased towards what predated DEI and now DEI (see Clark, Wesley, General type one each). As a result, you've got a couple of generations of careerists who are now senior leaders with their staffers who are "mini-me's" following in their footsteps. Firing the USNA DEI office (and those responsible for not doing it when first told to) is a start...but only just. Until the incentive structure of the system is changed to reflect the desired traits and performance (what ever that is, need some help here), the current playbook is to simply "wait them out" and then things will go back to "normal". A long, tough road is ahead to change this. It will require clear thinking, tough personnel decisions (firings) and prosecutions "pour encourager les autres".
If the DEI office at USNA is still there...just renamed/rebranded; then why can't the OSD just de-establish it? What is taking them so long to hold the Superintendent accountable?
Will the SECDEF please pick up the phone, call her and fire her. "We have lost confidence in your leadership at the USNA". You did it with the CNO...let's get on with it.
Agree. RIF the DEI office as no longer needed. Whoever covered that up and at least the next higher level in the COC, maybe two levels up, need to fall to the vertical chop and be fired, or if military send to a GCM for insubordination. Maybe a couple losing retirement pay and benefits would send the message strongly enough.
‘In prioritizing warfighter development, cohesive teamwork and unified purpose, the Engagement, Retention, and Equal Opportunity directly supports the Naval Academy's Strategic Imperative One: To recruit, admit, and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen.’
It is very difficult to unring a bell. I think this will be a multi generational problem inflicted upon us by the subversive politicians, academics et al. I will bet a dollar that there will be very little if any accountability at any meaningful level...if it ever gets fixed.
A couple of things, not particularly happy with the athletic callout in the letter simply because of special allowances being made which could deny a billet to someone who actually desires to serve. Tuberville is just flat out wrong.
And while the academies are important, what's being done with officer accessions and enlisted recruitment? Standards must be applied there as well. Do not allow accessions/enlistments to slip away unnoticed.
"“When appropriate, these cadets and midshipmen should graduate and commission with their classes, then defer their service obligation until their professional sports playing careers are complete,” he said."
Oh joy! So the taxpayers stop paying for trans surgeries by the military but will get to pay for reconstructive surgeries for career-ending injuries. The assumption being that while"deferred", the officer will remain in some kind of reserve status and would have to be brought back up to spec both physically and educationally to resume their professional military career.
How about academies are forbidden to participate in NCAA sports where the average revenue is more thant a half million dollars per year? They could keep their rifle and rowing teams but football, basketball, and baseball go bye bye.
But whatever would they do with all their spare time if they're not stealing goats/mules painting their faces blue and figuring out how many days until they beat their service rival.
Can we buy t-shirts with that logo? I have an upcoming visit back to USNA and would proudly wear one.
If there is still a "DEI by another name" office at USNA, the Superintendent needs to be publicly fired for cause.
I'm also not a fan of lowering the standards for athletes. There were tons of dirtbag varsity athletes that skated through the program to become dirtbag officers in the fleet. Nothing good came of it.
‘In prioritizing warfighter development, cohesive teamwork and unified purpose, the Engagement, Retention, and Equal Opportunity directly supports the Naval Academy's Strategic Imperative One: To recruit, admit, and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen.’
‘In prioritizing warfighter development, cohesive teamwork and unified purpose, the Engagement, Retention, and Equal Opportunity directly supports the Naval Academy's Strategic Imperative One: To recruit, admit, and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen.’
From their website. I could care less if every graduate was purple.
I always thought this one was weird. I got a PA to the Air Force academy way back in 1982, didn't go for other reasons, but the main reason I think I got the PA was that they hadn't filled their quota. I didn't even live in the state I got the PA from (Washington) because I grew up in British Columbia. The whole process was pretty perfunctory.
Honor, Courage, Commitment, indeed. Court Martial a 3-star that does not heed a legal order; the message will be received loud and clear! To be clear, they have NOT been supporting nor defending the Constitution with their race/gender based hiring/admissions. The lack of honesty at the FOGO level throughout all of DoD is a crisis. It gave us 20 years of war with a newly armed Taliban, it gave us tactical wins heaped upon tactical wins with a strategic loss, it gave us the LCS, and it gives us diminished capability in the ranks. Until there are consequences at the highest levels, this will not be fixed. Full Stop.
Academia of all stripes is all in on DEI, and blatently ignores the Supreme Court holding that race cannot be a criterion for admissions. UCLA (my alma mater - alas) is now being sued for setting up and continuing a race based admission process to its medical school.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ucla-med-school-and-racial-bias-lawsuit-race-supreme-court-university-0a1f1971
Gordon: I'm five minutes from UCLA. I used to enjoy biking around campus but don't like going there anymore. It's too disturbing. Westwood Village is a dump. High retail vacancy. Homeless and crazies, wandering around or passed out along the sidewalks.
My concept of affirmative action is that you actively seek out candidates from underrepresented groups. For USNA this could involve visiting schools with significant minority students to make them aware of USNA and to encourage applications. But once an application is received, all applicants should be subject to the same merit based standards.
Interestingly, USNA applicants come predominantly from suburban schools. Both urban and rural school districts are underrepresented at USNA.
Because urban school districts often do not have supporting test scores and grades, being captive to democratic rule and Department of Education tyranny, and rural schools, trust me, those areas know about USNA but may get scholarships with ROTC units or go through OCS.
My experience is a bit dated, but as a recruiting district CO in 2011, you could not get a recruiter effectively interacting with a qualified student in a large urban high school in Seattle to talk about ANY Navy opportunities from enlistment to NROTC or Academies. The school admin was very effective against all attempts to contact the students. Ultimately we made our recruiting goal outside of Seattle. Missed opportunities for those kids, but they got what their parents tolerated/wanted.
I live in a skool district that bars all military recruiters from all campuses, except for a display table on Nov. 11, Veterans' Day. We have three school districts adjacent, and they welcome military recruiters. These kinds of policies are board-level decisions, and you can guess the politics.
to that last sentence.... an example needs to be made. Anyone involved in that office needs to be sent to Diego Garcia until career termination for insubordination.
Nothing south of 52° N, DB.
Why bother with the service academies. They are probably too hard to change institutionally -- a kind of mafia, bound up with their own version of "Omerta." Change the wording and hide behind them.
What is the measurable difference between an Academy O-1 and a non-Academy O-1, in terms of productivity and leadership? Probably not a whole hell of a lot, unless thing have changed in the past few years.
Second question: how much does it cost the US taxpayer to commission an Academy officer compared with a non-Academy officer? OK, then do the basic cost-benefit analysis. But even with that simplistic/basic approach, I doubt we'll see any meaningful changes. In a non PC expression, they are "old boy clubs."
Since the Clinton years, the "incentive structure" of the military officer promotion system has been very biased towards what predated DEI and now DEI (see Clark, Wesley, General type one each). As a result, you've got a couple of generations of careerists who are now senior leaders with their staffers who are "mini-me's" following in their footsteps. Firing the USNA DEI office (and those responsible for not doing it when first told to) is a start...but only just. Until the incentive structure of the system is changed to reflect the desired traits and performance (what ever that is, need some help here), the current playbook is to simply "wait them out" and then things will go back to "normal". A long, tough road is ahead to change this. It will require clear thinking, tough personnel decisions (firings) and prosecutions "pour encourager les autres".
Loooonnnnnggg past time and it shows in our leadership corps at all levels - - damn it's good to be retired....
If the DEI office at USNA is still there...just renamed/rebranded; then why can't the OSD just de-establish it? What is taking them so long to hold the Superintendent accountable?
Will the SECDEF please pick up the phone, call her and fire her. "We have lost confidence in your leadership at the USNA". You did it with the CNO...let's get on with it.
Also, please look at NWC and do the same.
It's pretty straightforward.
Agree. RIF the DEI office as no longer needed. Whoever covered that up and at least the next higher level in the COC, maybe two levels up, need to fall to the vertical chop and be fired, or if military send to a GCM for insubordination. Maybe a couple losing retirement pay and benefits would send the message strongly enough.
Absolutely agree.
This is their mission statement
‘In prioritizing warfighter development, cohesive teamwork and unified purpose, the Engagement, Retention, and Equal Opportunity directly supports the Naval Academy's Strategic Imperative One: To recruit, admit, and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen.’
Lying liars being liars
It is very difficult to unring a bell. I think this will be a multi generational problem inflicted upon us by the subversive politicians, academics et al. I will bet a dollar that there will be very little if any accountability at any meaningful level...if it ever gets fixed.
Sounds to me like USNA needs a visit from the IG.
A couple of things, not particularly happy with the athletic callout in the letter simply because of special allowances being made which could deny a billet to someone who actually desires to serve. Tuberville is just flat out wrong.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/03/27/senator-pushes-for-new-rules-letting-academy-athletes-play-pro-sports/
And while the academies are important, what's being done with officer accessions and enlisted recruitment? Standards must be applied there as well. Do not allow accessions/enlistments to slip away unnoticed.
"“When appropriate, these cadets and midshipmen should graduate and commission with their classes, then defer their service obligation until their professional sports playing careers are complete,” he said."
Oh joy! So the taxpayers stop paying for trans surgeries by the military but will get to pay for reconstructive surgeries for career-ending injuries. The assumption being that while"deferred", the officer will remain in some kind of reserve status and would have to be brought back up to spec both physically and educationally to resume their professional military career.
How about academies are forbidden to participate in NCAA sports where the average revenue is more thant a half million dollars per year? They could keep their rifle and rowing teams but football, basketball, and baseball go bye bye.
Problem solved. Next!
But whatever would they do with all their spare time if they're not stealing goats/mules painting their faces blue and figuring out how many days until they beat their service rival.
The could not be going to the Nimitz Library and not reading the three hundred DEI books pulled from the shelves.
Agree. This never sat right with me and it still doesn't
"who actually desires to serve. "
There it is, to desire to serve is the key.
Can we buy t-shirts with that logo? I have an upcoming visit back to USNA and would proudly wear one.
If there is still a "DEI by another name" office at USNA, the Superintendent needs to be publicly fired for cause.
I'm also not a fan of lowering the standards for athletes. There were tons of dirtbag varsity athletes that skated through the program to become dirtbag officers in the fleet. Nothing good came of it.
Here’s their statement from the website:
‘In prioritizing warfighter development, cohesive teamwork and unified purpose, the Engagement, Retention, and Equal Opportunity directly supports the Naval Academy's Strategic Imperative One: To recruit, admit, and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen.’
Ridiculous statement.
Even in that ludicrous statement "diverse" has primacy of position over "talented."
‘In prioritizing warfighter development, cohesive teamwork and unified purpose, the Engagement, Retention, and Equal Opportunity directly supports the Naval Academy's Strategic Imperative One: To recruit, admit, and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen.’
From their website. I could care less if every graduate was purple.
I only care if they are the best at what they do.
To make it fully merit based, Eliminate the political appointment process!
I always thought this one was weird. I got a PA to the Air Force academy way back in 1982, didn't go for other reasons, but the main reason I think I got the PA was that they hadn't filled their quota. I didn't even live in the state I got the PA from (Washington) because I grew up in British Columbia. The whole process was pretty perfunctory.
Honor, Courage, Commitment, indeed. Court Martial a 3-star that does not heed a legal order; the message will be received loud and clear! To be clear, they have NOT been supporting nor defending the Constitution with their race/gender based hiring/admissions. The lack of honesty at the FOGO level throughout all of DoD is a crisis. It gave us 20 years of war with a newly armed Taliban, it gave us tactical wins heaped upon tactical wins with a strategic loss, it gave us the LCS, and it gives us diminished capability in the ranks. Until there are consequences at the highest levels, this will not be fixed. Full Stop.
To encourage the others.
Those people in charge will have to be scrutinized from now on and fired or removed from their office as soon as they deviate from the current orders.
They/Them are in the wire.
That trident needs to be dripping with blood.