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...cont. Up until recently, of course, the other academies have gone too far in the other direction, selecting virtually all their faculty from among their active duty ranks. This has long struck their critics as academically incestuous and, more recently, has impressed Congress as wasteful of operationally trained officers in the present era of defense cutbacks. Accordingly, West Point and the Air Force Academy both have been ordered to look toward the Naval Academy model and to begin incorporating civilians into their ranks. Navy’s supporters in Congress, however, either cannot see or will not acknowledge the downside of that arrangement. Air Force and Army, by having officers fully involved in academics as well as leadership, send a clear signal to their cadets that both services do value education. (Both of these academies, moreover, intend to keep civilians in the minority, and neither one grants tenure to civilian faculty.) Navy, on the other hand, in relegating the business of education largely to civilians, leaves its midshipmen (“mids” for short) wondering what the Navy really does value and expect from them. The academy has always been quick to point out that a significant number of officers are assigned to teach in every academic division–roughly half as many officers, across the board, as civilian professors. But, again, these officers only pass through on two- or three-year tours of duty, and their academic credentials are almost beside the point. From its point of view, the military hierarchy employs civilians enough to see to the academic drudgery. It selects officers, first and foremost, for the supposedly more glamourous job of being military role models.... |