Posted on 06/15/2009 7:12:14 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that "diversity is the number one priority" at the Naval Academy.
The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that "diversity" here means nonwhite skins.
Fowler insisted recently that we needed to have Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the Fleet, where enlisted people are about 42 percent nonwhite, largely African American and Hispanic.
The stunning revelation last week was that the Naval Academy had an incoming class that was "more diverse" than ever before: 35 percent minority.
Sounds good, only this comes with a huge price tag. It's taxpayers who bankroll the military. Yet nobody has asked us if we're willing to pay this price. Instead we're being told there is no price to pay at all. If you believe that, you probably also believe in the Tooth Fairy.
A "diverse" class does not mean the Naval Academy recruits violinists, or older students (they can't be 23 on Induction Day), or gay people (who are thrown out) or foreign students (other than the dozen or so sent by client governments).
It means applicants checked a box on their application that says they are Hispanic, African American, Native American, and now, since my time on the Admissions Board of the Academy, where I've taught for 22 years, Asians.
Midshipmen are admitted by two tracks. White applicants out of high school who are not also athletic recruits typically need grades of A and B and minimum SAT scores of 600 on each part for the Board to vote them "qualified." Athletics and leadership also count.
A vote of "qualified" for a white applicant doesn't mean s/he's coming, only that he or she can compete to win the "slate" of up to 10 nominations that (most typically) a Congress(wo)man draws up. That means that nine "qualified" white applicants are rejected. SAT scores below 600 or C grades almost always produce a vote of "not qualified" for white applicants.
Not so for an applicant who self-identifies as one of the minorities who are our "number one priority." For them, another set of rules apply. Their cases are briefed separately to the board, and SAT scores to the mid-500s with quite a few Cs in classes (and no visible athletics or leadership) typically produce a vote of "qualified" for them, with direct admission to Annapolis. They're in, and are given a pro forma nomination to make it legit.
Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s with Cs and Ds (and no particular leadership or athletics) also come, though after a remedial year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School.
By using NAPS as a feeder, we've virtually eliminated all competition for "diverse" candidates: in theory they have to get a C average at NAPS to come to USNA, but this is regularly re-negotiated.
All this is probably unconstitutional. That's what the Supreme Court said about the University of Michigan's two-track admissions in 2003.
Once at Annapolis, "diverse" midshipmen are over-represented in our pre-college classes, in lower-track courses, in mandatory tutoring programs and less challenging majors. Many struggle to master basic concepts. (I teach some of these courses.)
Of course, some minority students are stellar, but they're the exception. Despite being dragged toward the finish line, minorities graduate at about a 10 percent lower rate than the whole class, which of course includes them (so the real split is greater).
Don't want to believe me? Have a lawyer sit in on a year's worth of Admissions Board deliberations. Or better still, pray that one of the stellar white students rejected to give a seat to a "diverse" candidate sues us. That's the only way taxpayers will ever fully understand the price to them of "putting diversity first."
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The writer is an English professor at the Naval Academy.
Gosh, I would have thought turning out fully trained Navy and Marine Corps officers would have been the “number one priority.” Stupid squids....
Not for long...
Note just signing your name and getting up from the exam will earn you a 250 so how the hell can you get into an ACADEMY with a 300?
Hispanic is not a race, anymore than Irish or German or Kenyan is a race.
One would think producing the finest Naval Officers would be the number one priority at the Naval Academy, but no it is diversity.
When we get into a war, Officers who were promoted and chosen for diversity will lose battles.
But it’s “close enough for government work”.
I get a kick out of hispanics are a minority. Didn’t they from a Eurpoean Country called “SPAIN”””””””””””””””””??????????
In the coming Naval War with China we will have stupid black and brown Captains being sunk.
im so sick of this affirmative action ruining the army
WARNING.....STRESSING DIVERSITY WILL BRING US DOWN!
If this is true, we are on a losing track. From the top down, we are a nation of losers. Sad times for a once proud nation.
I spent 23 years in the Air Force and things like this just make blood shoot out of my eyes. We need the brightest in these positions and it doesn’t matter what race they are. We need to quit with the special programs for only some people.
I guess I’m too old for the Academy.
I’m ok with diversity as long as we start applying those same standards to EVERY OTHER business or institution. For example....the NBA starting line-up must be representative of the demographics of the US population. The NBA surely is Big Business if I every saw one. Same goes for NFL....I think we need more diversity on the playing field.
Oh, and another area that is begging for diversity is lifeguards. Now don’t go and get sidetracked by the objective data that proves that black’s physiology makes them poor swimmers....I think actually they are called “sinkers.” But qualifications don’t matter. It’s only important that 12% of lifeguards be black. Only 12% of professional athletes can be black, too....at least if we’re gonna be diverse............
https://www.cnic.navy.mil/cnrma/Programs/CommandandStaff/EqualOpportunityAdvisor/CNICC_058702
Percentage of each Race per Service.
Of course what is not addressed here is the government is continuing this massive importation into our country of both legal and illegal aliens. As we continue this massive invasion into our country theses number will continue to change. At what point is it "diverse enough"? 50% 70% What about 100%?
Correction. Stressing diversity at the expense of more capable and qualified White Males has ALREADY brought us down.
The USA will lose the next war if it is with Russia and China, and it will not be pretty.
Thanks for the link.
1/3 of the Marine Corps are 21 years old or below.
Amazing! God bless ‘em.
(And all of our service men and women.)
Fleming has been there more than 20 years and must have tenure. I looked him up on Google, which led to some books he had written as well as some columns (the most recent of them dating from 2007). He seems to be a pretty standard liberal on other topics apart from affirmative action in admissions to Annapolis.
The members of La Raza disagree.
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