Separate Water Fountains: Professor claims Naval Academy illegally admits unqualified minorities

Naval Institute ^ | July 2, 2009 | Bruce Fleming

[Saint X]

Bruce Fleming has been an English professor at the United States Naval Academy for twenty-two years and has served as a member of USNA’s Admissions Board. He has expressed concerns over the Academy’s admissions process which he strongly believes places too much emphasis on racial diversity at the cost of quality students. He explains these concerns as follows:

Here’s a question: would you rather be defended by the officer with high all-around predictors (including leadership and athletics in addition to grades and test scores), or low ones? I bet you think I’m joking when I say that at the Unites States Naval Academy, we let in the ones with the low scores and reject the ones with the high. As a taxpayer, I object to that.

We do this to ensure that we get students who self-identify as racial minorities. “Diversity is our number one priority” at the Naval Academy, as the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead and the superintendent of the Naval Academy Vice Admiral Jeffrey Fowler have both said. Of course, this is a technical use of “diversity,” having nothing to do with age, with skills, with temperaments, with gender or sexual orientation, but only with skin color. In June of 2009 came the stunning boast that the class of 2013 is the “most diverse ever” at 35% minority. At the same time I’m getting e-mails from the parents of stellar white students who have been rejected to make this possible. We tend to forget the ones who aren’t there: I don’t.

[Gaffer]

USNA Former Admissions Board Member Bruce Flemming said, “.........

[Mrs. Don-o]

stunning. my america.

[junta]

Note to potential candidates of the wrong skin color, change your race, challenge them to identify you using any legal codes. From what I understand there is not codified racial identification beyond what you place yourself as. I could be wrong, but I guarantee that if challenged it would make it to the USSC.

[behzinlea]

Prof. Fleming has riled the Annapolis PC culture a couple of times before. He’s got tenure, luckily.

[Oldexpat]

This subject is being hotly debated on many USNA sites. It is a sad commentary when a national institution is being debased by bad politics. The victims will be the minority graduates who will be labeled sub-prime by association.
The private sector hires a lot of young USNA grads if they decide to leave the service. They use their SAT scores and grades and majors to determine their suitability for employment. It will be interesting to see how many of these sub-primes make the grade.

[CitizenUSA]

I dream of an age when Americans won’t be judged by the color of their skin...

[Oldexpat]

That has been tried and failed. You need to submit a picture and then they make the judgement on your race. In the end..just like South Africa..they have a “Racial Determination Board” that decides what privileges you get.

[hedgetrimmer]

Admiral Roughead is also the mastermind behind the bogus ‘thousand ship navy’ that is supposed to include ships from India, Indonesia etc, with Japanese merchant ships supplying it.

That’s why we have fewer than 300 ships in our navy for those diverse Naval Academy graduates to man.

[The Brush]

Who’d a thunk?

[Signalman]

“Diversity is our number one priority”

I'm sure glad Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, who was a white (Jewish) man, was allowed to attend medical school back in the 1930s, based not on his race or ethnic background or religion but on his abilities and test scores.

Had diversity been "the number one priority back then", he may not have become a physician, and I, and many others, might have contracted polio.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Depends whether they’re really letting in UNqualified minorities, or just minorities whose qualifications aren’t quite as high as some of the rejected white applicants. The US military needs broad political support from within the US, or we’re going to be in much deeper trouble than we’re already in. If the military is seen as being run overwhelmingly by whites, the political effects would be catastrophic. Yes, we need well-qualified officers running our military operations, but they won’t be able to accomplish much if the political process leaves them without the money or manpower to implement their abilities, or without even a mandate to undertake missions in the first place.

[HIDEK6]

I dream of an age when Americans won’t be judged by the color of their skin...

But ... but ... it's easier that way!

[Abathar]

He might have gotten away with this in previous administrations, but I will be amazed if he isn’t somehow disciplined for writing this article in some way now.

Even if it’s just a full seven year audit, someone will try and make him pay for writing this.

[Thank You Rush]

“”I dream of an age when Americans won’t be judged by the color of their skin...””

Why are conservatives the only ones who remember this speech? We took it seriously - apparently others didn’t as they’ve made a career of doing the opposite of what MLK advocated!

[silverleaf]

no shiite, sherlock

We’ll see in the next decade how well affirmative action and “life experience” prepare someone to catapult off the deck of a carrier and land again - in the dark

or navigate a nuc sub through an undersea mountain range

[SunkenCiv]

Here's a question: would you rather be defended by the officer with high all-around predictors (including leadership and athletics in addition to grades and test scores), or low ones? I bet you think I'm joking when I say that at the Unites States Naval Academy, we let in the ones with the low scores and reject the ones with the high.

"But if we don't do that, how will Moslem saboteurs infiltrate US vessels?"

[Sundog]

You took it hook, line, and sinker.

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.