by Bradley Olson
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[Sun reporter]
In the ivory towers of academia,
free thought is a virtue and authority
exists to be questioned.
But at the U.S. Naval Academy
in Annapolis, authority is to be
revered and obeyed. For the 221
uniformed members of the teaching
faculty, that's not a problem.They readily salute their commanders and heed orders.
For the 313 civilian professors,
who teach everything from English
literature to electrical engineering
and often come from a culture that favors the free exchange
of views, it can be a source of tension.
"I'm sorry to see so many people
who don't understand that academics
are not about unquestioned
obedience," said Bruce
Fleming.
He is a tenured English professor
whose criticism of academy
policies has drawn the attention
of his uniformed superiors.
Early this year, for example, he
published an essay in a Navy
trade magazine criticizing the
school's admissions process. Vice
Adm. Rodney Rempt, the academy's
superintendent, issued him
a private rebuke.
In another famous example of a
faculty member expressing a personal
opinion, a professor was
publicly upbraided for his criticism
of the institution.
In 1996, just a few days after
James Barry wrote a lengthy
newspaper opinion piece saying
the academy suffered from a "culture
of hypocrisy," then-Superintendent
Charles R. Larson denounced
him in several meetings
with the entire faculty, officer
staff and brigade of midshipmen.
"He pointed at me and said,
'That man there is a liar and a
traitor,' " Barry, a leadership professor
and hockey coach at the
time, recalled recently. "Those
were pretty strongwords."
Barry was removed from his
classes and assigned to write recommendations
for how the academy
could improve upon some of
the problems he highlighted in
his opinion piece.
The incident prompted the intervention
of the American Association
of University Professors, a
Washington-based trade group for
academics, which threatened to
add the Naval Academy to a list it
keeps of schools that don't honor
academic freedom principles.
Barry returned to classes the
next day but eventually left the
academy.
Cmdr. Rod Gibbons, spokesman
for the academy, said the institution
would not comment on the
personal opinions of its employees,
but he did note that Fleming
has not been disciplined for his
public comments
"The U.S. Naval Academy supports
the right of our faculty
members to express their personal
opinions in a responsible
and accuratemanner," he said.
William Miller, the civilian academic
dean at the academy, said
that when teachers come to interview
at the academy they are often
nervous about how they will
fit into the military environment.
To assuage any concerns, the
academy has them teach a course
as part of their interview.
"They'll get a chance to see what
it's like to get great questions
from the midshipmen," Miller
said. "That's usually very stimulating
"The U.S. Naval Academy supports
the right of our faculty
members to express their personal
opinions in a responsible
and accuratemanner," he said.
William Miller, the civilian academic
dean at the academy, said
that when teachers come to interview
at the academy they are often
nervous about how they will
fit into the military environment.
To assuage any concerns, the
academy has them teach a course
as part of their interview.
"They'll get a chance to see what
it's like to get great questions
from the midshipmen," Miller
said. "That's usually very stimulating
because they'll find out we
have a very small average class
size. Our average class size is between
17 and 18 students. ...
That's really attractive to someone
who thinks of themselves as a
teacher. That's what we want
here."
Most civilian professors enjoy it
much in Annapolis that they
stay for their entire careers — attrition
is about 4 percent a year.
Many say they have come to embrace
the school's mission of preparing
Navy and Marine Corps officers
for their careers.
Civilian role
The prevalence of civilians on
campus is unusual among the nation's
service academies. Civilians
make up nearly 59 percent of the
teaching staff at the Naval Academy.
At West Point and the Air
Force Academy, military faculty
members far outnumber civilians,
usually by 2-to-1.
In addition, military faculty
members at those institutions
run all the academic departments;
at the Naval Academy, departments
are chaired almost entirely
by civilians — six of 15 departments
are chaired bywomen.
The Naval Academy uses the
tenure system, also unique
among the service academies.
Richard Abels, president of the
faculty senate and a history professor,
said he had to think long
and hard when he came to the
Naval Academy in 1982. He got his
graduate degrees at Columbia
University, beginning in 1968 at
the height of anti-Vietnam War
fervor. While he was no rabid protester,
he said, he was an admitted
liberal.
"I had to ask myself if I truly believed
in the Naval Academy's
mission," Abels said. "And when I
thought about it, I realized that
absolutely I did. They have a duty
to be guardians of our society, and
I get to teach them to think critically.
That's very attractive to
me."
Gibbons said that while the Naval
Academy holds midshipmen
to the highest academic standards,
the school is focused on
more than academics.
"The U.S. Naval Academy's mission
focuses on developing midshipmen
into leaders of character
for our Navy and Marine Corps,"
he said in an e-mail. "Through a
rigorous four-year program, midshipmen
are challenged to meet
the highest moral, mental and
physical standards so they are
prepared to serve as combat leaders
in the Navy and Marine
Corps."
Salaries at the Naval Academy
for full professors average about
$103,000, quite high for a school
with no graduate programs, according
to published surveys.
However, some faculty members
complain that their salaries are
about 15 percent to 20 percent
lower than schools the academy
is often compared to academically.
Another sore spot for some professors
is that the academy leadership
changes every few years.
That occasionally leaves the civilian
faculty members — sometimes
referred to as the academy's
"collective" or "corporate"
memory — to fight changes ordered
by administrators who often
have much less experience in
higher education than they do.
Fleming said the school's education
mission "ultimately seems to
triumph, but not without a struggle
with every new administration
that has to be re-educated
about the purpose of education."
Research, teaching
The Naval Academy is also widely
regarded as an institution that
emphasizes teaching over research,
something that has good
and bad implications for faculty.
Ken Knowles, who teaches robotics
and embedded computing
in the academy's systems engineering
department, part of one
of the most highly regarded engineering
programs in the country,
said all professors in his department,
regardless of the research
they might be doing, must teach
three classes a semester.
Many senior professors still
teach introductory courses, he
said, and there are no teaching assistants.
This makes the academy
quite an anomaly when you consider
the renown of some of its
professors, he said.
"We have some world-class researchers
here, but all of us teach
a full load because we're here to
educate the midshipmen," he
said.
For some professors, working at
a teaching institution is a perfect
fit.
Sommer Gentry just came to the
academy after getting her doctorate
in applied mathematics from
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Because applied
mathematics is a sought-after expertise
inside academia and out,
she could have gone to any number
of universities. But because of
her love for teaching, the Naval
Academy was her first choice.
Gentry said that because of how
talented the midshipmen are as
students, the classroom atmosphere
can be electric. The Mids
are just as likely to speak openly,
ask questions and challenge assumptions
as were her students
atMIT, Gentry said.
The Administration
Professors say that while the
classroom atmosphere is completely
open, and often invigorating,
it's dealing with the superintendent's
office that can get them
into trouble.
In Annapolis Autumn, the book
he was prohibited from signing
on campus, Fleming describes attending
conferences where other
academics questioned whether
the academy offers a real education.
He always counters that it
does.
"I love midshipmen, but I am
frustrated by the apparent ignorance
of the administration regarding
what professors are supposed
to do," Fleming said. "My
frustration waxes with each contact
with the administration, and
wanes during periods when I'm
left alone to domy job."
Knowles said that like him, most
professors who stay at the academy
come to enjoy it.
"We take our jobs very seriously
on the teaching side," the engineering
professor said. "By the
time faculty members are tenured,
they have bought in to the
programhere and are usually very
proud of the Naval Academy. After
all, we could probably make a lot
more money somewhere else.
