Naval Academy Minority Admissions: Fair Without Being Equal?

This is one of those times when it pays to let the dust settle.

A month ago, U. S. Naval Academy English professor Bruce Fleming caused a fuss when he wrote an article for the opinion page of the local Annapolis newspaper, The Capital,
that claimed recent increases in the number of blacks and Hispanics admitted to the academy is occurring at the expense of better qualified white applicants.

Of course, Professor Fleming's allegations roiled the blog sphere and talk radio; and were noted in follow-on articles in The Washington Post and USA Today. I agree that there is something patently un-American about selecting someone ahead of someone else with relatively superior grades.

But what if -- as is the case at the Naval Academy, and many major colleges and universities -- grades were only one measure of an applicant's suitability? Would it then be fair to choose a "B" student over an "A" student, if the "B" student exhibited greater potential to fulfill the stated purposes of the institution?

By his own admission, it has been nearly a decade since Professor Fleming served on the Naval Academy's admission board. In the intervening years, the Academy began emphasizing a "whole person" concept in its selection of Midshipmen, which means that not every applicant with good grades will trump an applicant with poorer grades but high potential to serve our nation as a naval officer.

Such is the change that seems to offend the professor. Were it as simple as "racking and stacking" according to grade point averages (GPA) -- assuming for a moment that everyone agreed on how to regard the less than uniform way the nation's 37,000 high schools arrive at grades -- admissions boards, such as the one on which Professor Fleming served, would be unnecessary. Such is the problem with "objective" evaluations: While they may be equal, they can be far from fair.

In the three years that I served on the staff of the Naval Academy (2001 - 2004), I noticed that the professors (most of whom were civilians with scant military experience) cared most about academics while the military folks, who were responsible for Midshipmen professional development, cared most about such practical subjects as leadership, moral and character development, and physical training.

So, it is no surprise that Professor Fleming thinks poorly of an admissions process that seems to favor the general needs of the Naval service over an individual applicant's GPA.

Yet, the Naval Academy's purpose, according to its vision statement, is to be "the nation’s premier source of leaders for the Navy and the Marine Corps who embody the highest standards of character and professionalism, and who aspire to lead and serve their country in peace and war. "

Such aspirations for an institution need not mean that persons with good grades need not apply, but perhaps that academic achievement is only one element needed by a publicly-funded institution with a mandate to provide a diverse graduating class for service in an increasingly diverse Navy or Marine Corps.

Torture: Were God in the Room. . .

Several years ago, while teaching "Ethics and Moral Reasoning" in the U. S. Naval Academy's mandatory sophomore-level course of the same name, I heard a recently-retired three-star admiral say that while he would welcome lawyers in a room where decisions about air strikes were being made; he would exclude chaplains.

Based on recent news reports, it seems the folks who were making decisions about the interrogations of suspected terrorists had the same idea as the admiral. (To read a New York Times newspaper article on the subject, click here.)

While acquiring legal, medical and psychological cover for interrogation methods that many -- if not most -- lawyers, physicians and mental health professionals consider both illegal and unethical; it seems the Bush administration, the U. S. Justice Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency were unwilling to consider the morality of how they "persuaded" our enemies to give-up information.

The admiral's comments were a candid admission that when God is in the room, people are compelled to behave themselves. 

I am not saying that a chaplain -- in any way, circumstance, or form -- is God. However, clergy generally represent a standard that is higher than what is merely legal, even if all clergy (and I am speaking from observation and personal experience) fall short of that standard in their life and in their vocation.

The 17th Century French priest St. Vincent de Paul reportedly wrote or said that a man in a hurry misses the things of God. Clearly, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, we were a hurried and a fearful nation. And while it is good that our houses of worship, for a time, were filled with people seeking solace, guidance, and strength, there is now ample evidence that other Americans were inviting everyone but God into the situation room.

The admiral referenced above explained that with the chaplain came inconveniences.  For example, we might reason that there is acceptable risk in attacking terrorists who are in a building situated across the street from a school house -- unless our child is in the school house.  

When God is in the room, the captor becomes the one captured; the strong consider the position of the weak; and the means to an end are considered as seriously as the end.  At every level, the recognition of an authority greater than we reminds us that not everything that may be legal is right; and that just because we can do something, doesn't mean that we ought.

The Best Radio Interview in Years!

I was arrested this morning on my drive to work.

It wasn't the police who made the arrest. It was an interview of the U. S. Marines who serve in the solemn ceremonies where fallen warriors from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan arrive home in flag-draped caskets.

WAMU radio journalist Kavitha Cardoza conducted the riveting interviews, which really were more a seamless montage of voices telling intensely personal stories than a question and answer session. It was the best radio I've heard in years: Informative, intimate, inspiring, touching.

Click here for the podcast ("Bringing Home the Fallen") to hear the interview for yourself -- then tell me what you think.