Naval Academy Instructor Diversity FAIL

Applying the Sotomayor talking points to diversity in general:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/col/2009/06/14-47...

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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.

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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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Ignorance is painful, so I responded (so did Thom Hartman):

It's quite obvious from this "article" that Mr. Fleming has not experienced the Navy outside the walls of Sampson Hall. If he did, he would know that there are many more indicators of success than SAT scores and grades, which is why every Naval Academy applicant also has to interview with a board of graduates convened by his or her Congressperson. Numbers or tests cannot measure the qualifications gauged by personal interaction. But, what would I know; I’m just an “affirmative action baby”, right?
As a female, non-white graduate (an "exception," since I scored over 1400 on the SATs, had leadership experience, and graduated USNA with a 3.41), I have also had the pleasure of bringing that diversity to the officer corps. As a white male, Mr. Fleming has only ever seen himself reflected in every leadership position. But a majority of the Navy has not. Mr. Fleming has never overheard a sailor exclaim to her mother “Mom, our new division officer is black…and a female!” Nor has he helped that sailor transition into an officer program because that person finally believed that she could also be a leader. The lack of diversity in leadership positions is a very serious problem in the fleet and it affects our ability to recruit and develop the best leaders in the world. I support the CNO and the Supe in their attempts to strengthen our Navy through diversity. In the fleet, success is determined by personal effort and an ability to connect with the sailors, not by one’s GPA.


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update: my comment is currently the lowest ranking comment and is hidden. This is definitely being trolled...

My students are probably as diverse a group as you can get, and I can tell you from experience, one's status as a member of a minority group has NOTHING to do with one's intelligence or ability.

What I'm trying to find out is whether or not it influences his teachings. I fear that, if a teacher truly believes these things, he cannot be an effective teacher.

Remember James von Brunn, the shooter and murderer at the Holocaust Museum last week, had also made similar comments to the Naval Academy last month:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009330156_holocaustshooting12.html


"Von Brunn took his rants May 29 to the Naval Academy in Annapolis to complain about increased minority enrollment, which will be about 35 percent for the Class of 2013. He walked into the administration building and wanted a meeting with academy officials, said spokesman Cmdr. Joe Carpenter.

Von Brunn, who was a Navy officer during World War II, never got the meeting and was not considered a threat, Carpenter said."

So is the author continuing Von Brunn's complaints?

The unit there, officers as well as midshipmen (remember these are officers in training) was almost 100% white.