A U.S. Naval Academy professor's published claims that the college's admissions process is severely flawed has generated a storm of controversy at the Annapolis military college, including a rebuke from the school's superintendent.
Bruce Fleming, an 18-year faculty member who spent one year on the admissions board, challenges the academy's admissions policies in an article in this month's Proceedings, a national defense magazine.
In the article, titled "The Academy Can Do Better," Fleming criticizes preferential treatment for three groups he calls the "set-asides": applicants who are minorities, athletes or already members of the fleet.
"Admission to the Naval Academy is academically competitive for only about half the class," Fleming writes.
The article unleashed a torrent of e-mails from midshipmen to Fleming. The professor said about half of the messages contained expressions of support, while the other half attacked his claims. One e-mail threatened him, Fleming said.
The article also prompted a stinging letter this month from Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the school's superintendent. In it, Rempt wrote that he was "surprised and disappointed" by the professor's article.
Rempt wrote that the college's admissions process strives to develop future combat leaders and also "embraces the ethnic, gender and socio-economic diversity of our society, as well as the Navy and Marine Corps."
"Your action has served to needlessly criticize the Academy, our admissions board, and every midshipmen - past, present and future - who have earned their admission into the Academy, and are serving successfully as officers," Rempt wrote. "I would have expected a much more professional approach."
In response, Fleming said: "It is professional - that's what professors do. They publish."
The controversy comes at a time when the role of race in the university admissions process has become a national discussion. In 2003, the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the right of public colleges to consider race in admissions procedures, but struck down a point system used by the University of Michigan for minority applicants to its undergraduate school.
Fleming wrote that the ruling shows that racial admissions policies are illegal, but Rempt countered in his letter that this view "ignores the lengthy legal review and findings reached by the Navy" after the decision.
