Academy Officials

For more than a year, the director, cameraman, sound technician and helper were a head-turning presence on the grounds of the Naval Academy. And the midshipmen would ask: Now, when's this going to run?The answer is Sunday. And at 8 p.m., many of the 4,000 students trickling back to Annapolis after their post-final exam break will probably be sitting in dormitory ward rooms watching themselves and their classmates -- and their Army, Air Force and Coast Guard counterparts -- on the Discovery Channel.

As part of the academic aspect of the annual Basketball Academy two major scholarships are awarded to girls and boys participating in the event held last month, the $1,000 James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship and the $500 Downtown Locker Room Scholarship. Digital Harbor's Kirsten Gaither-McDonald and Lake Clifton's Aaron Parks received the Hubbard scholarships while Aberdeen's Nia Alleyne and St. Frances's Miles Code received the Downtown Locker Room awards. The Hubbard scholarships were created by his family to honor the a senior girl and boy “making the greatest contribution to his or her team in terms of overall excellence in participation, performance and leadership while maintaining a minimum 2.5 GPA.” The Downtownn Locker Room scholarship honors the players with the highest cumulative GPAs one each team in the tournament.

Birk Billingsley knew the price of his free Naval Academy education. It required adherence to all the dos and don'ts. Still, last fall, the 22-year-old senior engaged in a don't. He got caught and had to head home to Texas. He would have graduated in six weeks. Instead, he owes the Navy $93,000 for his education. "I made a big mistake," he says. After 22 coed years, the academy still struggles to regulate the urges of college-age men and women. Despite the rules -- no sex with a freshman, no sex on campus -- midshipmen regularly fall in love, have sex and sometimes get caught.

If Baltimore City schools and Basketball Academy officials have their way, the popular event will return to a college campus next year. Because of NCAA regulations banning "nonscholastic" high school basketball events from Division I college campuses, this week's 16 t h Annual Basketball Academy had to be moved from Coppin State to Lake Clifton. Basketball Academy officials, however, believe their event is a scholastic event. "I feel very confident we'll be back on a college campus," said Bob Wade, coordinator of athletics for the Baltimore City Public Schools.

Samuel E. Shropshire, the Annapolis alderman who was a contender for mayor this fall, was convicted Thursday of groping a Naval Academy midshipman, a crime for which he could be sent to prison for more than a decade. Shropshire, 61, was convicted during a bench trial on charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual assault for grabbing the crotch of a 21-year-old midshipman whom he mentored in an academy sponsorship program. "The defendant should have known better," said Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr. "He should have separated himself from the situation.

A 19-year-old Naval Academy midshipman was cited for underage drinking at downtown Annapolis bar during an enforcement sweep last week, police said Tuesday. Sara James Markwith, a Washington state resident attending the military college, left her seat at the Acme Bar & Grill when police and other city inspectors entered the bar in the 100 block of Main St., police said. Maj. Scott Baker said officers "had to coax her out of the bathroom. " She gave police an incorrect birthdate, and she became argumentative with officers, but later told police she slipped in through a back door when someone else was returning inside.

Lorraine and Roy Milark said they weren't the least bit apprehensive about sending their 17-year-old daughter off to the U.S. Naval Academy, an institution with a reputation almost as tough as its standards."

Midshipmen can no longer trade exemplary performance at the Naval Academy for weekend leave. "Our object is to keep midshipmen at the academy more, not less," said Capt. Lee Geanuleas, director of the academy's professional development division, in explaining the change at the thrice-yearly meeting of the school's Board of Visitors yesterday. The board, a congressionally appointed group that runs the academy, also heard from Geanuleas that the new policy is an attempt to maintain rankings between classes and to end the idea that leaving campus is a prize.

The Naval Academy's sports program, criticized for questionable spending, got another watchdog yesterday.The Board of Visitors, the academy's governing board, created a standing committee to periodically review the Naval Academy Athletic Association.The Sun reported in 1992 that the NAAA, a private, nonprofit organization that finances Navy athletics, bought a $317,000 condominium for Jack Lengyel, the Annapolis school's athletic director and NAAA president.The association also sent 96 academy officials, private citizens and local businessmen on an all-expenses-paid trip to the annual Army-Navy game in Philadelphia.

The Naval Academy has charged four male midshipmen with assault after an investigation into a pre-football game pillow attack that left two female midshipmen with bruises and a black eye.During the week before the Dec. 5 Army-Navy football game, dozens of midshipmen pummeled each other with pillows in the Bancroft Hall dormitory. The attack on the two women, which apparently got out of control, was the only one that resulted in injuries, academy officials said.They did not know whether the bruises and black eye were the resultof punches or sharply snapped pillow cases, academy officials said.

The number of sexual assaults reported at the Naval Academy doubled during the 2010-2011 academic year, as did the percentage of female midshipmen reporting unwanted sexual contact, according to a report released Tuesday by the Defense Department. The number of assaults reported at the Naval Academy rose from 11 to 22, according to the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. That's more than twice the number of assaults that were reported at the U.S. Military Academy, which had 10, but fewer than the 33 reported at the Air Force Academy during 2010-2011.

The Baltimore Fire Department has voluntarily ended its emergency medical services training in the wake of an investigation into cheating at the fire academy in June, according to the state agency that oversees such training. The disclosure came a day before the state was set to review the findings of the cheating investigation. The Fire Department preemptively sent a letter to the head of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems board indicating that the department would give up the fire academy's designation as a state-certified EMS educational program, Fire Chief James S. Clack said Monday.

A 19-year-old Naval Academy midshipman was cited for underage drinking at downtown Annapolis bar during an enforcement sweep last week, police said Tuesday. Sara James Markwith, a Washington state resident attending the military college, left her seat at the Acme Bar & Grill when police and other city inspectors entered the bar in the 100 block of Main St., police said. Maj. Scott Baker said officers "had to coax her out of the bathroom. " She gave police an incorrect birthdate, and she became argumentative with officers, but later told police she slipped in through a back door when someone else was returning inside.

Samuel E. Shropshire, the Annapolis alderman who was a contender for mayor this fall, was convicted Thursday of groping a Naval Academy midshipman, a crime for which he could be sent to prison for more than a decade. Shropshire, 61, was convicted during a bench trial on charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual assault for grabbing the crotch of a 21-year-old midshipman whom he mentored in an academy sponsorship program. "The defendant should have known better," said Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr. "He should have separated himself from the situation.

It's one of the Naval Academy's most enduring traditions: Hundreds of shirtless plebes mark the end of their first year by swarming a grease-slicked, 21-foot-obelisk, climbing over one another in a race to the top. Now, academy officials are asking: Is this safe? In a terse statement this week, academy officials said they will assemble a student committee to study changes to the Herndon Monument Climb. "Like many customs and traditions, they evolve, they change over time," said Cmdr.

In just nine weeks at the helm of the Naval Academy, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler has already made waves, vastly cutting back on the free time of midshipmen and insisting that they study three hours a night, attend meals on campus and muster for early-morning formations. A former submarine commander, Fowler has also canceled pep rallies, scaled back incentives for attending football away games and cut extracurricular activities. He has dispensed with the singing of old Navy songs and has hinted that the academy could move away from one of the more beloved programs developed by his predecessor: sailing instruction that was designed as a leadership laboratory.

Naval Academy officials have announced that comedian Dana Carvey's performance has been canceled. His performance was scheduled Friday at Alumni Hall.School of technology to sponsor open houseThe Center of Applied Technology-South, 211 Central Ave., Edgewater, will sponsor an open house from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow.School officials will lead a tour of the center, and students will offer shop demonstrations.Information: 956-5900.Chemical society honors Naval Academy professorRetired Naval Academy professor Samuel P. Massie has received the American Chemical Society award for encouraging disadvantaged students to seek chemical sciences careers.

Women and minorities trail white men in most areas of the U.S. Naval Academy's scholastic and military training, according a recently released report by the General Accounting Office.Academy officials responded that the study "rehashes many old findings and previously reported data" because it was based on surveys taken two and three years ago.The GAO report, which was made public April 30, faulted the academy for higher attrition rates among women and minorities. It also found that women and minorities were more likely than their male counterparts to be cited for honor code violations and that their punishment was more severe.

Looking out on the future site of a massive field house to be named in his honor, Wesley Brown, the first African-American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, marveled at how much times have changed since he entered the school in 1945. "I couldn't have ever conceived of anything like this," he said yesterday after a groundbreaking ceremony in his honor. "There's a certain euphoria I'm feeling now, and I haven't come back down yet. I guess I haven't had much sleep all week, just thinking about it."

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski yesterday questioned top U.S. Naval Academy leaders about why problems with sexual harassment have persisted at their institution despite numerous investigations and recommendations over the past 15 years. "This seems like deja vu all over again," Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, said at a meeting of the academy's Board of Visitors, a supervisory group made up of members of Congress and presidential appointees. Citing a 1990 incident in which a woman midshipman was handcuffed to a urinal and photographed by male mids, Mikulski asked the academy to review how past recommendations have been implemented, and which attempts to make the academy a more hospitable place for women have worked better than others.