Academy Officials

Having infuriated nobody much except the U.S. Naval Academy, its commanding officers, and by extension the entire Navy family on land and sea around the globe, Dr. Carol Burke heaves a sigh familiar to anyone who has ever had a mother.It's a sigh that says, "Boys will be boys. But why?"She's an authority on such matters. Dr. Burke, now associate dean of arts and sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, taught English and directed the writing center at the Naval Academy for seven years, ending in the spring of 1991.

A 31-year-old construction worker doing renovations on a vacant Naval Academy classroom building suffered head injuries yesterday afternoon when part of a ceiling collapsed and buried him in rubble, academy officials said.Karen Myers, a Naval Academy spokeswoman, said the man, who works for Hudak Insulation in Baltimore, was standing on the third floor of Sampson Hall at Maryland Avenue and Decatur Road when an 8-foot-by-10-foot slab of concrete ceiling fell near him at 1: 20 p.m. Naval Academy fire officials arrived at the scene within minutes and extricated him from the rubble, and a state police helicopter took him to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Myers said.

House and Senate lawmakers, concerned about spending decisions and potential conflicts of interest, have agreed to shift the financing of Navy sports from the century-old Naval Academy Athletic Association to the federal government by 1996.Conferees accepted yesterday an amendment proposed by Sen. Robert C. Byrd to force the change as they wrapped up their work on the defense authorization bill for next year.The amendment by the West Virginia Democrat also calls for the academy's athletic director to be either an active-duty military officer or a civil servant rather than an employee of an outside group, bringing the Naval Academy into line with the Army and Air Force academies.

House and Senate lawmakers, concerned about spending decisions and potential conflicts of interest, have agreed to shift the financing of Navy sports from the century-old Naval Academy Athletic Association to the federal government by 1996.Conferees accepted yesterday an amendment proposed by Sen. Robert C. Byrd to force the change as they wrapped up their work on the defense authorization bill for next year.The amendment by the West Virginia Democrat also calls for the academy's athletic director to be either an active-duty military officer or a civil servant rather than an employee of an outside group, bringing the Naval Academy into line with the Army and Air Force academies.

After almost 10 weeks of fiery and bitter debate questioning the future of the Naval Academy and its recent emphasis on ethics training, the academy's alumni association rebuffed an internal attack on the school's programs and curriculum. Last week, the association turned back a symbolic challenge to the re-election of the group's chairman by Charles C. Krulak, a graduate and former commandant of the Marine Corps who has called the school's ethics training programs "mumbo jumbo." A group of alumni began promoting Krulak as a write-in candidate for the chairmanship to "send the academy a message."

LIKE ANY SMART SHOPPER, the U.S. Naval Academy wants to buy its supplies at the most favorable prices. Since it is paying a premium of as much as 50 cents for each gallon of milk produced at its 84-year-old working dairy in Gambrills, it would like to shut the operation and buy milk products wholesale. But that doesn't mean that the 865 acres should become a subdivision, another strip mall or even a golf course.Thirty years ago, the Navy wanted to close the farm, but the Congress would not permit it. Members of the House Armed Services Committee considered the dairy "a morale building asset to the Naval Academy" and prohibited the Navy from closing the farm without congressional approval.

The U.S. Naval Academy is looking to increase by at least half the proportion of black and Hispanic midshipmen over the next decade as part of the Navy's efforts to dramatically increase its numbers of minority officers.Slightly more than 7 percent of the 4,200 midshipmen are black and a little more than 6 percent are Hispanic. Academy officials hope to push those figures to 10 or 12 percent in each category, John W. Renard, the academy's dean of admissions and a retired Navy captain, said yesterday.

Naval Academy officials and some midshipmen aren't buying a congressional survey that says 70 percent of female midshipmen have experienced repeated sexual harassment. Their research shows that nearly all of the women feel accepted in the brigade, they say."The ones that are complaining are usually the ones that have problems with the academics of this place," said Midshipman Katie Dooley, a senior. "We are trying so hard to assimilate, and they keep bringing that up."Debbie Roberge, also a senior, said those who are complaining can't meet the academy's rigorous standards.

In the days leading up to graduation at the Naval Academy, Annapolis always begins to buzz. This year, however, the buzz is bigger than ever. Sometime Friday morning, President Bush is scheduled to arrive to deliver the commencement speech to the academy's Class of 2005. It will be the president's second visit to Annapolis in six months, and academy officials said the anticipation is palpable. "The Mids, the faculty and the staff are very excited about this year's speaker," said academy spokesman Cmdr.

The superintendent of the Naval Academy, Vice Adm. Richard J. Naughton, made a forceful statement yesterday expressing "zero tolerance" for sexual assault at the military college and vowing to promptly investigate all complaints. It was Naughton's first public statement on the issue since the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., came under fire for its mishandling of sexual assault cases. The statement seemed aimed at assuring the school's oversight panel and the public that the Naval Academy was committed to aggressively pursuing complaints of sexual misconduct.