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Refer to: Central Region Letter 20-02
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PLEASE DO NOT HIT REPLY TO E-MAIL ME. I WILL NOT GET IT. E-MAIL ME DIRECTLY
AT MY USNA ALUMNI CLASSMAIL ADDRESS, len.wass@1964.usna.com
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Chapter Officers - Please give this e-mail the widest possible distribution
among your members and other alumni in your area.
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Subj: December 4-6 BOT Meeting (December
4th Summary)
I've just returned from three days in Annapolis for Board of Trustee meetings.
In order to make this newsletter shorter and readable, I'll summarize
the events for you first for the Wednesday USNA Update. Please feel free
to email me to ask for elaboration. Do not hit "reply" to get
in touch with me. See the email address.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4th - USNA UPDATE
This was an excellent day and was presented as a trial run.
All Trustees who participated applauded USNA and Alumni House for putting
this together. It was very informative and gave us first hand looks at
the midshipmen, their faculty and administrators, and the yard. It is
planned to expand the USNA Update and make it available to all alumni.
I will make sure to publicize this opportunity and strongly recommend
you participate if able.
Because of Academic Boards the Academic Dean and Commandant
had their deputies present to us (Dean William Garrett '59 and Captain
Greg Parker ' 79. We also had morning presentations by George Watt '73,
President/CEO of the Alumni Association, Captain Bruce Latta ' 78, Director
of Admissions, Mr. Chet Gladchuk, Athletic Director, and Captain Bob Parsons
' 68, Deputy for Finance and Administration (Building & Grounds, Accounting/Budgets,
Security, etc.). At lunch we were met by Midshipmen who escorted us to
lunch followed by attending class with them. My host was Midn 1/C Mike
Reel from Iowa, who is hopeful of being accepted into Navy Air upon graduation.
He turned out to be a very squared away and personable young man. He had
a formal leadership role over Plebes, and was rewarded (affectionately)
by having the floor of his room filled with one foot of leaves from trees-part
of the Army/Navy week "spirit." After class we were given a
tour of the Robert Crown Sailing Center which is about to be shut down
for a significant rehab and expansion. Finally, we toured the new Glenn
Warner Soccer Facility with Coach Greg Myers hosting (and Steve Maconi,
Director of Major Gifts for the USNA Foundation). The following is a combination
of facts and my impressions.
- Current faculty is 60/40 civilian/military; 252 military officers:
8 international; 2 Army; 6 Air Force; 11 permanent military (17 more
in the pipeline in universities getting advance degrees); 19 Naval Reservists
- Heavy emphasis on quality of faculty; Virtually all civilian profs
have PhDs; No Teaching Assistants as in most colleges-mids have direct
access to their profs; small class sizes (average is 17); student/faculty
ratio is 7:1; USNA is fully accredited by several accrediting agencies;
USNA is rated #1 by Princeton Review for accessibility of students to
faculty
19 majors: 7 engineering (Aerospace; EE; General; ME; Naval Architecture;
Ocean Engineering; Systems Engineering); 8 Math & Science (Chemistry;
Computer Science; etc); 3 Humanities; NEW: Information Technology (at
request of the Fleet)
- All Midshipmen graduate with a BS, even Humanities majors, because
of the technology associated with naval war fighting
- Summer school is given to mids who are having trouble in class, or
who had to take elementary classes (e.g., basic math) because of high
school deficiencies-very accelerated-three week course taken 8hrs/day
- 4289 mids distributed as follows: Men 85%; Women 15%; Minorities 20%;
Attrition rate: 5.2%; Difficult to attract mids from inner city environments,
especially in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and LA
- Bancroft Hall max capacity is 4780; in 9th year of 9-year renovation;
complete by Spring 2003
- Anna Hart is new "Mrs. Marshall" and assumed the post this
past week; will teach mids manners, social graces, etc.
- Recruited athletes are smart and academic standards are high; Proof:
1272 v. 1301 SAT scores for recruited athletes v. Brigade overall
- 7 athletes are Rhodes Scholar candidates (40% of candidates); One
starting lineman on football team is Rhodes Scholar semi-finalist-was
going to miss Army v. Navy Game if he passed final interview (he didn't,
but it shows that the Athletic Administration has its priorities set
right)
- NAPS priorities for admission: 1. Qualified Fleet 2. Diversity 3.
Blue Chip Scholar Athletes (restricted to 30% NAPS total)
- Much higher percentage of student athletes at USNA than at AF or West
Point;
Men: 33.6% USNA; 24.8% AF; 19.1% USMA
Women: 49.5% USNA; 42.5% AF; 38.6% USMA
- 1560 mids in 30 varsity sports (21 male/9 female)
- 450 mids in 17 club sports (10% of Brigade)
- Toured 4th and 6th wings just prior to lunch; saw mids in natural
environment; Plebes still shout out rates before meals in hallways;
Brigade forms up, but doesn't march to meals; Plebes sound off and make
square corners; Lots of camaraderie for pre-game, but clear that morale
is good inside Bancroft
- King Hall (AKA Mess Hall or Wardroom) lunch was memorable; Plebes
braced up; lots of pre-Army/Navy spirit, e.g. "wild mans"
given to upper class, cheers, etc.; Positively impressed with spirit
of Brigade and discipline, yet cohesion, among all classes
- New Commandant, Col. John Allen, USMC ' 76, is a real hit amongst
the mids; they really respect and admire his leadership; Supe is relatively
new and mid opinions are not yet formed
- Prayer before meals was given by Chaplain; mids have opportunity to
just be silent, but in a later meeting with a Chaplain I learned that
mids are quite devout-they have multiple worship opportunities, so only
a few go to the main chapel on Sunday mornings
- I talked to all mids at the table; fine group of young men and women;
would make all of you very proud and I hope that you have the opportunity
to meet some of them; one Plebe woman at table was a starter on the
women's soccer team which just went undefeated and won the championship
- I attended two classes: Plebe ethics and 1/C Military Law; Because
it was near the semester end, both classes were review sessions; both
profs were military officers (line and JAG LTs); Mids were interactive
with the prof, but the profs were very demanding of the mids; good learning
environment; class sizes were small-profs knew their material and seemed
to relate well with the class-very personalized environment.
- We then toured the Robert Crown Sailing Center which is being revamped
with $4.5 million of private funds-an example of where private funds
do part of the job and the government does the rest (i.e., new sailing
yachts are being bought by the govt); USNA has not been competitive
in world-class sailing in recent years, and this initiative is intended
to upgrade our performance
- Finally, we visited the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility, another example
of using private and govt funds(the building and the field facilities,
respectively) to achieve a world class facility; This was reported to
be the finest facility of its type in America (as judged by visiting
coaches and refs); Major Gen. Bill Anders, USAF, Astronaut, was a major
contributor to this facility.
The tour of Crown and Warner drove home the need for private funds to
achieve excellence in our facilities in the Yard.
That's it for this long, but summarized first report. My next
newsletter will address the actual Board and Committee meetings held on
Thursday and Friday of this past week.
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Very Respectfully,
Leonard R. Wass '64
Captain, USNR (Ret.)
Central Region Trustee, USNAAA
len.wass@1964.usna.com
(W) 630-637-1405 x223
Fax: 630-637-1404
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PLEASE DO NOT HIT REPLY TO E-MAIL ME. I WILL NOT GET IT. E-MAIL ME DIRECTLY
AT MY USNA ALUMNI CLASSMAIL ADDRESS, len.wass@1964.usna.com
***
Chapter Officers - Please give this e-mail the widest possible distribution
among your members and other alumni in your area.
***
All Central Region Letter's are archived at http://www.wcginc.com/usnaaa/index.htm
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