Appendix
- USMA's
Academic Program
On my return to civilian life I accepted a position with Sandia
Corporation in Albuquerque as a Staff Member Technical or as we were later
known, a Member of the Technical Staff. There were only five
Chicanos at the time who were members of this elite 1,500 member group,
but one of them, Leo Gutierrez, was the Director of Preliminary
Design. I
could have added some of the Ordnance courses such as Manufacturing
Processes, Mechanisms, Automotive Engineering and Materials, Armament
Engineering and Materials, Explosives, Ammunition, Atomic Weapons,
Ballistics, Gun Construction, Recoil Systems, Guided Missiles, Small
Arms, and Automatic Weapons, but I contained myself. I
wonder how many times other West Point graduates have had to "justify"
their preparation when they take civilian jobs? He
writes: "Our mission as soldiers and educators at West Point is to inspire
our students so they will be dedicated to the life‑long pursuit of
excellence in all they do. The broad, general, collegiate education we
provide them embraces a wide variety of disciplines and seeks to strike a
vital balance between the sciences and the humanities. The academic
program gives every cadet the educational base for a long career of
commissioned service, a foundation for successful post‑graduate work in a
considerable variety of specialized studies, and perhaps of ultimate
importance to the Army - a desire for a life-time of continuing
intellectual development. FACULTY:
In view of the unique objective assigned the Military Academy - the
development of professional Regular Army Officers - West Point has on
board the finest under-graduate faculty in the land. Not only are its
non-tenured members highly competent class-room teachers, fresh from
post-graduate study in the nation's great universities and well on top of
their disciplines, but, in addition, they are outstanding examples of the
Army's junior commissioned officers: forward looking, innovative,
professionally keen, intellectually lively, physically fit, and of an age
to empathize effectively with their students. USMA
prides itself that the beneficial influence of these young scholars in
uniform reaches well beyond the mere transfer of knowledge and the
inculcation of effective disciplinary methodologies; upon West Point's
commissioned academic staff rests the additional responsibility of
motivating cadets in their career towards those ideals and principles
which must animate all of our Army officers. Tenured
faculty members on the other hand continue to provide essential continuity
and stability to the academic program through their service as department
heads, deputies, and associate professors. Since 1970, these faculty
members have participated in the War College Fellowship program which
renews their contact with the military profession and enhances their
development as professional officers. Such fellowships involve attendance
as a student, assignment as a full-time member of the teaching faculty, or
some combination of the two based on the individual's background and the
needs of the college. West Point has a Permanent Associate Professor at
the Army War College, the National War College and the Air War
College. These
two faculty components, non-tenured and tenured, work closely together in
the pursuit of academic excellence. The high quality of their instruction
was confirmed by the Military Academy's accrediting institution, The
Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, during its
last evaluation of our academic program: Classroom instruction at West
Point reaches an exceedingly high level of performance. One member of the
evaluation team suggested the formation of a "West Point Instructional
Blood Bank: from which transfusions might be begged, borrowed or stolen
for use in vivifying tired civilian instructors in our own institutions.
Particularly noteworthy is the intelligent and effective manner in which
educational technology is fully integrated into the instructional
program. The various media are available for use;
experimentation and with new techniques is general and constant;
instructors seem to know how to employ the facilities at their disposal
with great effectiveness. An Academy classroom is a lively place with
students and instructors engaging in constant but directed discussion that
progresses systematically through assigned course materials. All thought
of indoctrination as the pattern for West point teaching disappears within
the first fifteen minutes of classroom experience there. The art of
instruction is highly regarded at the Academy, but methodology is not
permitted to take precedence over educational content. Classes and courses
are organized with clarity of purpose, and the purposes are well within
the range of student comprehension, Junior and senior faculty members
evidently work well together in course planning and preparation." ACADEMIC SUPPORT: The Military Academy has moved
actively, but with discrimination, to integrate into its teaching programs
those advances in audio‑visual and computer technology which are of proven
pedagogical efficacy. A program for equipping each cadet with a
pocket-electronic calculator for use in mathematics and the scientific
disciplines in place of the hallowed slide rule, is now well advanced, and
its results are being monitored; West Point's seven‑channel closed‑circuit
TV network of over five hundred class‑room receivers is being most
effectively used; cadet utilization of the Academy's advanced computer
equipment is facilitated by an extensive network of remote terminals
located conveniently in cadet areas; and the USMA Library, dedicated
primarily to academic course support, is continuously making appropriate
additions to its collections. Its recently acquired electronic tie-ins to
the Ohio College Library Center have markedly increased its capacity to
meet demands for timely information and to expedite the previously
time-consuming task of cataloguing library acquisitions. CURRICULUM:
The faculty and its supporting agencies work together to give each cadet a
quality education. The required core curriculum outlined below provides
the foundation for that education. 4th
Class Year Credit
Hrs 3rd
Class Year Credit
Hrs Mathematics 12 Mathematics 7 Engineering
Fundamentals 4 Chemistry 7 Planetary
Science 2.5 Physics 7 Geography 2.5 Foreign
Language 6 Foreign
Language 5 History 5 English 5 English 2.5 Psychology 2.5 31.0 37 2d
Class Year Credit
Hrs 1st
Class Year Credit
Hrs Mechanics 7 Engineering 7 Electrical
Engineering 7 History
of Military Art 7 Physics 3.5 Social
Sciences 7 Economics 2.5 English 2.5 U.S.
Govt. 2.5 Leadership 2.5 Law 5 37.0 26.0 Mastery
of these core subjects assures every graduate of a shared educational
experience which reaches across a broad spectrum of knowledge. The
curriculum also provides an introduction to the methodologies employed in
the several scientific and technical fields as well as in the humanities
and prepares the cadet for more advanced study in the elective
program. To
accommodate individual interests, aptitudes and aspirations an extensive
elective program is offered. Every cadet enrolls in sis or seven
electives, chosen from an offering of over one-hundred and fifty courses
in four broad areas: Basic Sciences, Applied Science and Engineering,
Humanities, and National Security and Public Affairs. elective courses
within these areas of concentration are grouped into associated fields as
shown below: Basic
Sciences
Humanities Chemistry
American
Studies Mathematics
British &
American Literature Physics
Chinese Computer Science
French
German Applied
Science & Engineering
Portuguese Civil Engineering
Spanish Engineering
Mechanics Nuclear Engineering
National Security/Public Affairs Weapons Systems Engineering
Economics
Geography
History Military Studies
Interdisciplinary
International
Affairs Management
Political
Science
The
cadet may choose his electives from the courses offered in an area of
concentration or from a single field in that area. He may also choose the
General Elective Program and continue the pattern and philosophy of the
core curriculum by selecting his electives from the entire spectrum of
elective offerings. Although the areas of
concentration do not constitute "majors" as that term is commonly used, a
cadet, in expressing his elective options, can achieve a minor in one of a
number of fields and can closely approach the requirements of a
respectable major in many others. Two
typical programs are outlined below to illustrate the point; they show
elective courses available at West Point compared with those offered at
prestigious universities in their majors
programs: University
of Texas
USMA
Processes
ME 384 Mechanics of
Materials
Vibrations Compressible Fluid Flow
ME 481 Compressible
Aerdyn'ics Thermodynamics II (Energy
Conv.)
ME 472 Direct Energy
Conver. Design of Thermal
Systems
ME 473 Experimental
Thermodyn. Gas Power Dynamics
ME 471
Propulsion Yale
USMA EN 29 European Literary Trad.
EN 201 Comparative
Literature EN 25 Major English Poets
EN 381A Brit. Lit. to
1680 EN 56a 19th Cent. Amer.
Lit.
EN 383B
19th Cent. Amer Lit.
EN 41a Liter. of the
Renaissance
EN 383C Lit. of the
Renaiss. EN 76‑2b Literature &
Psychology
EN 402 Readings in
Philosophy EN 44b 18th Cent.
English Novel
EN 481A The
Novel EN 32a Chaucer
EN 485C Seminar in
Chaucer EN 33a Shakespeare &
Elizabethan
EN 486Q Seminar in
Shakespeare
Drama
EN 71a Faulkner
EN 486B Seminar in
Faulkner EN 64‑2a Emily Dickinson
EN 486M Dickinson,
Whitman, etc. EN 99a Special Project for
EN 489 Advanced
Individual
English Majors
Studies in English It
is important to note that the elective program affords a greater degree of
choice than students normally have in traditional majors programs, and
over four years our students generally receive a more balanced education
because of the core curriculum. Also of more than passing interest is the
fact that many of our students validate courses in the core curriculum by
virtue of transfer credit, advanced placement examinations, and
departmental validation examinations. Each validation then creates the
opportunity for the cadet to take an additional elective
course. CURRICULAR
REVIEW: To ensure that curriculum development at the Military Academy
keeps pace with current educational trends and the requirements of the
Department of the Army, periodic reviews of our academic program must be
conducted. Annual review of all Military programs is accomplished by the
Board of Visitors. Curricular review and accreditation are accomplished
every ten years by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools. These
formal reviews are also complemented by the work of various ad hoc
committees of the Academic Board which continuously provide internal
curricular review. Periodically, at the Superintendent's direction,
extensive curriculum review is conducted by boards composed of
distinguished civilian educators, executives, and members of the Military
Academy faculty. The last such review was conducted in 1972 by the Kappel
Board, and the Superintendent has recently appointed an internal
Curricular Study Group to conduct a comprehensive study of the academic
program and curriculum. It is charged with seeking ways to improve the
quality of the program. On
a less formal basis the Cadet Academic Council, consisting of four First
Classmen and four Second classmen, provides valuable student insight on
matters pertaining to the academic program. They meet with the Dean twice
a month to share ideas and make recommendations about academic matters
that concern the Corps of Cadets. Another
dimension outside the Military Academy has been added to the curricular
review process as a result of recent initiatives outlined by the
Department of Defense Committee on Excellence in Education. Under the
auspices of that Committee, extensive curricular studies were conducted
during the last year at the three service academies. These studies
fostered an exchange of ideas among Academy planners and led to a better
understanding of mutual programs. Committee initiatives also led to a new
exchange program in September 1975. EXCHANGE PROGRAM:
Under the student exchange program, six cadets from West Point attended
the Air Force Academy during the first semester of Academic Year 1975-76,
and six attended the Naval Academy. Likewise, six cadets from those two
academies were in residence at West Point at the same time. The cadet
exchange is complemented by a yearlong faculty exchange between officers
of the Military Academy and the Air Force Academy. Both of these exchange
programs enhance inter-service relationships, broaden understanding of
service roles and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas concerning
Academy programs. REFLECTION:
Perhaps our graduates themselves offer the most conclusive testimony about
the effectiveness of West Point's educational program. They continue to
confirm its excellence by not only performing well as commissioned
officers in the Army, but also by writing brilliant records in competition
with the graduates of other service academies, civilian universities and
colleges for postgraduate fellowships and scholarships in a wide variety
of fields. West Pointers clearly hold their own. Since 1923 when cadets
first began competing for Rhodes Scholarships, fifty-five have been
selected - a record of achievement exceeded only by Harvard, Yale, and
Princeton. In
1962 West Point entered competition for National Science Foundation
Graduate Fellowships, twenty-seven have been won; starting in 1960,
graduated cadets began competing for admission to the Olmsted Scholar
Program and twenty-three have enrolled; since 1969, two graduates have won
the Daedalian Award for graduate study in Aeronautical-astronautical
engineering; since 1973 sixteen have been named Marshall Scholars,
thirty-eight cadets have won the Hertz foundation Graduate Fellowship for
study in engineering and applied science, eight have been named East-West
Center Fellows and six cadet have been selected as Truman
Scholars. Historically,
over seventy percent of those graduates who remain on active duty attend
graduate schools in a number of disciplines to meet Army requirements.
Those at West Point charged with administering the academic program and
shaping the curriculum look upon the institution and its graduates with a
feeling of great accomplishment, and are neither complacent or content to
rest on their laurels. They are well aware of the serious challenge which
they face from year to year. The task is neither to maintain the status
quo nor to bring about sweeping reform. One must look carefully at the
Army's needs and more deliberately prepare the graduates to do their jobs
in a constantly changing world. As
a way of teaching them to deal with that world, they must be taught to
deal with themselves. The words of William Johnson Cory - poet,
classicist, historian and assistant master of Eton for over a quarter of a
century - is a reminder of the complexity of this
task: You
go to a great school not for knowledge as much as arts and habits; for the
habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming at
a moment's notice new intellectual postures, for the art of entering
quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to
censure and refutation, for the art of indicating assent or dissent in
graduated terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy, for
the habit of working out what is possible in a given time; for the taste,
for discrimination, for mental courage and mental soberness. Above all,
you ago to a great school for self knowledge. It
was over one hundred years ago that Cory set down these thoughts on the
nature of schooling, but they remain remarkably apt today for West
Point, and I will note that West Point was selected by Forbes as the No. 1 College in the nation in 2009. Ultimately, the hope is to make cadets think clearly so they can
more effectively serve the nation. |