Post by Lisa Steptoe on May 16, 2007 10:45:06 GMT -5
FROM: Mike Kegler USMA 87
Prep School 83
Any leader worth their salt knows that the way to fix a problem is to address the problem’s underlying root cause. As a business consultant and former plant manager, I intuitively believe lowering standards leads to the unenviable perception lowering quality. As a Cadet, a white classmate once told me that the only reason I was there was that I took a white male cadets spot. That may or may not have been true (and no – I didn’t kick his butt just then) but the one thing I was reasonably assured of was that I met the same admission standards as everyone there and I graduated having met the same graduation requirement as anyone else who got to toss their caps at Michie stadium during graduation. As one who benefited from the process, I am not against affirmative action. No one (except people of color) was really complaining when whites had open access to the service academies. Now that there is a sustained (and much needed) push for diversity, suddenly the process of candidate admission is ‘unfair’ because it actively seeks out candidates of color.
Although on the surface this is not an affirmative action issue, a careful examination of what is at stake here says that this is indeed an affirmative action issue. What makes affirmative action credible is that it opens doors for individuals who also meet the admission standards but were not given a fair chance (or fair conditions) to prove themselves. Lowering admission standards is an admission of failure. It says that African Americans simply cannot cut it against ‘white’ or majority standards and therefore we must lower our bar (i.e. cheapen our quality) in order to met standards of diversity. I for one do not buy that argument. I believe the call to lower admission standards for African Americans is a cop out.
There has not been a decrease in the number of eligible African American candidates, there has only been a decrease in the number of African Americans willing to attend service academies (just as there has been a significant decline in the number of African Americans willing to join the military as well). This situation means that the service academies are getting more competition for the existing pool of eligible candidates. Lowering the standard is not a solution to the problem as that would be akin to cheapening the product and it would place an overwhelming burden on those who follow us to prove they are worthy of the Gray and the Army Blue.
Here are some facts surrounding the issue:
1. Less than 1% of the current U.S. population serves in the U.S. Military. . This number was once as high as 10% (Source DoD and Bureau of Labor Statistics websites). There are approximately 1.3 million service members on active duty status and approximately 1.2 million service members on reserve/guard status Gone are the days when families of all colors and ethnicities valued military service. The Department of Defense has not made the situation any more palatable by insulting our collective intelligence by saying the Iraq war is going well when in fact the average person can see everyday that is not. Finally, after the elections of 2006, people are starting to admit the real truth of the war and the Secretary of Ineptness was removed. Additionally, flat out lying about the nature of NFL star Pat Tillman’s death and the Walter Reed Scandal did not do much to instill faith in our nation’s military leadership.
2. Multiple deployments and the burden of war being shared by so few is truly testing the resolve of our service members and their families. All of us know people or have close friends who have been deployed 2, 3, or 4 times, each time risking their lives in a situation that grows increasingly unstable. Retention rates are falling not only for USMA graduates but for all commissioning sources. In short, we are dogging are existing troops and they are reacting accordingly.
3. There is a huge level cynicism and distrust among the black community with the Bush current administration. Gone are the days of the Clinton administration where the president had what seemed to be a genuine affinity for the black community. The military was actively seeking to downsize during those times. The war on terror and the war in Iraq are reversing the downsizing trend. Unfortunately for the military, young blacks are not buying what the conservative regime is selling and they are not joining the military as they once did in the past.
For a long time it did not seem that Bush administration cared about people of color. The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina verified that which was previously unspoken until a young black male rapper name Kanye West articulated this collective opinion. Young black men may do stupid things but they are not stupid. They know what time it is and Kanye pointed this out.
4. Culturally, we have got to face a growing American issue: we are more willing to build jails than invest in schools. The 2007 version of the Urban Leagues “State of Black America” (http://www.nul.org/thestateofblackamerica.html) found that although there have been significant gains in the black community with regards to education, there is a major disconnect at the middle and high school grade levels, particularly for black males. By the time they become teenagers blacks are more likely to drop out of school than whites. The report attributes the gaps between the races to differences in teacher quality and educational spending.
The lack of education tends to manifest itself in different negative way. The report found that African American men are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white males and make only 75% as much a year. Black males are nearly seven times more likely to be incarcerated, and their average jail sentences are 10 months longer than those of white men. A March 2007 article in ‘The Nation’s Health’ reported that 12 percent of Black men between the ages of 20 and 39 were incarcerated (550,000) in June of 2005. In 2006, the US reported some of the highest incarceration rates in the entire world.
Studies have shown an inverse relationship between education and incarceration. Logically, if we can keep people in school and get them better educated, we solve many of our national issues. Currently, our nation seems hell bent on solving our issues with a correctional system that has proven time and time again that all it does is breed more criminals. Why is the nation so will to spend money on a system we already know does not rehabilitate? Again, young black men are not stupid. They know what time it is.
In improving the quality of any system, the quality Guru Deming posits that the farther upstream in the process you catch a nonconformance, the cheaper and better the fix. We continuously prefer to waste money catching the product after it has been deemed defective.
Solutions to the West Point Recruiting Issue
increase the pool of available candidates – Simply stated, this would be any effort directed at keeping minority kids in school and getting them to graduate high school. Middle school would be a great time to introduce kids to the benefits of the service academies.
Bridge Builders (Old Grads and current cadets)– As one can tell from all the responses on this topic, this is an issue near and dear to our hearts. If any of you are like me, you are extremely grateful for the honor of attending the academy and you want more minorities to have that honor as well. Old Grads and current cadets are the Academy’s best recruiting tools. However, we need to be organized in our approach as many of us want to help but we also don’t want to get bogged down in a bunch of bureaucratic Academy crap. We really need to know how to get great candidates in touch with the right people or how to get people who have access to great candidates in touch with the right people..
Change the marketing approach - There needs to be a brand differentiation between “The Army” and “The United States Military Academy at west Point”. The status of the Academy unfortunately is diminished because it is simply just assumed to be the ‘Army’ (meaning another form of enlistment). The Academies are not the same thing as an enlistment but the general consensus among most people is that they are. With less than 1% of the population serving in the military, most people are hugely unaware of the prestige and history of our service academies. During the 2004 presidential election, there was all this hoopla about Bush and Kerry being Yale Bonesmen and how Bonesmen have become presidents and leaders of industry. The very same thing could have been said about service academy graduates. The general population simply does not know anything about the service academies because the academies are often just lumped together psychologically with the branch they are affiliated with and not even recognized as a university. It is a shame that more of our kids know about Sandhurst (because of Prince William and Prince Harry and all the pictures of them at Sandhurst in People magazine) than they know of our own very prestigious service academies, How many ads for West Point or the service academies have been on BET or in Ebony, Jet or The Source magazines or even on MySpace or YouTube? How many service academy ads have been placed on CNN, MTV, the CMc or Time magazine. Now ask the same question about ads for the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines.
The service academies need to pool their resources – Ideally, the academies are all striving for the same candidates. Instead of trying to go after candidates as a branch specific entity, service academies need to highlight and distinguish themselves as prestigious ‘leadership schools’ and try a ‘combined arms’ approach to marketing their brand. Harvard, MIT, Yale and UCLA can teach leadership theory and contemplate on leadership in a classroom, but cadets at the service academies practice the art of leadership everyday. Leadership is not a commodity. It is highly valued and sought after in all forms of organizations.
Do like corporations do and what the military is currently doing: pay people for critical minority candidate referrals who get appointments.
This solution list is a staring point and in no way all-inclusive. Collectively, I am sure we could all come up with many more solutions other than lowering the standards. The bottom line here is that lowering stands to get more minority candidates seems like an easy excuse for not working the problem. Lowering entry standards cheapens and dishonors all of us who have had the honor to join the Long Gray line and it would be a tremendous disservice to all those who follow close order behind us.
Mike Kegler
USMA 87
Prep School 83
Prep School 83
Any leader worth their salt knows that the way to fix a problem is to address the problem’s underlying root cause. As a business consultant and former plant manager, I intuitively believe lowering standards leads to the unenviable perception lowering quality. As a Cadet, a white classmate once told me that the only reason I was there was that I took a white male cadets spot. That may or may not have been true (and no – I didn’t kick his butt just then) but the one thing I was reasonably assured of was that I met the same admission standards as everyone there and I graduated having met the same graduation requirement as anyone else who got to toss their caps at Michie stadium during graduation. As one who benefited from the process, I am not against affirmative action. No one (except people of color) was really complaining when whites had open access to the service academies. Now that there is a sustained (and much needed) push for diversity, suddenly the process of candidate admission is ‘unfair’ because it actively seeks out candidates of color.
Although on the surface this is not an affirmative action issue, a careful examination of what is at stake here says that this is indeed an affirmative action issue. What makes affirmative action credible is that it opens doors for individuals who also meet the admission standards but were not given a fair chance (or fair conditions) to prove themselves. Lowering admission standards is an admission of failure. It says that African Americans simply cannot cut it against ‘white’ or majority standards and therefore we must lower our bar (i.e. cheapen our quality) in order to met standards of diversity. I for one do not buy that argument. I believe the call to lower admission standards for African Americans is a cop out.
There has not been a decrease in the number of eligible African American candidates, there has only been a decrease in the number of African Americans willing to attend service academies (just as there has been a significant decline in the number of African Americans willing to join the military as well). This situation means that the service academies are getting more competition for the existing pool of eligible candidates. Lowering the standard is not a solution to the problem as that would be akin to cheapening the product and it would place an overwhelming burden on those who follow us to prove they are worthy of the Gray and the Army Blue.
Here are some facts surrounding the issue:
1. Less than 1% of the current U.S. population serves in the U.S. Military. . This number was once as high as 10% (Source DoD and Bureau of Labor Statistics websites). There are approximately 1.3 million service members on active duty status and approximately 1.2 million service members on reserve/guard status Gone are the days when families of all colors and ethnicities valued military service. The Department of Defense has not made the situation any more palatable by insulting our collective intelligence by saying the Iraq war is going well when in fact the average person can see everyday that is not. Finally, after the elections of 2006, people are starting to admit the real truth of the war and the Secretary of Ineptness was removed. Additionally, flat out lying about the nature of NFL star Pat Tillman’s death and the Walter Reed Scandal did not do much to instill faith in our nation’s military leadership.
2. Multiple deployments and the burden of war being shared by so few is truly testing the resolve of our service members and their families. All of us know people or have close friends who have been deployed 2, 3, or 4 times, each time risking their lives in a situation that grows increasingly unstable. Retention rates are falling not only for USMA graduates but for all commissioning sources. In short, we are dogging are existing troops and they are reacting accordingly.
3. There is a huge level cynicism and distrust among the black community with the Bush current administration. Gone are the days of the Clinton administration where the president had what seemed to be a genuine affinity for the black community. The military was actively seeking to downsize during those times. The war on terror and the war in Iraq are reversing the downsizing trend. Unfortunately for the military, young blacks are not buying what the conservative regime is selling and they are not joining the military as they once did in the past.
For a long time it did not seem that Bush administration cared about people of color. The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina verified that which was previously unspoken until a young black male rapper name Kanye West articulated this collective opinion. Young black men may do stupid things but they are not stupid. They know what time it is and Kanye pointed this out.
4. Culturally, we have got to face a growing American issue: we are more willing to build jails than invest in schools. The 2007 version of the Urban Leagues “State of Black America” (http://www.nul.org/thestateofblackamerica.html) found that although there have been significant gains in the black community with regards to education, there is a major disconnect at the middle and high school grade levels, particularly for black males. By the time they become teenagers blacks are more likely to drop out of school than whites. The report attributes the gaps between the races to differences in teacher quality and educational spending.
The lack of education tends to manifest itself in different negative way. The report found that African American men are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white males and make only 75% as much a year. Black males are nearly seven times more likely to be incarcerated, and their average jail sentences are 10 months longer than those of white men. A March 2007 article in ‘The Nation’s Health’ reported that 12 percent of Black men between the ages of 20 and 39 were incarcerated (550,000) in June of 2005. In 2006, the US reported some of the highest incarceration rates in the entire world.
Studies have shown an inverse relationship between education and incarceration. Logically, if we can keep people in school and get them better educated, we solve many of our national issues. Currently, our nation seems hell bent on solving our issues with a correctional system that has proven time and time again that all it does is breed more criminals. Why is the nation so will to spend money on a system we already know does not rehabilitate? Again, young black men are not stupid. They know what time it is.
In improving the quality of any system, the quality Guru Deming posits that the farther upstream in the process you catch a nonconformance, the cheaper and better the fix. We continuously prefer to waste money catching the product after it has been deemed defective.
Solutions to the West Point Recruiting Issue
increase the pool of available candidates – Simply stated, this would be any effort directed at keeping minority kids in school and getting them to graduate high school. Middle school would be a great time to introduce kids to the benefits of the service academies.
Bridge Builders (Old Grads and current cadets)– As one can tell from all the responses on this topic, this is an issue near and dear to our hearts. If any of you are like me, you are extremely grateful for the honor of attending the academy and you want more minorities to have that honor as well. Old Grads and current cadets are the Academy’s best recruiting tools. However, we need to be organized in our approach as many of us want to help but we also don’t want to get bogged down in a bunch of bureaucratic Academy crap. We really need to know how to get great candidates in touch with the right people or how to get people who have access to great candidates in touch with the right people..
Change the marketing approach - There needs to be a brand differentiation between “The Army” and “The United States Military Academy at west Point”. The status of the Academy unfortunately is diminished because it is simply just assumed to be the ‘Army’ (meaning another form of enlistment). The Academies are not the same thing as an enlistment but the general consensus among most people is that they are. With less than 1% of the population serving in the military, most people are hugely unaware of the prestige and history of our service academies. During the 2004 presidential election, there was all this hoopla about Bush and Kerry being Yale Bonesmen and how Bonesmen have become presidents and leaders of industry. The very same thing could have been said about service academy graduates. The general population simply does not know anything about the service academies because the academies are often just lumped together psychologically with the branch they are affiliated with and not even recognized as a university. It is a shame that more of our kids know about Sandhurst (because of Prince William and Prince Harry and all the pictures of them at Sandhurst in People magazine) than they know of our own very prestigious service academies, How many ads for West Point or the service academies have been on BET or in Ebony, Jet or The Source magazines or even on MySpace or YouTube? How many service academy ads have been placed on CNN, MTV, the CMc or Time magazine. Now ask the same question about ads for the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines.
The service academies need to pool their resources – Ideally, the academies are all striving for the same candidates. Instead of trying to go after candidates as a branch specific entity, service academies need to highlight and distinguish themselves as prestigious ‘leadership schools’ and try a ‘combined arms’ approach to marketing their brand. Harvard, MIT, Yale and UCLA can teach leadership theory and contemplate on leadership in a classroom, but cadets at the service academies practice the art of leadership everyday. Leadership is not a commodity. It is highly valued and sought after in all forms of organizations.
Do like corporations do and what the military is currently doing: pay people for critical minority candidate referrals who get appointments.
This solution list is a staring point and in no way all-inclusive. Collectively, I am sure we could all come up with many more solutions other than lowering the standards. The bottom line here is that lowering stands to get more minority candidates seems like an easy excuse for not working the problem. Lowering entry standards cheapens and dishonors all of us who have had the honor to join the Long Gray line and it would be a tremendous disservice to all those who follow close order behind us.
Mike Kegler
USMA 87
Prep School 83