Military has good
advice for president on diversity Military has good
advice for president on diversity
February 7, 2003
It may be a situation in which the federal government is sending out rather mixed signals on affirmative action, or one of those left hand-right hand things that bedevil huge institutions. But shortly after the Bush administration filed Supreme Court briefs opposing affirmative action as used in admissions at the University of Michigan, officials from the nation's military academies told the New York Times they needed such programs to "maintain both integrated student bodies and officer corps."
West Point even has specific percentage goals that sound suspiciously like those quotas the president so soundly derided. And retired senior military officers are so concerned about the diversity of the leadership ranks being depleted that they are filing a Supreme Court brief supporting the University of Michigan. That means President George W. Bush is filing a brief opposing policies that his military says are needed. Academy officials want diverse student bodies to produce military leadership that reflects the society it is ordered to defend.
And they need an officer corps that reflects the troops. Minorities make up
18 percent of the enlisted Air Force and a whopping 44 percent of the Army.
"Officers of color are important as role models in the Army," Col. Michael L.
Jones, dean of admissions at West Point, told the Times -- role models that
would include Secretary of State Colin Powell, the four-star general and strong
advocate for affirmative action. The military knows that race matters. It is,
Jones stressed, just one small factor in the overall admissions process.
But court-watchers say the Bush brief would preclude even that. Perhaps the commander in chief should have consulted the troops before engaging in this battle.
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