Focus: Retrain

Retrain

Long-term, systemic issues at Kings Point still need attention, report says.

By Jerry Fraser, Correspondent

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., in 1943, in the midst of World War II, he said, “This academy serves the Merchant Marine as West Point serves the Army and Annapolis serves the Navy.”

He might easily have added, “and as the U.S. Merchant Marine serves our nation,” for it would be hard to overstate the Merchant Marine’s contribution to the war effort.

To say nothing of its sacri ce. According to U.S. Merchant Marine gures, about 9,300 merchant mariners were killed during the war – about one in 26, the highest casualty rate of any service. Indeed, many Kings Point midshipmen served on vessels in combat zones, and 142 lost their lives.

The young academy was tested by war, and it more than met the challenge. Enrollment rose to 2,700, more than two and half times its enrollment today, and the planned course of study was reduced from four years to two to ensure a supply of of cers for the wartime merchant eet.

Nearly 80 years later, the global economy saw the U.S. supply chain move a record amount of goods and materials in 2021, much of it coming or going by ship, underscoring the importance of the U.S. merchant eet.

Nevertheless, what has emerged in recent times is a portrait of a school that, despite a reputation for stellar academics, has become somewhat beleaguered over the last decade or so. Indeed, a 2016 article in The Washington Post, the only major newspaper that reports on the school with any regularity, referred to USMMA as “a forgotten outpost on Long Island Sound.”

The description belies the school’s status as one of the ve national service academies. And like West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, a congressional nomination is required of all Kings Point applicants. (The U.S. Coast Guard Academy, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, is the exception to this rule.)

That status notwithstanding, more than a decade ago, in 2010, the Department of Transportation’s “Red Sky in the Morning Report” found severe deterioration among numerous buildings on the Kings Point campus. “The condition of USMMA’s physical plant has reached a tipping point,” the report stated, and warned that “current maintenance and capital funding are not suf cient to reverse this decline.” Failure to “aggressively invest” in upgrading, the report ominously intoned, “risks the eventual loss of the school’s accreditation.”

And although its praises were sung as recently as 2020 in the pages of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College Rankings, in November USMMA was taken to task in a report by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

Casting itself as a challenge to the academy, the report identi ed what it described as “long-standing issues that put the safety and health of the midshipmen and the entire USMMA community in peril,” and added, “The charge to address these changes is signi cant and will require meaningful leadership attention, strategic prioritization, and substantial resource commitments.

The risk of inaction, the report concluded, “is immense.”

Speaking on background via email, an academy spokesman called the NAPA report “a frank assessment.” Elaborating, he said, “The report makes clear that these are long-standing and systemic [issues], compounded

Enrollment at Kings Point is 79% white and 79% male, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

USMMA

by years of under-resourcing.

“Addressing these issues will require many years of work and an extensive investment of resources.”

SEA YEAR HALTED

The broadly focused NAPA report came on the heels of Kings Point’s decision — since rescinded — to halt, for the second time in five years, its Sea Year program, following the account by a member of the class of 2022 of being raped by a drunken first engineer aboard a Maersk Line vessel while at sea.

The account, which prompted similar reports of sexual harassment and assault from other midshipmen, in October led six members of Congress to call on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to remove the Merchant Marine Academy’s superintendent, Vice Adm. Joachim Buono, who, they said, “failed to take seriously the safety of his students and has not demonstrated a commitment to change the toxic culture at the academy and during Sea Year.”

This assertion, particularly the use of the term “toxic,” did not sit well with a broad contingent of midshipmen, upward of 180 of whom signed a letter to the congressmen urging the reinstatement of the “unequalled Sea Year training” and defending the school as well as Buono, whom they described as “an inspirational and transformative leader.”

The Sea Year program is unique. Rather than go to sea on a teaching vessel, as students at state maritime academies do, midshipmen at Kings Point traditionally spend what amounts to a year acquiring hands-on experience aboard commercial carriers.

In December, the DOT unveiled a new set of standards to prevent sexual harassment and promote an inclusive workplace and announced the resumption of the Sea Year program. Carriers will be obliged to meet these standards and the Coast Guard will hold offenders accountable.

“The Sea Year pause gave us an opportunity to review, develop, and to implement enhanced policies and procedures to strengthen our support for cadets at sea and improve safety,” the academy spokesman said.

Early this winter, midshipmen returned to Sea Year training aboard federal vessels and training vessels. Meanwhile the USMMA’s industry partners are preparing to implement a new program, called EMBARC, for “every mariner builds a respectful culture,” designed to engender appropriate responses to sexual assault, sexual harassment and other misconduct.

Marad, the DOT and USMMA are “committed to ensuring that all

In a 2016 article, The Washington Post referred to USMMA as “a forgotten outpost on Long Island Sound.”

members of the academy community learn and work in safe and supportive environments,” the spokesman said.

SYSTEMIC ISSUES

In its report last fall, the National Academy of Public Administration said that not much had changed with respect to facilities and infrastructure. In addition, the report cited “longstanding systemic issues” in several areas, including education and training; diversity, equity and inclusion; support for students; and health and safety, among others.

“Numerous studies previously made recommendations to resolve several of these issues,” the NAPA panel said. “Yet, the systemic issues remain, largely because the root causes have not been addressed.”

The panel did not lay the blame exclusively at the feet of the Merchant Marine Academy, finding that the school has lacked “effective external guidance, oversight, and support” from the Maritime Administration as well as the Department of Transportation. However, it also found that the Kings Point culture “communicates a perception that external scrutiny and guidance endanger its operations and future.”

The NAPA report also criticized Kings Point on the issue of diversity. Enrollment at Kings Point is 79% white and 79% male, according to the U.S. Department of Education. For its part, the academy says it is committed to a diverse student body that embodies leadership and embraces the USMMA mission.

“Creating a more diverse and inclusive maritime industry is enormously worthwhile, but also an immense challenge,” the spokesman said. “It will take time.”

It’s a challenge the academy can ill afford to shrink from. With everincreasing manufacturing and distribution of goods throughout the world, and global dependence on shipping, the maritime industry is as important as ever. And as the supply chain bottlenecks that emerged throughout the pandemic made clear, shipping is a key component of the U.S. economy.