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The U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Md.--the flagship educational institution of the U.S. Navy--is facing numerous challenges as it prepares to enter the 21st century. Its mission will be the same one it has accomplished with unsurpassed excellence in the 154 years since its establishment in 1845: to prepare Midshipmen to serve as junior officers in today's Navy and Marine Corps, and to fill the most senior leadership positions in the Navy and Marine Corps after next.

That mission will be even more difficult in the future as the so-called explosion of technology continues at an accelerating pace, as forward-deployed Navy/Marine Corps battle groups serve increasingly as the force of choice for the national command authorities in times of international crisis, and as economic and political pressures continue to require all of the nation's armed services to do more with less, to deal with enemies, including terrorist groups, armed with weapons of mass destruction, and to carry out humanitarian, peacekeeping, and other missions of a nontraditional nature.

To meet that challenge the Academy plans to "build on strengths and a rich heritage while remaining flexible enough to adapt," said USNA Superintendent Vice Adm. John R. Ryan.

The Academy has taken a hard look at every aspect of its current structure and organization, Ryan continued, including its physical plant, admissions, recruiting, academics, leadership and professional development, physical development and athletics, and status of the faculty. The result has been improved admissions and recruiting efforts, several new programs focusing on the professional development of the USNA faculty as well as the Midshipmen, and the creation of a Strategic Plan for the "Academy of the Future." These innovations, combined with traditional training methods and the unique Brigade of Midshipmen system, are designed to prepare USNA graduates to become tomorrow's leaders of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

Strategic Planning

The development and implementation of the Strategic Plan is "the most significant Naval Academy initiative of the past five years," according to Ryan. He stressed that the Academy will maintain a delicate balance between meeting today's requirements and transforming the Academy for the future during the plan's implementation over the next 10 years.

The purpose of the strategic planning effort, which began in February 1999 and concluded in July, is for the Academy to determine its own future to the greatest extent possible--rather than let external factors set its course. USNA is looking to the year 2010, Ryan said, and asking "What is it that our graduates are going to require--in the way of skills and competencies--to be leaders in the Navy and the Marine Corps?" Working back from those requirements, the Strategic Plan then will be able to help determine what the Naval Academy will need in the way of academic and physical development programs as well as character and leadership development programs.

The Strategic Plan is grounded in the Naval Academy's two major objectives: (1) attract the best candidates committed to service to the United States; and (2) graduate the highest-quality junior officers capable of superior combat leadership and performance in the Navy and Marine Corps. "During our six-month planning process," said Ryan, "the Academy identified 28 strategic initiatives to better prepare Academy graduates to continue our proud legacy of leadership and service while ensuring their success in meeting the challenges of the 21st century."

Among the 28 separate initiatives included in the Strategic Plan--which will be phased in over a 10-year period--are courses and programs to provide Midshipmen with a better understanding of information-systems management, enhance their verbal communications skills, and increase their awareness of the complex geopolitical factors that influence world events and relations between nations. Other strategic initiatives focus more on the institution itself and include infrastructure renovation, expanding and improving the Nimitz Library, developing state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities, upgrading the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics, and improving the Academy's athletic facilities.

Constrained defense resources create their own challenges and require difficult tradeoffs for the U.S. Naval Academy. "Decisions about funding choices," said Ryan, "are critical to the Academy's future." Public funding continues to address core requirements, he said, but USNA will continue to be dependent upon private support over the next decade or longer to provide the margin of excellence that will keep the Academy an irreplaceable national resource.

The most obvious need is additional capital funding to provide and maintain a modern infrastructure. In this area, the Academy already has undertaken a comprehensive renovation effort that includes the upgrading and/or expansion of academic buildings, classrooms, laboratories, athletic facilities, and many playing fields. According to Ryan, "The most extensive modernization effort has been the 10-year project, which concludes in 2002, to renovate Bancroft Hall, our dormitory and home to the 4,000 Midshipmen of the Brigade."

Tomorrow's Leaders

Throughout U.S. history the Naval Academy has consistently produced leaders of exceptional talent who have distinguished themselves in both peace and war. Because of the accelerating advances in science and technology that are changing society, the economy, politics, and warfare in profound ways, one requirement that will not change during the current transformation is for the Academy to continue to produce leaders of exceptional character and competence to serve the Navy and Marine Corps and America, said Ryan.

The Academy has produced leaders primarily by emphasizing moral and mental as well as physical development. That will not change, Ryan said. "However," he added, "preparing Midshipmen to be leaders for the coming century is increasingly complex. Character and integrity remain the bedrock of effective leadership, but additional skills are needed." More than ever before, he said, USNA graduates must be prepared to make moral and ethical decisions in the chaotic and rapidly changing circumstances of a dynamic geopolitical environment driven by ethnic, cultural, and religious forces while employing increasingly sophisticated and often highly lethal technologies. "Our men and women," said Ryan, "must be able to lead Sailors and Marines in combat. That is our bottom line, and it is not going to change."

Ryan, who describes himself as a traditionalist, believes that the importance of maintaining USNA's own traditions must never be taken for granted. The Academy boasts a leadership legacy in peace and war that must continue far into the future, Ryan said. "We need to consider what the Academy has done to make graduates successful--not only from an academic perspective, but from a character and integrity perspective as well. The traditional methods of leadership development, which emphasize responsibility, accountability and character, remain as relevant today as anytime in history."

In the future, the effectiveness of the Naval Academy will depend increasingly upon a unique undergraduate program that focuses on mental, physical, and moral fitness--and, therefore, on the quality and variety of USNA's academic and athletic programs and facilities. "But, above all, the enduring emphasis on leadership and professional excellence is what will keep the Naval Academy an institution without peer," Ryan said.

Several changes with regard to Midshipmen liberty and privileges have been made since 1995. Those changes have reduced weekend liberty while emphasizing: (1) increased respons-ibility for Midshipmen; (2) greater accountability for the performance of the Brigade; and (3) increased awareness of the foundations of ethical leadership.

"Unfortunately," Ryan said, "much of society today characterizes itself as values-neutral--which, in reality, means values in decline. ... The men and women who come to the Naval Academy seek a values base that draws them out of a selfish individualism into a life of interdependence: teamwork, character, and leadership for the benefit of the whole."

Women in the Brigade--20 Years Later

As 2000 approaches--20 years after graduation of the first USNA class with women--the question is still asked: What has been the effect of an integrated Brigade on the Academy? "The impact of women in the Brigade has been, as you would expect, very positive," is Ryan's answer. "Clearly the Brigade is more talented today than it was when I graduated in 1967--this is due, in part, to the influx of superbly qualified young women ... dedicated to serving their country. The Midshipmen understand that by treating one another as equals and evaluating each other on the basis of performance they are pre-paring themselves for superior service in the fleet."

Today, thousands of superbly qualified women officers--many of them the product of the Naval Academy--serve the Navy and Marine Corps with distinction in a wide range of duties, including combat. "I have not held a job in 32 years of active service," Ryan said, "that a woman officer could not perform, and the same thing can be said of the Naval Academy." To emphasize his point, Ryan pointed to the extraordinary success of the women (15 percent of the class) in the recently graduated Class of 1999 as an example. In that class, the top two graduates, and five of the top 10, are women.

Advancing Admissions

To continue to attract talented and dedicated young men and women and prepare them effectively for naval service and positions of leadership in the next century, the gap must be bridged between today's Naval Academy and what will be required of USNA graduates in the future. On Ryan's watch, and in accordance with the Strategic Plan, much of the traditional, and timeless, Naval Academy experience will be preserved, but the program will be adjusted as needed in several areas to ensure the success of future graduates. The admission and recruiting process is naturally one of the first areas to be adjusted.

"USNA is doing a good job in the admissions process, but the Academy will have to work harder in the future," Ryan said. Competition for qualified prospective Midshipmen is already increasingly keen and is expected to intensify further in the next decade. "Today," Ryan pointed out, "fewer young men and women have knowledge of or ties to the Naval Academy."

Two years ago, the Academy established the position of Minority Outreach Coordinator to help reach qualified candidates, and earlier this year it started a new "leads tracking system" that allows the Academy to make contact with 6th­11th grade students who previously could not be tracked for application purposes. According to Ryan ,USNA commissioned the services of a private marketing company and as a result now has over 30,000 names of potential candidates compiled into a workable database. "The possibilities offered by these new admissions initiatives are exciting." Ryan said, "For the first time, we are able to forward information on potential candidates to our area coordinators and Blue and Gold Officers in any region of the country. This is not a lessening of standards, but, rather, an effort to make more young people aware of the opportunities of [entering] the Academy and serving as an officer in the Navy and Marine Corps."

Far-Reaching Programs

In an article in the March 1999 issue of Shipmate, the Naval Academy Alumni Association magazine, Ryan discussed a number of programs that will: (1) influence and enrich the Academy experience for Midshipmen today and for years to come; and (2) offer other tangible (and intangible) benefits for the USNA faculty and graduates.

The Permanent Military Professor (PMP) program, he said, "is an excellent means to augment faculty with recent fleet-proven leadership and expertise." Through an extremely competitive PMP selection process the Academy is able to attract officers who are recognized experts in their various disciplines to teach and serve as role models for Midshipmen. The USNA goal is to have a total of 30 PMPs on the faculty.

The Company Officer Master's Program was established two years ago to provide the best possible training to the carefully selected junior officers who will oversee the development of and serve as role models for Midshipmen while working at the Academy for one year pursuing Master's Degrees in Leadership. They then assume duties as company officers for the remaining two years of their tours.

USNA's newly established Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics, which opened in fall 1998, is off to "a great start," Ryan reported. Dr. Albert C. Pierce is the Center's first director. The inaugural event in the ethics lecture series featured Sen. J. Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.), a former SEAL who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam. The series will continue with other distinguished speakers helping.

Another significant recent change, said Ryan, is the establishment of a Character Development Program. All Midshipmen have been receiving formal character and ethical training since 1995. "The moral leadership inculcated through this program," Ryan said, "is fundamental to maintaining a strong Navy and Marine Corps--and Sailors and Marines expect no less from their officers."

A Timeless Mission

The Academy continues to carry out its timeless mission of producing leaders for the Navy and Marine Corps. When Ryan took the helm in 1998, the goal he set for his tour of duty was to continue to raise the bar of excellence--morally, mentally, and physically--in all that is done at the Academy. If his tenure is defined a success at the end of his tour, he said, it will be because USNA will have improved each year. "I am confident," he said, that "with the Navy League's help, the Navy, Marine Corps, and the U.S. Naval Academy can meet any challenge, and continue to serve this country that we all love."

Footnote: Additional details on the USNA Strategic Plan and other information about the U.S. Naval Academy  can be found on the Academy's website: www.usna.edu.