Word around the campfire from my son and his buddys is that they are going to take away weekend privilages from YUK class of 2015. Attitude is they are trying to get cadets to quit because of Pentagon $ cutbacks. Hope not.
No data on privs, rank, or any of the other rumors madly being discussed. There are dozens. Some are clearly just to get lower classes riled up.
I can speak to the last part about trying to get cadets to quit..... In the recent briefings we heard clearly that they are
not trying to get cadets to quit, in no uncertain terms.
They
are less concerned about attrition from cadets who screw up. Specifically, they are enforcing regs with fewer 2nd & 3rd chances offered. Some would call this "tightening up" or getting stricter, while others would argue they are not changing regs.
And the intent is to free up slots for cadets who are serious and "really want it". Largely in response to the reduced authorized corps strength.
They are also having to adjust their planning some as well, as acceptances are up, and overall attrition trending lower. There were several reasons they felt were driving this: Economy, positive spotlight, "safer" now choice due to the combat drawdown, etc.
So is this trying to get cadets to quit? They will say no, they have much invested. And will tell you they are dealing with the bottom 2-5%.
The big gripe we are hearing from 2015 about the scramble is not that they have to scramble, they all expected that. It's that they had lined up roommates of their choice, etc. And with very little warning now it will now be luck of the draw.
Another issue is that normally they'd move their stuff to their new room at year end, which allows them to spend day 1-2 of reorgy helping their assigned plebe, which is their responsibility.
Now they will spend most of day 1 of reorgy getting their own stuff moved across campus and sorted.
It's not the end of the world. They will deal with it. It does come across as a leadership issue, as there were active plans based on a cow scramble, which are now wasted effort. But I guess there is a lesson there as well.
What's funny is there have been papers written with analysis of the different scramble approaches. Lot's of pros & cons. It has impact on leadership assignments for rising cows, etc. (Less time under a new tac)
I ran across one of the papers by accident (Goofle is your friend), and it made me realize there is far more to scrambles than just roommate preference.