Admin Response
For what it's worth, I "copied" this from another Forum (I assume it is actually from Dr. Kumar) ....
Response from Dr. Shashi Kumar, Master Mariner - Interim Superintendent, regarding the Honor Code case. Dr. Kumar writes (022512):
“There are two sides to every story. If I am guilty of anything, it is upholding the Constitution of the U.S. I believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and in this case, guilt was not established. I have an obligation to take care of every MIDN here, and not one group or the other. I will never take disenrolling a MIDN lightly. It is important that honor board hearings follow the due process and that there is a preponderance of evidence against the accused prior to a disenrollment decision. Let alone the absence of such evidence, there were far too many violations of due process in this case as well, including the Honor Board Chair’s active participation in the deliberations despite being told to recuse (because of advers"luxi-sans-1" relations with at least one of the accused). So, regardless of which way I decided, this was bound to upset someone.”
”The Honor Board decision and all related materials were thoroughly reviewed by the Acting Commandant for a full three week period. He observed a variety of problems and hence, overruled the Board. Once it came to me for my final decision, I reviewed the materials for a good couple of days. Given the complexity of the case, I sought legal assistance from the Academy Attorney who reviewed it and agreed with the Commandant. So, after two levels of mature review and counsel, I decided to overrule the Honor Board decision.”
”Everyone did a lot of hard work but we need to move on. So, during the last two days, the Commandant, the Attorney and I met with all key players including the jurors and Honor Board members, and explained to them our rationale for overruling their decision. We also wanted to use this as a learning experience for all with the objective of making our processes better, including clarifying the Honor Manual and paying attention to due process in these proceedings.”