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Ethnicity, gender now factors in CGA admissions
By Jennifer McDermott
Publication: The Day
Published 01/23/2011
Change in law gives the Academy more flexibility
New London - First came the Coast Guard Authorization Act, which Congress approved last fall.
This gave the Coast Guard Academy - for the first time - the leeway to consider an applicant's sex, race, color and religious beliefs as it shapes the makeup of its classes. The act struck down the provision in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations that prohibited the academy from considering those characteristics of an applicant.
But the act is just the beginning.
"The thing that is going to change the diversity at the academy is us getting off our butts and going out into areas where we haven't recruited before," Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr. asserted in a recent interview.
"We acknowledge that a lot of people don't know about the Coast Guard. What are we doing about it?" Papp demanded. "We need to let them know about the opportunities, let them know they can have challenging careers and get their education paid for, and I think people will come...."
...The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that race can be used in university admission decisions, but limited how much of a factor it could play. Selective universities looking to diversify could consider race, but the Coast Guard Academy never could.
Qualified students of all races have been turned down in past years because of the small class sizes. At the same time, members of Congress were trying to bring the academy's admissions process in line with the other service academies to increase diversity.
The other military service academies admit students by congressional nomination, while the Coast Guard Academy has traditionally admitted students on the basis of academic merit, like civilian colleges and universities.
Read the rest of the article HERE
By Jennifer McDermott
Publication: The Day
Published 01/23/2011
Change in law gives the Academy more flexibility
New London - First came the Coast Guard Authorization Act, which Congress approved last fall.
This gave the Coast Guard Academy - for the first time - the leeway to consider an applicant's sex, race, color and religious beliefs as it shapes the makeup of its classes. The act struck down the provision in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations that prohibited the academy from considering those characteristics of an applicant.
But the act is just the beginning.
"The thing that is going to change the diversity at the academy is us getting off our butts and going out into areas where we haven't recruited before," Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr. asserted in a recent interview.
"We acknowledge that a lot of people don't know about the Coast Guard. What are we doing about it?" Papp demanded. "We need to let them know about the opportunities, let them know they can have challenging careers and get their education paid for, and I think people will come...."
...The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that race can be used in university admission decisions, but limited how much of a factor it could play. Selective universities looking to diversify could consider race, but the Coast Guard Academy never could.
Qualified students of all races have been turned down in past years because of the small class sizes. At the same time, members of Congress were trying to bring the academy's admissions process in line with the other service academies to increase diversity.
The other military service academies admit students by congressional nomination, while the Coast Guard Academy has traditionally admitted students on the basis of academic merit, like civilian colleges and universities.
Read the rest of the article HERE