USAFA culture

Osprey123 said:
@JKHDelta OK. Apparently it's being called Recognition again. I guess they are officially changing the name every other day. I don't think it will be traditional Recognition but what they organize or don't organize will be called Recognition. We just roll with it.
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I really am interested to see what comes of it this year. Hopefully comes back to some meaningful pieces the cadets decide on.
 
DomerDad said:
If it were allowed to be cadet-planned and led, it would be amazing. Leadership won't allow that.
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Agreed. Cadets are working to get some of the more meaningful parts of recognition approved. Even if they do, it won't be the same experience my class or our kids' class experienced. Part of recognition is the fear that you won't make it and the pride when you did. It is the first flow control when classes end. It is the cumulative exhaustion but knowing your classmates are right there next to you. It is rattling off your knowledge with confidence while in the front leaning rest. It is the relief and accomplishment at the end when you walk across the Tzo at rest for the first time. It will be nice if they can save a few traditions, but it won't be the same.

2029 should have a new comm, right? I'd be very interested to see what a new comm does.
 
99Gold said:
The academic environment at USAFA is more similar to USMA than USNA due to the military to civilian professor ratio. My dh did not prefer USNA when he was there for exchange due to that, but that was his opinion.
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Hi! Thank you for the amazing info. What’s the ratio difference with USAFA/USMA vs USNA? More civilian or military professors at which? In your opinion are the military professors just as qualified to teach their subjects as the civilian professors? Especially since many are on three year rotations…
 
JKHDelta said:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/AY-2024-2025-Calendar.pdf

April 3-5 is what's showing here. Definitely have no idea what they are intending on as far as the events or such just that the dates are marked as such on the calendar and believe one of the parent liaison said it was mentioned in a recent meeting.
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So, unfortunately you have a link to an old calendar. The most recent can be found at https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/AY_2024_2025_Calendar.pdf. You need to look at the “Approved” date at the top of the document. Your link has an “approved” date of 15 March 2023, while the most recent has an approved date of 27 Sept 2024, which replaces that old calendar. To make sure you are looking at the most recent calendar, you should start with this page: https://www.usafa.edu/academics/academic-calendar/ and then scroll to the bottom for the link. That will always contain the most recent approved calendar.
 
Emgiraffe29 said:
Hi! Thank you for the amazing info. What’s the ratio difference with USAFA/USMA vs USNA? More civilian or military professors at which? In your opinion are the military professors just as qualified to teach their subjects as the civilian professors? Especially since many are on three year rotations…
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There are more civilian professors at USNA than USAFA/USMA. Neither is bad, my dh just didn’t prefer the academic environment at USNA. He had already had 2 years at USMA so it seemed really different. Neither dh, ds, nor myself ever felt that the military professors were not qualified to teach the classes they were teaching. I had some pretty amazing military professors complete with cool stories. My father-in-law taught at USMA twice in his career and, upon retirement, because a professor at a civilian university. I also had some great civilian professors at USAFA as well. One of them was a hippie from Oregon (I was born and raised in Oregon so we bonded over that). He had the best stories of wilderness adventures. I always wondered what led him to teach at an SA.
 
Emgiraffe29 said:
Hi! Thank you for the amazing info. What’s the ratio difference with USAFA/USMA vs USNA? More civilian or military professors at which? In your opinion are the military professors just as qualified to teach their subjects as the civilian professors? Especially since many are on three year rotations…
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USNA has traditionally had an approximately 50/50 split of military to civilian professors and the civilians all have PhD's in their field.
 
99Gold said:
The academic environment at USAFA is more similar to USMA than USNA due to the military to civilian professor ratio. My dh did not prefer USNA when he was there for exchange due to that, but that was his opinion.
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Can you expand on this? Genuinely curious what you meant..not picking a fight. Thanks!!!
 
DomerDad said:
"Recognition" is on the calendar. The issue is that it is not really recognition. @Osprey123 is correct. Our parent liaison told us Recognition was back on and then was told that it can't be called Recognition and that it won't be for the Doolie class (everyone will participate). Don't be surprised if the name on the calendar changes for political reasons. By the way, you still can't call them Doolies, or you'll be thrown out. 🙄

This is what the 26 and 25 parents have been upset about. Traditions are being changed and replaced by poorly planned and executed, goofy rituals. None of this is the fault of the cadets. The C1Cs are trying their best to lead, but they are being hamstrung. The 28 and 29 parents are being spun into thinking that all is well. I am certainly no expert. My DD has only been at USAFA for 3 years, but I did see how things were run in the past, and I see how they are being run now. It is night and day, and not in a good way.

Generals Clark and Moga were amazing, and Generals Bauernfeind and Marks had very large shoes to fill. Most cadets and parents probably don't think they have come close to filling them.
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My kid recently received a LOA to USAFA (we are a non-military family) and I'm new to the forum and it sounds like things went downhill this year ("rumor-mill"): food rationing/shortages, significant off campus pass restrictions, poorly planned Spring 2025 Culex, elimination of “Recognition” and declining morale. Are these normal "forum" complaints from year to year or are these new developments – if so why? My apologies if I have miscategorized something from the armchair.
 
Arthur Morgan RDR2 said:
My kid recently received a LOA to USAFA (we are a non-military family) and I'm new to the forum and it sounds like things went downhill this year ("rumor-mill"): food rationing/shortages, significant off campus pass restrictions, poorly planned Spring 2025 Culex, elimination of “Recognition” and declining morale. Are these normal "forum" complaints from year to year or are these new developments – if so why? My apologies if I have miscategorized something from the armchair.
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Can’t speak to USAFA’s ‘growing pains’ as reported here on the forums, not a parent or any connections to the SA. It’s been a hot topic for sure. And I suspect as a parent of someone looking to head that way, you would have concerns based upon reporting that you have read, here. Makes sense.

What I can speak to, is that yes, every year there is a ‘hot topic’. At least as long as I’ve been around. And typically, people bring the negative, gripes, complaints. Human nature doesn’t lead us to go out of our way to report and discuss when life is good. Or we are happy or pleased. I think that’s part of what you are seeing.

Issues arise everywhere. In any environment. It’s how we manage and grow that matters, imo. I can say as the parent of 2 that went through COVID at another SA, that things were pretty bad for a bit. But they (we) survived. And they are better Officers for having gone through struggles. More tools in their tool belt for managing struggles that will be their responsibility someday.

You don’t sign up for a SA experience for a life of luxury (don’t come at me. Running out of food is….poor planning at best. I get it!!). You sign up to get the best academics/leadership training/Officer development for your future service in the best military out there. Despite training missteps. Change is challenging. But also necessary.

I wouldn’t hesitate to head there if serving as an Officer is my goal. Or my kids goal. If it’s as awful as it reads, here, you can leave. I doubt it is. We hear *mostly* from those with a gripe, which is normal. But read everything and you will also find positive posts sprinkled in.

Plus, your kid is a future leader at USAFA. This class coming in, will create the changes being put forth.
 
OldRetSWO said:
LOL!
The school year is now what, six or so months gone so clearly the starvation has probably progressed pretty far by now.

I'm not condoning what happened by any means but #*&^ happens and you can deal with it or not. Late in my plebe year, USNA
got rid of a fairly large number of enlisted sailors who cooked our food and served it in the Midshipman Wardroom (now called
King Hall) and changed to a civilian contractor for cooking and serving. A few months into my 3/C Year the contractor's crew
went out on strike. I'm not privy to what was known by the leadership at the time but from the Midshipman level, it looked like
total chaos. There were virtually no food service folks assigned to the Annapolis Complex, even the workers who unloaded
the trucks and stored the raw groceries were gone and it took quite a while to patch together even a skeleton crew to limp
along. I never saw any C-Rations at USNA during my time there, any government provided food eaten away from the Wardroom
was prepared and packed by the same folks who were gone.
.
Although many of us missed meals or had something like a couple of slices of bread and cold cuts but somehow we survived. My
class had the highest attrition in the history of USNA but I don't know of a single one due to the food issue.
As we had two years prior to the introduction of women and two years with women, you can probably understand that there were
many changes even some to "traditions" but again, I don't know of a single brigade member who left due to the lost traditions.
.
Different times though. My parents certainly were not aware of the issues that I described above and I'm pretty confident that
my roommate's families were similarly unaware.
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The Mitchell Hall/ food thing, was in my opinion blown out of proportion / made highly public all in some very immature passive-aggressive way to get revenge on the new Supt. for enforcing standards.
 
Arthur Morgan RDR2 said:
My kid recently received a LOA to USAFA (we are a non-military family) and I'm new to the forum and it sounds like things went downhill this year ("rumor-mill"): food rationing/shortages, significant off campus pass restrictions, poorly planned Spring 2025 Culex, elimination of “Recognition” and declining morale. Are these normal "forum" complaints from year to year or are these new developments – if so why? My apologies if I have miscategorized something from the armchair.
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People love to gossip about the rumor mill, especially on an anonymous forum. It happens at other schools too for sure
 
Arthur Morgan RDR2 said:
My kid recently received a LOA to USAFA (we are a non-military family) and I'm new to the forum and it sounds like things went downhill this year ("rumor-mill"): food rationing/shortages, significant off campus pass restrictions, poorly planned Spring 2025 Culex, elimination of “Recognition” and declining morale. Are these normal "forum" complaints from year to year or are these new developments – if so why? My apologies if I have miscategorized something from the armchair.
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What @justdoit19 said. 1. Military folks love to complain. It's what we do. It usually is rooted in truth. Running low (not out) of food was unacceptable but it was addressed and the cadets were fine. They will deal with worse on active duty. 2. One constant at an SA is that the pendulum is always swinging. I'm very interested in what next year brings. I will have a firstie and a 4 degree so it will be a wild year either way.
 
ZoomieFrom1994 said:
The Mitchell Hall/ food thing, was in my opinion blown out of proportion / made highly public all in some very immature passive-aggressive way to get revenge on the new Supt. for enforcing standards.
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I dont know, my firstie was all about the standards being raised and on board with tightening things up. but between her job ( wing honor board) and being an IC, she was getting to mitches fairly late, and sometimes it closed early because it ran out of food, and sometimes what was left was over cooked veggies ( no protein or carbs) or salad ( but usually just lettuce left). This was most of August for her. It went on longer but the team meals started to pick up which helped, and then the team parents stocked the teamroom with easy to prep dinners. But I dont know what other cadets did who were in a similair position who did not have a team to step in.
 
Arthur Morgan RDR2 said:
My kid recently received a LOA to USAFA (we are a non-military family) and I'm new to the forum and it sounds like things went downhill this year ("rumor-mill"): food rationing/shortages, significant off campus pass restrictions, poorly planned Spring 2025 Culex, elimination of “Recognition” and declining morale. Are these normal "forum" complaints from year to year or are these new developments – if so why? My apologies if I have miscategorized something from the armchair.
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@Arthur Morgan RDR2 you may want to change your name to something else for privacy purposes. You need to make several more posts before you can DM me. I would be happy to share more with you privately.

Congratulations on your son's LOA, that is very exciting! The bottom line is that SAs are tough and always will be. My DD rolls with the punches very well and isn't a complainer. I have been critical this year because there have been a series of really poor decisions made at the leadership level. These decisions bothered me far more than my daughter, so take that into account.

The good news is that leadership comes and goes. USAFA is a great institution and I believe there will be a new Comm next year.
 
I've posted this on another thread but I will post it again here because it relates to the USAFA culture.

"PS, my kid loves it there (most days) so take the cynicism on here with a grain of salt. Is it perfect, no. Is it hard, yes. Is it worth it? He says yes so far and is looking forward to everything to come."

I asked if he ever thought of leaving, either because of challenges, all the changes, or other reasons and he said once....only because he wondered what life would have been like in ROTC instead. He said it was a stupid, quick moment but he knows everything he goes through is worth it and he is planted where he is supposed to bloom.
 
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