By Jerilee Bennett | Denver Gazette
The Air Force Academy superintendent is proposing to cut civilian faculty positions without hiring uniformed instructors to replace them — a change that could eliminate some majors.
The proposal floated in internal meetings and communications is intended to increase the percentage of military service members among the faculty up to 80% and bring the percentage of civilians down from about 37% to 20%.
The internal communication listed Superintendent Tony Bauernfeind’s goals for reducing the staff overall, lowering the civilian representation and reducing the number of faculty members with doctorates to the minimum viable for accreditation. He would like to see changes in place by the coming fall semester, the note said.
The Academy currently employs 491 faculty members with 308 (62.7%) uniformed members and 183 (37.3%) civilian members, the communication said. To meet the proposed goals, 105 civilian positions would have to be cut.
“The Dean has communicated that a reduction of our faculty body below 400 members would force us to cut some majors and cease many opportunities for cadets,” the communication said.
Some cadets seemed concerned about the prospect of cutting great civilian professors and losing majors on the anonymous social media app Yodel and called on their peers to write their representatives.
“Everyone take 5-10 minutes to write an email to whoever nominated you telling them about the tomfoolery TB (Tony Bauernfeind) is trying to pull and how it will ruin our education and the value of being at this place. He’s really trying to fire some some of the best, smartest teachers here and causing them hella stress,” one post said.
The proposal would require the secretary of the Air Force to approve it. The nominee to lead the Air Force, Troy Meink, is still awaiting formal confirmation. He currently leads the National Reconnaissance Office.
The Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for more uniformed personnel to teach at the academies during his confirmation hearing.
“We need more uniformed members going back into West Point, the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy, as a tour-to-teach, with their wisdom of what they have learned in uniform, instead of just more civilian professors that came from the same left-wing, woke universities that they left, and then try to push that into service academies,” Hegseth said.