2026-07-30T21:47:19-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dod-pentagon-memo-tenure-military-academies/
华盛顿讯——据哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS News）获得的一份未公开草案备忘录显示，美国国防部正考虑对军事高等教育进行最彻底的改革，拟废除军事院校和高级战争学院的文职终身教职，并全面 overhaul 课程设置，这些院校负责培养未来美军军官。
这份题为“重新聚焦军事院校与高级战争学院，聚焦作战人员教育”的备忘录，将指示西点军校等院校取消向文职教员授予终身教职。同时，它还将启动对所有军事院校和战争学院课程的全面审查。
该备忘录尚未获得五角大楼高层官员批准，目前尚不清楚其最终定稿和发布时间，以及具体实施方式。
该政策将适用于西点军校、安纳波利斯海军学院、科罗拉多州空军学院，以及罗德岛州海军战争学院和宾夕法尼亚州陆军战争学院等院校。这些院校目前共有超过1万名学员在读。
备忘录中写道：“终身教职是为保护大学内学术自由而设立的制度。但在实际操作中，它往往导致僵化、自满和缺乏灵活性。它会使课程偏离培养作战人员的使命，转而迎合终身教职教员的研究偏好。”
除了文职教员的聘用制度，这份草案提案还直接涉及课堂教学。它指示国防部官员对军事院校和高级战争学院开设的每一门课程进行全面的“逐行逐句”审查，对照单一标准进行评估：是否直接推进“战术、作战或战略作战”能力培养。
被认定为非必要或“受意识形态驱动”的课程将被取消。目前尚不清楚五角大楼将采用何种标准判定哪些教学内容属于非必要，以及如何认定课程受意识形态驱动。
哥伦比亚广播公司就此事联系五角大楼置评时，对方拒绝回应。
据不愿具名的美军官员向CBS新闻透露，这项政策提案由负责人力与预备役事务的国防部助理部长蒂姆·迪尔（Tim Dill）推动。迪尔曾是美国陆军绿色贝雷帽部队军官，此前担任得克萨斯州共和党参议员特德·克鲁兹的国家安全顾问。
这些美军官员告诉CBS新闻，该备忘录仍需获得国防部负责人事与战备的副部长安东尼·塔塔（Anthony Tata）的批准，他是西点军校毕业生。国防部长皮特·赫格斯塞特（Pete Hegseth）——前福克斯新闻主持人、国民警卫队老兵——也需要签署同意。
尽管备忘录宣称“立即生效”取消终身教职授予制度，但同时给予塔塔60天时间，发布取消文职终身教职的实施指南，并启动课程审查工作。
这项提案将是赫格斯塞特重塑军事教育运动的最新举措。自上任以来，国防部已指示军事院校取消多样性、公平性与包容性（DEI）相关教学，撤销教员任命，并审查馆藏图书中涉及种族与性别议题的书籍。
五角大楼还切断了与哈佛大学、普林斯顿大学、哥伦比亚大学和耶鲁大学等民用高校的部分研究生教育合作项目，赫格斯塞特称这些高校是“反美怨恨的工厂”。
去年，赫格斯塞特在弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科召集将军和海军上将时曾表示，五角大楼将审查“每个军种、每个单位、每个院校和每种形式的职业军事教育”的标准。他在演讲后发布的一份备忘录指示对军事教育和训练标准进行为期60天的审查。五角大楼尚未公开公布该审查的任何结果。
不过，与此前的举措不同，这项新提案不仅涉及课程设置，还深入到军事高等教育的聘用结构本身。
陆军西点军校的大多数教员都是现役军官，文职人员仅占少数。1992年，美国国会通过一项联邦法律，指示军事院校和高级战争学院扩充文职学术人员队伍。
军事院校文职人员的终身教职制度已实施数十年，院校负责人此前多次在国会听证会上为其辩护，称这是吸引高素质学者的必要举措，否则这些学者可能会选择在民用高校就职。
在去年的参议院军事委员会听证会上，西点军校负责人史蒂文·吉兰德中将（Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland）告诉议员们，终身教职为文职教授提供了在其学术领域内发展的机会，同时有助于西点军校招聘和留住优秀教员。
时任美国海军学院负责人的海军中将伊维特·戴维兹（Vice Adm. Yvette Davids）同样将终身教职描述为“绝佳的招聘工具”，能够吸引“最优秀和最聪明的人才”，并鼓励他们留在海军学院。
当佛罗里达州共和党参议员里克·斯科特（Rick Scott）和阿拉巴马州参议员汤米·塔伯维尔（Tommy Tuberville）问及是否可以解雇拥有终身教职的文职教授时，吉兰德给予了肯定答复。
“有一套程序，”他解释说，西点军校有权解聘拥有终身教职的教员。
戴维兹同样作证称，海军学院遵循既定的人力资源程序。空军学院负责人托尼·D·鲍恩费因德中将（Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind）告诉参议员们，如果文职和军事人员未能达到机构标准，都可能被解聘。
西点军校2005年的教员手册规定，文职教员可因行为不端、财政紧急或项目重大修改而被终止聘用，且院校仅可因正当理由拒绝续聘。
几十年来，军事院校一直在努力平衡其作为军事机构和认证大学的双重角色。院校负责人多次向国会表示，严谨的学术研究、文职教员的专业知识以及接触复杂问题的机会，有助于军官为现代战争的不确定性做好准备。
但新的备忘录若获通过，似乎将摒弃这种平衡，因为它主张军事教育的每个方面都应遵循单一标准进行评判：是否直接有助于“战术、作战和战略作战领导力”培养。
据《华盛顿邮报》报道，就在这份草案提案出台前不久，西点军校放弃就一项联邦法官的命令提起上诉，该命令暂时暂停执行一项要求文职教员在进行多种形式公开演讲前需提前获批的政策，包括发表评论文章和接受采访。
西点军校任职时间最长的法学教授蒂姆·巴肯（Tim Bakken）于去年9月在曼哈顿联邦法院对该校提起诉讼。
美国地区法官凯西·塞贝尔（Cathy Seibel）发布初步禁令，禁止西点军校在诉讼程序进行期间对文职教员执行该政策。该命令还禁止西点军校限制巴肯与学生分享个人观点。
“美国军事院校的使命是通过实力赢得战争，同样重要的是，通过实力防止战争爆发，”巴肯在一份声明中对CBS新闻表示，“实现这一目标的最佳途径之一，就是确保能够自由分析和讨论任何问题，以便这些日后将成为将军和海军上将的学员，能够在影响我们国家的重大事务中做出最佳决策。”
Pentagon weighs eliminating civilian tenure at military academies and reviewing all curriculum, draft memo says
2026-07-30T21:47:19-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dod-pentagon-memo-tenure-military-academies/
Washington— The Defense Department is considering its most sweeping remake of military higher education, according to an unreleased draft memorandum obtained by CBS News that would abolish civilian tenure and overhaul course offerings at the military service academies and senior war colleges that educate future military officers.
The memorandum, labeled “Refocusing the Military Service Academies and Senior Service College on Warfighter Education,” would direct institutions like the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to eliminate the granting of tenure to civilian faculty. It would also launch a comprehensive review of the curriculum taught at all service academies and war colleges.
The memorandum has not yet been approved by top Pentagon officials, and it’s unclear when it could be finalized and distributed or how it would be implemented.
It would apply to West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, along with institutions like the Naval War College in Rhode Island and the Army War College in Pennsylvania. More than 10,000 people are enrolled in those institutions.
“Tenure is a construct designed to protect academic freedom within universities. In practice, it more often leads to stagnation, complacency, and inflexibility,” the memorandum states. “It contributes to curriculum that drifts from the mission of educating our warfighters to the research priorities of the tenured academics.”
Beyond civilian faculty employment, the draft proposal reaches into the classroom itself. It directs Defense Department officials to conduct a comprehensive, “line-by-line” review of every course taught at the military academies and senior service colleges, measuring each against a single standard: whether it directly advances “tactical operational or strategic warfighting.”
Courses determined to be non-essential or “ideologically driven” would be slated for elimination. It’s not clear what criteria the Pentagon will use to determine what academic instructions are non-essential or how a course is driven by ideology.
The Pentagon declined to comment when contacted by CBS News for this story.
U.S. military officials who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said the policy proposal is being driven by Tim Dill, the assistant defense secretary for manpower and reserve affairs. A former Army Green Beret officer, Dill previously served as national security adviser to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
The U.S. military officials told CBS News that the memorandum would still need to be approved by Anthony Tata, a West Point graduate and under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Sign-off is also needed from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host and National Guard veteran.
While the memo declares that the practice of granting tenure would be abolished “effective immediately,” it also gives Tata 60 days to issue implementation guidance for ending civilian tenure and initiate the curriculum review.
The proposal would mark the latest step in Hegseth’s campaign to reshape military education. Since he took office, the Pentagon has directed service academies to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion instruction, rescind faculty appointments and scrutinize library collections for books addressing race and gender.
The Pentagon has also cut ties with some graduate education opportunities at civilian universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Yale, which Hegseth claims are “factories of anti-American resentment.”
When Hegseth convened generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia, last year, he told them the Pentagon would be reviewing standards in “every service, every unit, every schoolhouse and every form of professional military education.” One of the memos issued after his speech directed a 60-day review of military education and training standards. The Pentagon has not released any results publicly from that review.
Unlike those earlier initiatives, however, the new proposal reaches beyond curriculum and into the employment structure of military higher education itself.
The majority of faculty at the Army’s West Point academy are active-duty officers, with civilians representing a minority of the staff members. In 1992, Congress enacted a federal law directing the service academies and senior war colleges to boost their civilian academic ranks.
Tenure for civilian faculty members at the service academies has been in place for decades and has repeatedly been defended by academy leaders before Congress as essential to attracting highly qualified scholars who could otherwise pursue careers at civilian universities.
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last year, Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland, West Point’s superintendent, told lawmakers that tenure provided civilian professors opportunities to develop within their academic disciplines while helping West Point to recruit and retain talented faculty.
Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, then superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, similarly described tenure as “a wonderful recruiting tool” that attracts “the best and the brightest” and encourages them to remain at the academy.
When questioned by Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama about whether tenured civilian professors could be dismissed, Gilland answered yes.
“There is a process,” he said, explaining that West Point has the authority to remove tenured faculty members.
Davids likewise testified that the Naval Academy follows established human resources procedures, while Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind told senators that civilian and military personnel alike can be removed if they fail to meet institutional standards.
A West Point faculty manual from 2005 states that civilian faculty can be terminated for misconduct, financial exigency or substantial modification of a program, and the academy can only decline to appoint them for adequate cause.
For decades, the service academies have sought to balance their dual roles as military institutions and accredited universities. Academy leaders have repeatedly told Congress that rigorous scholarship, civilian faculty expertise and exposure to complex questions help prepare officers for the uncertainty of modern warfare.
But the new memorandum, if adopted, seems to reject that balance as it argues that every aspect of military education should be judged by one standard: whether it directly contributes to “tactical, operational, and strategic combat leadership.”
The draft proposal also comes after West Point declined to appeal a federal judge’s order temporarily suspending enforcement of a policy that required civilian faculty to seek advance approval before engaging in many forms of public speech, including publishing opinion essays and participating in interviews, according to The Washington Post.
Tim Bakken, West Point’s longest-serving law professor, filed his lawsuit against the academy in Manhattan federal court last September.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel issued a preliminary injunction preventing West Point from enforcing the policy against civilian professors while the lawsuit proceeds. The order also prohibits the academy from restricting Bakken from sharing his personal viewpoints with students.
“The mission of the US military academies is to win wars through strength and equally important, through strength, to prevent wars from beginning,” Bakken told CBS News in a statement. “One of the best ways to do this is to ensure there is freedom to analyze and discuss any issue so that these students who go on to become generals and admirals will be prepared to make the best possible decisions in critical matters that affect our nation.”