Hegseth Ends New Tenure Appointments at Three Academies

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the Army, Navy and Air Force to stop appointing civilian faculty to tenured positions at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy, according to a memorandum he signed Tuesday, September 29. The order calls for the services to develop replacement hiring plans emphasizing institutional flexibility and faculty contributions to the academies’ warfighter mission. It does not set a deadline for those plans. The directive ends new appointments to tenured positions; it does not bar the academies from hiring civilian professors. The memo says the change is intended to keep the academies focused on preparing future officers. It argues that tenure can impede adaptation and draw curricula away from that mission. Those statements are the rationale set out by Hegseth in the directive. The document does not expressly order the dismissal of faculty members who already hold tenure. The Pentagon has not publicly clarified whether their existing arrangements will remain in place, change or be replaced.