The Naval Academy’s reliance on civilian academics faces an uncertain future as the Trump administration moves forward with plans to hire more educators with military experience to help “restore merit and lethality” to the armed forces.
But former Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who served as the department’s 78th secretary under the Biden administration, said that removing civilian professors would be a mistake. He said the academy has emphasized the importance of civilian faculty since its inception in 1845, consistently producing an impressive product ever since.
“Why mess with something that’s worked so effectively for so long? Some of our very best warfighters around the globe were trained with this model in mind,” Del Toro told The Capital Gazette. “They have been most effective, regardless of what some in this administration may think.”
Del Toro graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983 before beginning his 22-year Naval career. He served as secretary from August 2021 to January 2025.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in February the administration’s plan to slash the civilian workforce across the department by 5% to 8%, or approximately 50,000 to 60,000 employees. Naval Secretary John Phelan in July said he will move forward with removing civilian faculty at the academy.
Attempts by the Capital Gazette to discuss the civilian workforce with academy faculty were unsuccessful. But Hegseth has spoken repeatedly about his desire to change teaching at military academies as part of his concept of creating a “warrior ethos” in the U.S. military.
In a social media post on X earlier this year, Hegseth wrote that he had met with the leadership at all of the U.S. military academies.
“My message was simple: stick to leadership, standards, excellence, war fighting and readiness. These are MILITARY ACADEMIES, not civilian universities. I was impressed by the changes already underway and look forward to visiting each institution. Social Justice and DEI are OUT; History, Engineering, and War Studies are IN.”
More than 60,000 defense civilians have already left under Hegseth. The Office of the Secretary of Defense did not respond to requests for comment regarding how many civilian employees have departed the Naval Academy through fired probationary employees, offered buyouts or early retirement.
Del Toro added that any efforts, like Phelan’s proposal in July, to cut civilian faculty or tinker with the formula of wholly educating midshipmen, will prove harmful to their development and, in effect, detrimental to the lethality of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Strategic thinking, essential in winning wars and defending national interests, comes from a well-rounded education, something civilian educators have been highly effective at teaching, he added.
“There’s a certain amount of value that comes along with someone who has truly spent a lifetime dedicating themselves to specific subjects and the experience that comes with that,” Del Toro said, highlighting the difficulties that prevent military officers from completing advanced degrees. “That is inherent in a civilian PhD candidate, as opposed to a military officer who may never have had the time to complete a full PhD.”
Complementing the ‘warrior ethos’
In a July 23 letter to acting assistant Navy secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, Scott Duncan, Phelan proposed modifications to the academy’s structure, faculty, admissions and curriculum to focus on developing better “warfighting leaders.”
Phelan also created a Naval Higher Education Review Board to identify, review and remove any material or practice incompatible with the academy’s “core mission and warrior ethos.”
Among the review board’s seven bulleted objectives, key moves were to assess and appoint a new dean with an O-6 Permanent Military Professor (PMP) for a five- to six-year term, and to remove Provost Samara L. Firebaugh, the Princeton and MIT-educated civilian electrical engineer.
Firebaugh remains in her position at the academy, and it is unclear where Phelan’s review board is in its process. The Department of the Navy did not immediately respond to inquiries about the board’s status.
The second objective is to increase the number of permanent military professors at the academyand appoint them as heads of academic schools, such as engineering, math, science, and humanities, as chairs of all 16 departments, the Dean of Admissions, Deputy Superintendent and Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen.
“Divest from the civilian university modeling emphasis in order to remain the premier service academy in service to the Nation,” Phelan wrote. “Additionally, we will ensure merit-based scholarship opportunities complement the warrior ethos and sharpen the skills of warfare specialties.”
Phelan added that a particular emphasis will be placed on restructuring the academy’s humanities programs, like English, political science and history. He said that the board is to remain intact through the current academic year.
While testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March, then-Superintendent Vice Adm. Yvette Davids reported that, compared to the fellow academies represented at the hearing — the Air Force Academy and West Point — the Naval Academy has the highest civilian faculty percentage at 50%.
The Naval Academy, under her purview, maintained a 50% civilian faculty ratio to maintain technical expertise with the “STEM-heavy curriculum,” Davids said.
Naval Academy Media Relations did not confirm the current civilian-to-military faculty ratio.
The Naval Academy is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as an institutional accreditor.
Among its accreditation requirements are learning experiences designed, delivered and assessed by faculty and professionals who are qualified for the positions they hold and reviewed regularly based on written, disseminated, clear and fair criteria.
“The outcomes throughout our history have demonstrated that when we have naval officers that are well-rounded — not just trained on tactics and discipline to follow orders blindly — we succeed,” Del Toro said. “There have been lessons from our nation’s history from World War II and beyond that validate that concept.”
Have a news tip? Contact James Matheson at [email protected], 443-842-2344 or on X @jamesmatheson__
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