The United States Naval Academy is an institution for the undergraduate education of officers of the United States Navy, at Annapolis, Maryland on the banks of the Severn river. Students at the Naval Academy are referred to by their military rank, Midshipman (plural: Midshipmen) and never as "cadets".The Academy is often referred to simply as "Annapolis", while Midshipmen at the Academy refer to the town of Annapolis as "Crab Town". U.S. sports media refer to the Academy as Navy, and this usage is officially endorsed. Reserve Officers Training Corps and Officer Candidate School graduates as well as Air Force Academy Cadets and Cadets at the Military Academy at West Point often refer to the Naval Academy as "Canoe U." There is no graduate school directly associated with the Naval Academy. Instead, the Navy operates the Naval Postgraduate School, the Naval War College and Marine Corps University separately.
Campus
It has grown from a 40,000 m² (10-acre) Army post named Fort Severn in 1845 to a 1.37 km² (338-acre) campus in the 21st century. Its principal buildings are:
- the Nimitz library (housing the departments of Language Studies and Political Science, as well as the library collection itself);
- Rickover Hall (housing the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Ocean Engineering, Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering;
- Maury Hall (housing the departments of Weapons and Systems Engineering as well as Electrical Engineering);
- Michelson Hall (normally housing the departments of Mathematics, Oceanography, and Physics, but closed for renovation starting in the summer of 2003);
- Chauvenet Hall (housing the departments of Computer Science and Chemistry);
- Sampson Hall (housing the departments of English and History);
- Mahan Hall (containing a theater along with the old library, which has now been converted into a lounge and meeting room);
- the chapel;
- Alumni Hall (capable of holding the entire Brigade of Midshipmen and hosting various sporting events, such as basketball);
- Bancroft Hall (the Midshipmen's quarters & the world's largest dormitory);
- the Officers' and Faculty Club; and officers' quarters spread around the Yard.
Faculty
The faculty is roughly evenly divided between civilian professors and military instructors. The civilian professors nearly all have a Ph.D. and can be awarded tenure, usually upon promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. Very few of the military instructors have a Ph.D. but nearly all have a Master's degree. Most of them are assigned to the Academy for two or three years only. A small number are designated as Permanent Military Professors (PMP) and all of these have a Ph.D. The PMPs remain at the Academy until statutory retirement. Most of them are commanders in the Navy; a few are captains. Like civilian professors, they seek academic promotion to the rank of Associate Professor and Professor. However, they are not eligible for tenure. Additionally, there are Adjunct Professors, hired to fill temporary shortages in various disciplines. The Adjunct Professors are not eligible for tenure.
Midshipmen activities
The Naval Academy's sports teams are called the Midshipmen, or Middies. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A as an independent in football, and in the Patriot League in many other sports. The mascot is a goat named 'Bill'. Participation in athletics is mandatory at the Naval Academy, and Midshipmen not on an intercollegiate team all must participate actively in intramural sports. Midshipmen also have the opportunity to participate in a broad range of extracurricular activities including performing musical groups (Drum & Bugle Corps, Men's Glee Club, Women's Glee Club, Gospel Choir, and even a bagpipe band, the Pipes & Drums), religious organizations, academic honor societies, Campus Girl Scouts, the National Eagle Scout Association, a radio station, Navy and Marine Corps professional activities (diving, flying, seamanship, and the Semper Fidelis Society for future Marines), and a broad range of non-NCAA club sports including rugby, hockey and even a completely unofficial (but previous National Champion) croquet team.
History
The institution was founded as the Naval School in 1845 by the secretary of the navy, George Bancroft, and was opened on October 10 of that year with 50 Midshipmen students and seven professors. Originally a course of study for five years was prescribed, but only the first and last were spent at the school, the other three being passed at sea. The present name was adopted when the school was reorganized in 1850, being placed under the supervision of the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, and under the immediate charge of the superintendent, and the course of study was extended to seven years; the first two and the last two to be spent at the school, the intervening three years to be passed at sea. The four years of study were made consecutive in 1851, and the practice cruises were substituted for the three consecutive years at sea. The first class of Naval Academy students graduated on June 10, 1854.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War the three upper classes were detached and were ordered to sea, and the academy was removed to Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island in May 1861, but it was brought back to Annapolis in the summer of 1865. The supervision of the academy was transferred from the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography to the Bureau of Navigation when that bureau was established in 1862; and, although it was placed under the direct care of the Navy Department in 1867, it has been (except in 1869-1889) under the Bureau of Navigation for administrative routine and financial management. The Spanish-American War greatly emphasized its importance, and the academy was almost wholly rebuilt and much enlarged in 1899-1906.
By an Act of Congress passed in 1903, two appointments as Midshipmen (as the students have been called since 1902; "naval cadets" and "cadet Midshipmen" were term used at various times in the latter half of the 19th century) were allowed for each senator, representative, and delegate in Congress, two for the District of Columbia, and five each year at large. Currently each member of Congress and the Vice President can have five appointees attending the Naval Academy at any time. When any appointee graduates or otherwise leaves the academy, a vacancy is created. Candidates are nominated by their senator, representative, or delegate in Congress, and those appointed at large are nominated by the Vice President. The process is not political and applicants do not have to know their Congressman to be nominated. Additional sources of appointment are open to sons and daughters of career military personnel (100 per year); 170 appointments per year are for active duty Navy and Marine Corps enlisted personnel; 20 appointments per year are provided for Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Midshipmen; and 65 appointments are available to sons and daughters of military members who were killed in action, or were rendered 100% disabled due to injuries received in action, or are currently prisoners of war or missing in action. Typically five to ten candidates are nominated for each appointment, which are normally awarded competetively; candidates who do not receive the appointment they are competing for may still be admitted to the Academy as a qualified alternate. Additionally, sons or daughters of Medal of Honor winners do not need an appointment but only need to qualify for admission. To be admitted, candidates must be an American citizen between seventeen and twenty-three years of age upon entrance, unmarried with no children, and of good moral character. The current process includes a university application, personality testing, standardized testing, and personal references.
Congress authorized the Naval Academy to begin awarding Bachelor of Science degrees in 1933. The Academy later replaced a fixed curriculum taken by all midshipmen with the present core curriculum plus 19 major fields of study, a wide variety of elective courses and advanced study and research opportunities.
The Naval Academy first accepted women as Midshipmen in 1976, when Congress authorized the admission of women to all of the service academies. Women comprise about 13 to 14 percent of entering plebes—or freshmen—and they pursue the same academic and professional training as do their male classmates.
Reference
- Some public domain text from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Update as needed.