Diversity Debate at Naval Academy

An English professor who has served on the admissions committee of the U.S. Naval Academy has set off a debate at Annapolis and in military circles with an article suggesting that standards have been lowered to admit more black and Latino students, The Washington Post reported. Bruce Fleming's article, which ran in The Capital, charges that there are dual standards for white and nonwhite applicants, with significant differences in the grade and test scores required for the admissions committee to declare an applicant suitable for admission. The Post article noted that Annapolis officials deny admissions practices that go as far as Fleming suggests. But Fleming noted that as the Naval Academy has seen significant increases in black and Latino enrollments it has also seen significant increases in the percentage of students with mathematics SAT scores below 600 or who need a year of pre-college work (although the figures for those two categories of students are not broken down by race).