Professor Graham Parsons explains what's going on here; an excerpt:
Mr. Trump’s order prohibited any educational institution operated by the armed forces from “promoting, advancing or otherwise inculcating” certain “un-American” theories, including “gender ideology” and the idea that “America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.”
Mr. Hegseth’s memo went further, adding that the service academies were prohibited even from providing instruction about such topics. Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth also ordered that the academies shall “teach that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.”
These were brazen demands to indoctrinate, not educate.Whatever you think about various controversial ideas — Mr. Hegseth’s memo cited critical race theory and gender ideology — students should engage with them and debate their merits rather than be told they are too dangerous even to be contemplated. And however much I admire America, uncritically asserting that it is “the most powerful force for good in human history” is not something an educator does.
Another problem with Mr. Hegseth’s memo was its vagueness. Did critical race theory mean the specific work of scholars like Derrick Bell and Kimberlé Crenshaw? Or did it mean any discussion of the complexities of race in society? Did gender ideology refer to the view that biological females can be men? Or did it refer to any examination of the role of gender in our lives?
Rather than interpreting Mr. Hegseth’s demands narrowly, West Point seems to have read them broadly. What followed was a sweeping assault on the school’s curriculum and the faculty members’ research.
One of my supervisors ordered professors to get rid of readings on white supremacy in Western ethical theory and feminist approaches to ethics in “Philosophy and Ethical Reasoning,” a course I direct that is required for all cadets. A West Point student debate team was even told that it couldn’t take certain positions at a forthcoming competition….
Neither Mr. Trump’s order nor Mr. Hegseth’s memo mentioned faculty research. Nevertheless, on Feb. 13, the dean’s office shared a memo outlining a policy requiring faculty members to get approval from their department heads to do any writing, talks, social media posting or other public expressions of our scholarship if it is affiliated with West Point. I am writing this essay without having secured approval.
Though the memo does not say so, administrators have told me that any parts of my research that seem to conflict with the Trump administration’s politics will not be approved. Many faculty members, including me (I study, among other things, masculinity and war), can no longer publish or promote our scholarship.
(Thanks to Richard Miller for the pointer.)
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