Anyone who tells you standards will not be downgraded to meet some Room 222 mindset concept of DNA bean counting is either willfully ignorant, thinks you are too dumb to know better, or is lying.
What is an alternative to standard, definable, equal standards for all? Simple, "Alternative."
The goal here is based on race, creed, and national origin - the antithesis of a free and fair society - and the core of racism and bigotry.DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
NAVAL SERVICE TRAINING COMMAND
2601A PAUL JONES ST
GREAT LAKES, ILLINOIS 60088-2845NSTCNOTE 1533From: Commander, Naval Service Training Command
N7
19 Jan 09
NSTC NOTICE 1533
Subj: NAVAL RESERVE OFFICERS TRAINING CORPS ALTERNATIVE SCHOLARSHIP RESERVATION PROCESS FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2009-2010
Ref: (a) NSTCINST 1533.3
(b) OPNAV N00 ltr 1533 Ser N00/100067 of 22 Aug 08 Encl: (1) Alternative Scholarship Reservation Form
1. Purpose. To provide procedural guidance for granting four- year Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Alternative Scholarship Reservation (ASR), establishing a more inclusive scholarship process.
2. Cancellation. This notice cancels previous NSTCNOTE 1533 dated 19 December 2008 with the same subject.
3. Background
a. The Chief of Naval Operations has challenged the Navy to build an officer corps which reflects the nation’s rich diversity.
b. Beginning in academic year 2009-2010, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) will award most of its NROTC scholarships to students majoring in select engineering, math and science fields per reference (a).
c. NSTC Officer Development (OD) will enroll approximately 1,100 Four-Year Navy option scholarship program freshmen for the 2009-2010 academic year.
d. NSTC understands that although a student's grade point average and performance on standardized tests are important, they are not always the best predictors of potential to become an effective Naval officer. NSTC seeks individuals who have demonstrated leadership, integrity and character as indicated by ref (b); factors such as:
(1) Participation in a variety of school, extracurricular, community or similar activities, particularly those with a charitable or public service purpose;
(2) Leadership role in such activities;
(3) Receipt of civic or similar awards;
(4) A history of overcoming personal adversity or the presence of other compelling factors, indicating that the student has a desire to succeed and the ability to overcome barriers; and
(5) Being regarded a role model by the teachers and peers at their high school.
e. Not all the above factors need be present. The intent is to provide equal opportunity to all who, for any of the above or similar reasons, demonstrate potential for future success as a Naval Officer.
f. Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) Area Managers play a vital role as a bridge between our nation’s high schools and Navy community.
g. To qualify for an ASR students must:
(1) Be a senior in high school;
(2) Meet all mandatory criteria below;
(3) Meet at least one of the flexible criteria below;
(4) Complete the ASR Form, enclosure (1);
(5) Take either the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or American College Test (ACT) for placement and academic advising by the NSTC Candidate Guidance Office (CGO), however NSTC will not use the results as selection criteria for an ASR. Students must take the ACT or SAT in time to permit use of the test results in the college admission process.
(6) Prospective candidates must finish an NROTC web application before the web application closes on 31 January 2009.
Mandatory Criteria (units = one academic year of study)
English
4 units
Mathematics (see Acceptable Courses #1)
4 units
Natural Sciences (see Acceptable Courses #2)
3 units
Social Sciences (see Acceptable Courses #3)
2 units
Acceptable Courses
1. Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry, Calculus or other mathematics courses that require successful completion of Algebra I as a prerequisite.
2. Anatomy, Physiology, Astronomy, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Marine Science, Oceanography, or Physics
3. Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, Psychology, or Sociology
Flexible Criteria
Grade Point Average (weighted 4.0 scale)
3.0 or higher
Class Rank
Top 40%
4. Action
a. NSTC OD shall offer 2,821 four-year scholarships to meet the target enrollment of 1,100 freshmen for the 2009-2010 academic year.
b. NSTC OD shall reserve up to 110 of the 2,821 scholarship offers for ASRs.
c. Commander, NSTC releases 10 ASRs to each NJROTC Area Manager.
d. NJROTC Area Managers will offer up to 10 ASRs to qualified students who have already completed the NROTC web application and meet eligibility criteria. Area Managers will provide written summary assessments to NSTC OD via Director NJROTC, outlining their determination of why candidates meet the scholarship criteria.
e. NJROTC Area Managers must forward all ASRs to NSTC OD no later than 28 February 2009.
f. NSTC OD shall present completed ASR packages to the Continuous National Selection Board (CNSB) so the CNSB can ensure applicants meet all criteria, and have no disqualifying factors.
g. NSTC CGO shall assist ASR selectees in obtaining admission to a university/college with an NROTC unit.
h. NSTC OD shall update Commander, NSTC weekly of ASR packages submitted and ASR scholarships granted.
5. The ASR process is an additive effort to the highly successful Continuous National Selection Board (CNSB), Immediate Scholarship Reservation, Officer Development Controlled, Tweedale, Leadership, and Historically Black Colleges & University scholarship processes, which allow us to recruit and educate
a year-group of officers that best reflect the projected future needs of our Navy.
6. Points of Contact
a. For additional information or clarification regarding this notice contact NSTC Business Management Office at (847) 688-xxxx, ext xxxx.
b. For additional information or clarification regarding the NROTC scholarship programs, contact NSTC OD2 at (850) 452-xxxx.
7. Forms. To obtain NSTC 1533/106 (Rev 01-09), Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps Four-Year Alternative Scholarship Reservation Form, contact NSTC Flag Administrative Office at (847) 688-xxxx or via electronic mail nstc_admin@navy.mil.C. S. SHARPE
Here is where it will all end in tears. You will have a group that on average has lower achievement levels and capability to perform - grades and test scores are imperfect but well established objective parameters for determining that. Therefor, they will on average (always exceptions) perform at a lower level. They will therefor be evaluated, if it is permitted, at a lower level. And so on. The thing is, we are not selecting teachers or bureaucrats. We are selecting warfighters who will lead others in combat and operate highly demanding hardware that has little tolerance for poor performance. Poor performance and lack of attention to detail makes things go boom and crunch. Lower performance gets people killed and nation placed in peril.
That doesn't matter though - you get what you demand. Via the CNP N1 shop;
Issue: NJROTC Alternative Scholarship Reservation (ASR) UpdateYep, looks like America to me. Just remember one thing for me - in a zero-sum game that this is, to give to a lesser qualified person you have to take away from a higher qualified person. How that matches with a meritocracy, I have no idea.
Discussion: Nominations for all of the 110 available NROTC ASR's have been completed. The 02 Mar NROTC National Continuous Selection Board (NCSB) will review 44 ASR nominees' packages. Previous NCSBs have reviewed 7 ASR nominees' packages.
Diversity breakout of ASR's:
- 31 (28%) African American
- 19 (17%) Hispanic
- 13 (12%) Asian/Pacific Islander
- 3 ( 3%) Native American
- 7 ( 6%) Multiple
- 36 (33%) Caucasian
- 1 ( 1%) Did not Respond
Desired Effect: Increase college and service options for American youth enrolled in NJROTC.
Action: None. FYSA only.
On top of that, you are setting people up for failure. If you have a set group that you intentionally lower standards for, they will on average have a lower skill set. As a result they will have a higher failure rate every step along the way. Sure, if your goal is to have incoming personnel have a certain "look," standards be d@mned, then I guess you get your personal check in your personal, selfish block - but you push the hard work down the line to someone else. Someone who will have to tell that person, "You simply are not performing up to standards and are unquestionably performing at a much lower level than your peers."
When that person cannot handle the qualification requirements as much as his "normal standard" shipmates and falls behind, who is to blame? When he fails qual boards, who is to blame? When it comes to rankings and that individual consistently, despite his or her hard work and dedication, fails to break from the pack or lingers at the bottom due to the average superior abilities of his peers - who is to blame? When, as a result, his and on average his peer group's selection for command and higher rank is lower as a result of slower qualification, lower rankings and less than average performance, who is to blame?
It is, in a way, an institutional bureaucratic cowardice. In the rear, nursing pet theories and pet greviences, you push a personnel problem down to the tip of the spear. You are forcing a problem on the Leader forward deployed to solve a problem festering by a result of rear leadership's inability to defend its institution and its standards.
What you have effectively done is not only harm the institution your good intentions were aimed at helping, you also hurt the individual you, for your own selfish reasons, lowered standards for. Someone who just might be an average Navy officer could have been an outstanding banker, lawyer, other public servant. Instead, you fed them a false hope to meet your needs and as a result they have wasted years of their life in false hope based on hype - hype you created to meet your own selfish desires unrelated to your instutution's core Mission as outlined by Congress, The President, and the Constitution.
The only way to stop this is to have the same standards for all. That way a peer group is just that - a peer group - not a two tiered "high-low" peer group that will, on average, be rated as expected.
....and a little reminder, the NBA is incredibly undiverse and looks absolutely unlike America - yet it is exceptionally popular, growing and a popular institution in this very wonderful nation.
Sigh - the marching orders, roughly, can be heard here. I'll put out the transcript for those who don't want to listen. I'll post - you comment.
Welcome to the Chief of Naval Operations Podcast. I’m Lance Corporal Sydney Purschwitz. We’re here with Adm. Roughead at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards to talk to him about diversity. Sir, why does diversity continue to be a big focus for the Navy?Take charge and carry out the Plan of the Day.
Diversity matters. And it matters for a couple of reasons. One because with a diverse population you get a range of ideas and perspectives and backgrounds that as you approach issues, situations that you come away with better solutions.
But in the military and in the Navy it’s important that we are a diverse organization because we have to represent what I call the face of America. As our population changes and the percentages of majority-minority changes and that’s always taking place we have to reflect that same demographic in our Navy and that’s why it’s important, but at the end of the day, it really makes a huge difference because we’re stronger because of the different perspectives and ideas that people bring to bear.
Since issuing your diversity policy last year, have you seen a noticeable change in diversity around the fleet?
We have seen some really great progress. Ascension numbers are up in our officer programs. We have more minority representation in ROTC, at the Naval Academy, at our prep school. We’ve expanded our junior ROTC programs, we’re expanding our ROTC programs, we’re offering scholarship opportunities sooner than we did before so that the young men and women can make an earlier choice. But we are seeing a much more diverse navy than we did just a couple of years ago.
What can sailors do to ensure that they’re upholding the standards that you’ve set for diversity in the military and in their personal life?
I think the first thing is Sailors need to recognize the value of diversity and why we must be a diverse Navy because we’re going to be a stronger for it.
But diversity is also about leadership and looking for young men and women with talent and drive and competence and putting them in positions where they can succeed. And that those positions then enable them to reach higher and go further in the Navy then they would have had they not had a leader who was looking out for them, mentoring them, training them and guiding them along in a career that is the best in the world.
Thank you Sir for taking the time to talk to us today about diversity. From Washington, I’m Lance Corp. Sydney Purschwitz.
Aye, aye! Three bags full!
Hat tip BUPERS spy.
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