Widespread Problems at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Imperils National Security, Report Finds
The Academy didn’t seem to “really be aware of the changes that were going on in the shipping industry,” one investigator said.
By Elizabeth Howe
Assistant Editor, Defense One
December 2, 2021 05:13 PM ET
All is far from shipshape at the U.S. academy charged with supplying young officers to America’s merchant fleet.
Amid a global shipping crisis, a congressionally-mandated investigation into the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy yielded 67 recommendations for improvements to everything from the academy’s facilities to its curriculum.
“While USMMA is producing licensed merchant mariners, it is not meeting many other requirements and expectations for a federal agency and federal service academy, and it is not adequately planning and prepared for the future,” said Judith Youngman, chair of the investigative panel from the National Academy of Public Administration, a body chartered by Congress in 1967 to help build better government organizations.
The Kings Point, N.Y., school faces some of the same problems plaguing the other service academies: sexual assault and harassment and “institutional culture” issues. Just last month, a female midshipman reported being sexually harassed during a training program on a commercial ship. The program was subsequently paused—despite being a key aspect of the curriculum that prepares midshipmen for the realities of the shipping industry.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/12/widespread-problems-us-merchant-marine-academy-imperil-americas-maritime-endeavors/187254/
