West Point / An Intimate Picture of the National Military Academy and of the Life of the Cadet

by Robert C. Richardson

The majority of the officers are detailed from the Army-at-large for varying periods of time, but seven of the professors are permanent. The Superintendent, the heads of all Departments of Instruction, including the detailed heads, compose the Academic Board, which controls the program and methods of instruction. It is non-military in character, its duties pertaining almost solely to the various branches of learning. More especially, its duties are to examine cadets, decide upon their merits and proficiency, grant diplomas, and recommend for commission in the Army. It reports, through the Superintendent, to the War Department, on the course of studies and methods of instruction. It also recommends the text-books to be used by the cadets in each department. Each member has one vote, including the Superintendent.

The work of the Board is largely done by committees, both General Committees and Class Committees. The latter are composed of the heads of those departments whose studies any one class are pursuing.

At the close of every examination the Academic Board reports to the War Department the names of all cadets who are deficient in studies or conduct and who are recommended by the Board for discharge or transfer to a lower class.

The seven professors permanently attached to the Academy are: the Professor of Civil and Military Engineering, Natural and Experimental Philosophy, Chemistry and Electricity, Modern Languages, Mathematics, Drawing, and English and History. These members are appointed by the President and usually selected from officers of the Army, graduates of the Academy, who have specialized along the lines of their department. The President usually appoints an officer recommended by the other members of the Board, but he is not restricted in his choice and may select whom he pleases for the position. All of the permanent Professors at present are graduates except the Professor of English and History who is a graduate of Yale. When the Department of English was created in 1910, it was felt that the head of it should be a man who had specialized in English Literature.

Without reflecting on the graduates of the Academy, no one officer appeared upon the horizon with the requisite qualifications, a fact not to be wondered at, for few officers are ever in a position to pursue English courses that would equip them for this position. Upon the creation of the Department of English, History was transferred to this Department from the Department of Law with which it had long been associated.

In addition to the permanent members of the Board, the detailed ones are the Surgeon, who as the head of the Department of Hygiene, is entitled to a seat; the Professor of Practical Military Engineering, the Professor of Law, the Professor of Ordnance and Gunnery, and the Commandant of Cadets, all four of whom are detailed by the Secretary of War from the officers of the Army for a period of four years.

In the Department of Mathematics and Modern Languages the Professor has an associate professor and an assistant professor whose duty is to assist in the administrative work as well as the instruction. The other departments have only assistant professors, officers detailed from the Army who might be said to act as an Adjutant for the Professor. In common with the remaining officers, they perform administrative routine duties, relieving the Professor of the necessity of attending to minor questions. The Professor’s time is very much occupied in the solution of problems that affect the Academy as a whole, in addition to the development of their respective courses, so that it is essential that his time be not employed with the unavoidable trivialities that arise in the conduct of his Department.

The great mass of officers on duty at the Academy are, of course, the instructors. These men are all officers of the Army, graduates of the Academy, who are detailed for duty in the various departments. Formerly, the tour of duty was for four years, but since the passage of a law by Congress, the Detached Service Law, familiarly called the “Manchu Law,” the time that an instructor can remain on duty at West Point, is dependent upon the amount of duty that he has had with troops during the preceding six years. No officer can remain on detached service, such as that at West Point, for more than four years.

It is apparent, therefore, that the corps of instructors is constantly changing, resulting in the introduction into the work of new blood and fresh viewpoints. This changing of instructors maintains a high standard of enthusiasm for teaching, so often lacking in institutions of learning where a subordinate teacher goes over, year in and year out, the same ground.

Moreover, the system of officer instructors is employed on account of the disciplinary value of their presence over the cadets. West Point is first and foremost a Military Academy, and it is of primary importance that the cadets shall absorb by example the spirit of discipline, and military deportment. Not the least of the advantages of having officers teach cadets is the contact that their presence maintains between West Point and the Army.