William Miller is the academic dean and provost for the U.S. Naval Academy, the Navy?s undergraduate school, in Annapolis. A graduate of the academy, Miller took over the school?s academic functioning in 1997. Previously, he was the associate provost for research and economic development at West Virginia University. Miller is a retired rear admiral and a former chief of naval research in Washington.
Q Compare the Naval Academy to a typical college or university.
A The Naval Academy is like any other undergraduate school. We have classes that anyone at the University of Maryland, College Park would find familiar. And we?re accredited in the same way. We differ in that we know who will hire our graduates. Because we know their employers [the Navy or Marine Corps] and understand their needs, we can prepare them for that job. Our curriculum prepares them to serve the needs of the country?s defense. Midshipmen earn bachelor of science degrees and account for about one-third of the Navy?s officers.
Q What kind of careers are available to midshipmen after they graduate?
A They enter the Navy as an ensign or the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant. They either enter into flight school, work on a submarine or surface ship or enter the Marine Corps. A few enroll into the Navy SEALs program. They serve three to four years at sea, then transfer to other career opportunities in the Navy. The Navy puts officers through graduate school for degrees in naval science, political theory and any other field that can help the Navy and Marine Corps.
QIs there life outside the military for graduates?
A Only about 40 percent become career officers [serving 20 or more years]. We have produced more astronauts than any other school. The dean of Harvard?s business school once asked me how she could get more academy graduates. While they are no different academically, they possess the leadership and ethics needed to succeed in business. Many midshipmen have gone on to become CEOs of major companies.
Q The academy?s stated mission is the mental, moral and physical development of midshipmen. What about moral development?
A We?re developing the future leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps. The midshipmen come in with a foundation of ethics and leadership from their high schools, families and churches. But we teach them to face tough ethical questions, because one day they?re going to face tough decisions in combat, and they have to live to a higher ethical standard. A SEAL team that had academy graduates were discovered by local goat herders while behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. They could have easily killed the locals toprotect their mission, but they let them go. Eventually, the SEALs got into a gunfight, and only one survived. It was a tough decision, but ethically they made the right one by not killing an unarmed civilian.
Q What about physical development?
A Ninety percent of our brigade were varsity athletes [in high school]. It?s not only the physical aspect we like in athletes, but also the fact that athletes have to prepare themselves for games and have character and leadership. Young people come here thinking they?re in shape, but we get them in shape. Mandatory exercise starts at 5:30 a.m. During their plebe [freshman] year, they?ll run hundreds of miles and do thousands of push-ups.
Q What about the great reputation of the Academy?s engineering program?
A I don?t believe in polls that rate and rank schools, [but] we have a first-rate undergraduate engineering school. We have a low student-to-faculty ratio, and we are more project-oriented, where midshipmen grapple with unscripted, real-world problems. Two-thirds of our graduates majored in math and science. We have a propulsion laboratory, two wind tunnels, a subcritical nuclear reactor and telescopes. How does that compare to other engineering schools? Our laboratory complex is enormous. I don?t know of any other school with a lab complex like ours.
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