Graham Parsons, a philosophy professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, has made his intention to quit. He remained on the school’s faculty for the next 13 years. To understand why he made that decision, you have to know that Jones believes West Point has rapidly departed from its fundamental educational principles. This shift, he contends, began under the Trump administration. An executive order from former President Donald Trump and a subsequent memo by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spearheaded these shifts. Accordingly, the venerable institution has implemented sweeping changes to its pedagogical approach.
Parsons asserted that West Point is beginning to self-censor its curriculum. This action is a continuation of efforts to defer to the ideological whims of the Trump administration. The administration has recently issued implied or explicit prohibitions against teaching on what the administration deems “un-American” theories. This even extends to bans on gender ideology and anything teaching that America’s founding documents are rooted in racism or sexism. This change has sparked alarm among faculty about threats to academic freedom and the responsiveness of the education provided at the academy.
The difference this combination of changes has made has been nothing short of remarkable. West Point’s course syllabi omitted key cultural figures including James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Several classes critical to understanding social dynamics, including “Topics in Gender History,” “Race, Ethnicity, Nation,” and “Power and Difference,” have been eliminated. An anti-racist sociology major has been killed and a Black history project at the history department has been frozen.
Parsons took to Twitter this morning to voice his outrage over these changes. He argued that they more and more prevent archeologists from doing their research without the threat of being censored. He underscored that cadets’ education became a casualty of the new policies.
“West Point seems to believe that by submitting to the [Trump administration], it can save itself in the long run.” – Graham Parsons
Those changes have been devastating not just to academic classroom instruction but have even come for our arts and other extracurricular programming. Students on the debate team at West Point were recently told to avoid taking certain controversial positions in their debates. As a result, this unnecessary limitation hampers robust discussion and debate among cadets.
Parsons spoke out against the academy’s current direction, claiming it is not giving a proper education to its students. He underscored that the academy has to be able to persuasively make the case for intellectual freedom and political neutrality. If it isn’t doing that, then it’s not living up to its mandate.
“Whatever else happens, it will forever be known that when the test came, West Point failed.” – Graham Parsons
Parsons had some very real problems to contend with. He announced his resignation by saying that he could not remain inside an institution that he feels has departed from its original mission. Rather, he wrote, “I cannot in good conscience accept these changes that make it impossible for me to serve the public safely and responsibly.” He announced his displeasure with the academy — “I am ashamed to be of it in its current form.”