Some classes at the service academies have been canceled due to the sequester.
Defense One (“Military Education, Sequestered“):
At the U.S. Naval Academy — and across the U.S. military academies — furlough days have become a reality. For midshipmen, this means many classes taught by civilian professors during the furlough period are canceled. For the sailors-to-be and cadets at the Air Force Academy and the Army’s Military Academy this means less training, fewer upgrades and cancelled programs. The result, university officials have toldDefense One, is a fraction of the college experience typically provided to future military officers.
“We will continue to meet our mission of developing midshipmen morally, mentally and physically, but I cannot emphasize enough that sequestration and furloughs will have a very negative impact here,” said Vice Adm. Michael Miller, USNA’s superintendent.
A majority of the academy’s professors are civilians subject to furloughs. With the academic year starting Aug. 19, midshipmen will face about five weeks in which those professors must take at least one unpaid vacation day. This, inevitably, will lead to canceled classes. If and how the classes are made up will depend on each specific class and teacher.
[…]
The Naval Academy will also have to close its library every Friday at least through mid-August, with the first semester’s schedule still to be determined. The academy museum will close every Monday. Meals will be cut. The list goes on.
Now, I’ve been writing for months now that sequestration is stupid. And I think forcing civil servants to take unpaid leave violates the social contract we’ve made with them.
But, surely, there’s a way to spread out 11 furlough days such that they don’t impact the core mission of the academies? Even granting that they have to be taken before the end of the fiscal year, the academies aren’t open for academic instruction right now; cadets and midshipmen are either conducting plebe training, at various military schools and training assignments, or on summer break. Why can’t we furlough instructors now so that they can teach classes when they’re in session?
Close the library for 11 days now. The only ones who would use it are civilian academics.
And, surely, we have an obligation to feed the cadets and midshipmen, regardless of sequestration?
