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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 378 096 SO 024 387 TITLE Honor Systems and Sexual Harassment at the Service Academies. 'Tearing before the Committee on Armed Services. United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session. INSTITUTION Congress of the U.S., Washington, P.C. Senate Committee on Armed Services. REPORT NO ISBN-0-16-044394-6; Senate-Hrg-103-550 PUB DATE 3 Feb 94 NOTE 260p.; Some pages contain very small print. AVAILABLE FROMU.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402. PUB TYPE Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials (090) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Cheating; *Codes of Ethics; Females; Higher Education; Military Personnel; *Military Schools; Military Training; Sex Bias; *Sexual Harassment IDENTIFIERS Air Force Academy CO; Military Academy (West Point) NY; Naval Academy MD ABSTRACT The U.S. Senate held a hearing to address two issues facing the nation's armed service academies--honor systems and sexual harassment. Th.:. was the first of several oversight hearings to be held regarding the service academies. Two events prompted the Senate to hold these hearings: (1) a cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy that began in 1992; and (2) the publication of a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report in 1994 entitled "DOD Service Academies: More Action Needed to Eliminate Sexual Harassment." The Hearing consisted of the presentations of three panels to the Subcommittee on Force Requirements and Personnel. The first panel, consisting of U.S. Ambassador Richard Armitage and Vice Admiral David M. Bennett, discussed the cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy. The second panel, made up of GAO personnel, summarized the findings of their 1994 report on sexual harassment. The superintendents-of the three service academies comprised the final panel. They discussed honor systems and sexual harassment at their institutions and the steps the academies had made to address these issues. The hearing document includes the presentations of all three panels as well as text from the GAO report and the "Report of the Honor Review Committee to the Secretary of the Navy On Honor at the United States Naval Academy." (CK) ******************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** S. HR0. 103-550 ca. HONOR SYSTEMS AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT THE SERVICE ACADEMIES co O HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED THIRD CONGRESS SECOND SFSSION FEBRUARY 3, 1994 Printed for the use of the Committee on Armed Services U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION OrtKe of Educational Reaearch and inipeownwnt OUCARONALRESOURCESiNFORMATION CENTER(ER ICI ha document has been reproduced as received Iron, the person or orconozabon originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality Pcnnts of view or opinions stated in the docu ment do not necessarily represent official OE RI position or policy U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 77-698 CC WASii.NCTON : 1994 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office,Washington. DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-044394-6 71 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE COMMIT CEE ON ARMED SERVICES SAM NUNN, Georgia, Chairman J. JAMES EXON, Nebraska STROM THURMOND, South Carolina CARL LEVIN, Michigan JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts WILLIAM S. COHEN, Maine JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico JOHN McCAIN, Arizenk JOHN GLENN, Ohio TRENT Low, Mississippi RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama DAN COATS, Indiana ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia BOB SMITH, New Hampshire BOB GRAHAM, Florida DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Idaho CHARLES C. ROBB, Virginia LAUCH FAIRCLOTH, North Carolina JOESEPH I. LIEBEFtMAN, Connecticut KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD H. BRYAN, Nevada ARNOLD L. PUNARO, Staff Director RICHARD L. REYNARD, Staff Director for the Minority 'is10"! T7:111 CONTENTS CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES FEBRUARY 3, 1994 Pap Armitage, Ambassador Richard L., Chairman, U.S. Naval Academy, Board of Visitors Committee To Examine the Honor Concept 3 Bennett, Vice Adm. David M., USN, Inspector General, Department of the Navy 65 . Gebicke, Mark E., Director of Military Operations and Capability Issues of the General Accounting Office 180 Graves, Lt. Gen. Howard D., USA, Superintendent, U.S. Military Academy 192 Roamer, Lt. Gen. Bradley C., USAF, Superintendent, U.S. Air Force Acad- emy 197 Lynch, Rear Adm. Thomas C., USN, Superintendent, U.S. Naval Academy 200 4 HONOR SYSTEMS AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT THE SERVICE ACADEMIES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1994 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FORCE REQUIREMENT'S AND PERSONNEL, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:37 a.m. in room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building Senator Richard C. Shel- by (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Committee members present: Senators Shelby, Nunn, Byrd, and Coats. Committee staff members present: Arnold L. Punaro, staff direc- tor: and Richard D. DeBobes, counsel. Professional staff members present: Patrick T. Henry and Frank Norton. Minority staff members present: Richard L. Reynard, minority staff director; and Charles S. Abell, professional staff member. Staff assistants present: Cindy Pearson and Christina D. Still. Committee members' assistants present: Philip P. Upschulte, as- sistant to Senator Glenn; Terence M. Lynch, assistant to Senator Shelby; C. Richard D'Amato and Lisa W. Tuite, assistants to Sen- ator Byrd; Randall A. Schieber, assistant to SenatorBryan; Chris- topher J. Paul, assistant to Senator McCain; Richard F. Schwab, assistant to Senatot Coats. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY, CHAIRMAN Senator SHELBY. The committee will come to order. We have a number of members that are not here yet, but they will be coming in from time to time. Z. e Subcommittee on Force Requirements and Personnel meets today to receive testimony on the Honor Sys- tems, and on Sexual Harassment at the Service Academies. This is the first of at least two oversight hearings the subcommit- tee is planning for this year, regarding the service academies. The timing and selection of the subject matter for today's hearing is the result of two events: The recent completion of important reviews of the honor concept at the United States Naval Academy; and the re- lease of the General Accounting Office Report, entitled "DOD Serv- ice Academies: More Actions Needed to Eliminate Sexual Harass- ment." The integrity of the honor systems of the Nation's servile acad- emies has long been viewed by the Armed Services Committee and (I) 0 2 its subcommittees as a matter of serious national concern. These academies are national institutions, and we have a responsibili'y to the people of America to exercise on their behalf appropriate oversight of these institutions. Today, the U.S. Naval Academy is embroiled in a cheating scan- dal of major proportions that stems from the alleged compromise of an electrical engineering exam. This scandal began in December 1992. It has been an albatross around the neck of the Academy, its leadership, and the brigade for almost 14 months. The results of this scandal have the potential of dramatically af- fecting the careers of over 10 percent of the class scheduled to graduate this spring. I say this to emphasize just how seriously this matter is viewed within the committee, and just how impor- tant it is that we take the time today to address the facts of this very unfortunate and disappointing event. In addition to receiving testimony on the honor systems, the sub- committee will also receive testimony on the progress of actions taken to eliminate sexual harassment at the service academies. The fact that the subcommittee will address these two issues in the same hearing should, in no way, be interpreted that we see one or the other issue as being of lesser importance. Quite the contrary. We are addressing both issues today, because they are both so very important. We will hear witnesses on three panels today. The first panel consists of Ambassador Richard Armitage and Vice Adm. David M. Bennett, U.S. Navy. Ambassador Armitage recently served as the Chairman of the Committee of the Naval Academy Board of Visitors. This was charged to review the honor concept at the Academy, in light of the December 1992 compromise. Vice Admiral Bennett is Inspector General of the Department of the Navy. He recently completed a 7-month investigation of the cheating scandal. It is the subcommittee's hope that this panel will be able to help us understand the systemic problems that contributed to a climate in which such a large number of Midshipmen would find it accept- able to engage in activities at variance with the Academy's honor concept. In the second panel, Mr. Mark Gebicke and Mr. William Beusse of the General Accounting Office will present the report of the GAO's review of the issue of sexual harassment. In the third and final panel today, we will receive testimony on both of these issues from the three superintendents of our service academies: Army Lt. Gen. Howard Graves, Rear Adm. Thomas Lynch and Air Force Lt. Gen. Bradley Hosmer. At the outset, regarding these issi- es in general and the Naval Academy cheating scandal in particular, I would like to be very clear on several points. First, this subcommittee needs to get to the bottom of a very seri- ous, complicated matter. To do this, this subcommittee must under- stand the underlying or systemic causes of this scandal, and the evolution of events following the initial reports of a compromise. The subcommittee is not in any way involved in a witch hunt here. Nonetheless, I fully expect that our witnesses today will be asked some very tough, very direct, but very fair questions. 6 3 Second, I would note that the Department of theNavy is in the process right now of adjudicatingthe cases of those Midshipmen implicated in the cheating scandal.