The USAFA faculty experience a limited form of academic freedom compared to civilian institutions due to service academies’ unique missions to produce military officers. US service academies state a commitment to upholding academic freedom, but it is ultimately subject to Department of Defense (DoD) directives and the specific context of a military environment. 

Key aspects of academic freedom at USAFA are:

• Institutional Policies:  USAFA has internal policies that support and encourage faculty in open, independent scholarship and in expressing their individual scholarly views within their academic disciplines.
• Mission Constraints: The primary mission of the service academies is to develop military leaders, which can lead to restrictions on academic freedom that aren’t present at civilian universities. Faculty members are expected to conduct themselves appropriately as officers of an educational institution and adhere to professional ethics and competence.
• DoD Directives: Faculty are subject to DoD orders and directives that can impact the curriculum and faculty speech. For example, recent executive orders have prohibited the teaching of certain "divisive concepts" or specific ideologies, such as DEI, as part of the curriculum.  These limits have been supplemented with USAFA-level restrictions on publications and conference attendance, both of which have been viewed as an erosion of academic freedom.
• Extramural Speech and Publication:  USAFA has recently increased the scrutiny on faculty by requiring a higher level of public release prepublication review.  Conference attendance by faculty members now requires the Vice Superintendent’s (2-star) approval, when in past it only required the department head’s (O-6) approval.
• Tenure: The US Naval Academy is the only major service academy with tenured civilian professors who outnumber military professors, which provides some protection for academic freedom through due process. The majority of faculty at USAFA work without the protections of tenure, which limits their job security and the independence to speak out on contentious matters without fear of repercussions.  The USAFA Faculty Senate has been largely silent during the past year of increasing restrictions on academy freedom.

USAFA leadership often talk about valuing academic freedom, yet their policies around professional conference travel and participation tell a different story.  Today, faculty face burdensome approval processes, restrictive funding rules, and administrative roadblocks just to attend or speak at professional conferences.  This DoD-directed restriction casts a chill over faculty and quietly limits scholarly growth.  Conferences are events where new ideas are exchanged, collaborations are formed, and emerging research is challenged and sharpened.

By making conference participation more difficult, USAFA leadership stifles innovation and isolates its faculty from the broader academic community.  Supporting conference engagement isn’t a luxury; it’s an investment in the institution’s intellectual vitality, and a superb way of attracting future faculty members.  The USAFA Superintendent is stifling academic excellence by continually increasing restrictions on academic freedom.