Army - Stimulating Simulation

Command sergeants major work
on problems during a course at
Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
U.S. Army/Jonathan ‘Jay’ Koester
Accreditation of the academy, which has graduated more
than 120,000 soldiers since its founding in 1972, is “long
overdue,” Dailey said. “For years, we’ve been providing excellent
training to our soldiers by way of tactical and technical
education, but we haven’t done them justice in regards to certifying
those courses within the equivalent civilian certifications
and college credits. Army University is going to help us
accomplish that goal.”
Representatives of about 80 colleges and universities attended
a December symposium to talk about ways of getting
more credit for soldiers for the professional education they receive
and how to increase rigor in training. Another meeting
is planned for June.
Schools represented at the meeting are already involved
with training soldiers, with some offering distance-learning
courses for college credit and others operating on-post. One
of the vexing and unresolved issues facing soldiers is that
credits earned through Army training and from schools affiliated
with the Army do not always transfer to other colleges
and universities, especially prestigious four-year schools. Improving
the academic standing of the classes available to soldiers
is seen as a way of trying to resolve this problem.
Army Not Alone
However, this is not an Army-only problem. Nonmilitary
students transferring from community colleges to four-year
schools face similar problems receiving full credit for courses
already taken. A 2015 Pell Institute study on inequities in
higher education in the U.S. says transferring from one college
to another is one of the factors affecting equity in education.
The report called for state governments and schools to
“do more to ensure that students can transfer across higher
education institutions without loss of academic credit.”
Columbia University’s Community College Research Center
reports that students who transfer credits in efforts to earn
a bachelor’s degree are less likely to complete the degree and
take longer to complete the degree if they do finish, a problem
well-known to soldiers who
move from post to post collecting
college credits. Taking longer to
complete a degree is part of a nationwide
trend that goes beyond
the Army. A November report
from the National Student Clearinghouse
Research Center found
just 53 percent of students who
enrolled in college in 2009 completed
a degree within six years.
There are gains in getting credit.
For example, the U.S. Army Prime
Power School at Fort Leonard
Wood, Mo., provides up to 38
college credits in math, applied
physics, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering for
graduates, something possible because the instructors are professors
from nearby Lincoln University. The partnership created
at Prime Power is an example of what the Army wants
to duplicate in other professional education courses.
Army University is not a new idea. It was first raised in 1949
by Lt. Gen. Manton S. Eddy, a former instructor and later
commandant of the Army’s Command and General Staff College,
who pushed the idea to the War Department’s Military
Education Board as part of a postwar overhaul. The Air Force
had created Air University in 1946, essentially for the same
reasons the Army is considering today.
“It was hoped that the re-designation would help to correct
the numerous problems that plagued the pre-war military education
system,” according to Air University’s official history.
“The schools that comprised the old system had operated independently
and were poorly coordinated in scope, doctrine
and curriculum.” Marine Corps University was established in
1989; like ArmyU, it includes professional education for both
officers and enlisted personnel.
It is no coincidence that the Army, like the Air Force, is
undertaking a postwar transformation of its education system.
“History reveals that some of the best and longest-lasting
transformations in military education occur in the aftermath
of sustained conflicts,” the white paper notes. “The Army today
is a veteran force with real-world experience derived from
years of sustained combat. This experience informs our judgment
and gives us a deep appreciation for the complex and
unpredictable challenges ahead.”
Since the Army isn’t building a physical university, costs for
the initiative are low: around $4 million in fiscal 2016 and $3.7
million in FY 2017, according to the business plan estimate.
Dailey said he hopes for quick improvements. “I want to
accomplish these goals in 18 months,” he said of the effort to
get the Sergeants Major Academy accredited. “That’s really
aggressive, but I feel like we are 240 years behind on this.” ✭
—Ferdinand H. Thomas II contributed to this report.
March 2016 ■ ARMY 29