A blog dedicated to public records requests and Monterey County news.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

More women for Naval Postgraduate School?

Rear Admiral Jan Tighe, former NPS interim president, looks on
at a press conference in 2012 (Dave Royal/Monterey Herald).
U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a plan Wednesday to increase the amount of women in Navy and Marine Corps, according to Reuters.

Monterey's Naval Postgraduate School counts just ll percent of its student body as women, said school spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Greg Flores.

It is slightly better, 18 percent, for non-resident students; that's civilian and foreign exchange students, as well as those completing degrees with distance learning.

Mabus made his comments at Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, D.C. He said women represented 18 percent of the Navy and 8 percent of the Marine Corps.

"I don't know exactly what the goal ought to be, but I know those are too low," he said.

Mabus said the Navy was coming up with ways on its own to get more women but some measures would need congressional approval. No word on what that could mean for NPS.

I asked Flores if NPS does anything to encourage women to attend and this is what he said:
"We encourage all interested candidates who meet our enrollment criteria to apply to one of our Graduate or Doctoral programs. Gender is not a criteria for enrollment at NPS. Selection for the Navy's fully funded graduate education program is based on outstanding professional performance, promotion potential and a strong academic background. Officers interested in this program contact their assignment officers to determine their  professional qualification and assignment availability.  Upon determination of academic qualification, individuals may be eligible for consideration and assignment at NPS."
In 2013, there were 1,633 full-time resident students at the school. Of that, 180 were women and 1,453 men. That's eight men for every one woman.

1 comment:

  1. NPS needs to improve diversity in student, faculty, staff and in particular in school's academic management ranks where the concept of diversity has been virtually absent. This new development in the Navy's policy might make a long due positive impact to diversity at NPS.

    ReplyDelete