Hi Scott -

Thank you so much for joining this debate! The highest level question here, of course, concerns the rationale for cutting civilian/veteran faculty at USAFA so drastically in the first place. I analyze that question a bit in my new op ed here:

coloradotimesrecorder.c…

It is not for cost savings (see the relevant USAF-sponsored RAND study, which concluded that civilians are the most cost-effective teachers for USAFA to use), nor to improve quality of education (by getting rid of its most experienced faculty), nor to increase the military relevance (the majority of those being let go are seasoned veterans). "Shortsighted" and "political" seem to be apropos characterizations.

The question is not whether USAFA must new drop majors & minors. Given the scale of the cuts, to maintain excellence in the educational programs that remain, it must. The relevant question that must be grappled with is which majors and minors should be cut.

Majors and minors of (a) reduced military relevance, and (b) low enrollment at USAFA, seem to be natural choices to cut. In light of point (a), for just a handful of languages to keep as minors at USAFA, I recommend including the languages of our potential adversaries, including Mandarin, Russian, Farsi, Arabic, and Spanish, to prepare cadets for careers in military intelligence (14N). Others might select a different small set of language minors to keep (versus those to be mastered outside of USAFA, like by AFROTC students at other universities). It's a debate that must be had.

I do understand your point of the military importance of French (in understanding certain evolving tensions in Africa). It would also be "nice to have" minors offered in the many languages of our strategic NATO (German, Swedish, Polish, Romanian, Turkish, ... ) and non-NATO (Japanese, Tagalog, ...) allies, in addition to those that I mentioned in the original article above.

Unfortunately, with only 4000 cadets, USAFA can't have all of those languages available as academic minors. However, as stated in the article, we should recognize/reward cadets and officers militarily for those language fluencies that they do maintain, which is a valuable and militarily relevant skill.

Notwithstanding Americans' typically limited foreign language skills, and despite the current MAGA political rhetoric, we must continue to emphasize to our strategic NATO and non-NATO allies their essential role as valued partners in helping to prevent major new wars, which are not in the best interest of the vast majority of the citizens of our world. If our current US president wants to self nominate for a Nobel Peace prize, this is an essential change in messaging that must begin now.