The decision to end the clubs came in the form of a memo dated Tuesday, Feb. 4, which was signed by West Point deputy commandant Chad Foster and said that the organizations would be disbanded and forced to cancel activities, The Washington Post reported.
The memo was verified by The Post and aims to make sure the academy is “in accordance with recent Presidential Executive Orders, Department of Defense guidance, and Department of the Army guidance.”
As a result, the following organizations will be disbanded:
- Asian-Pacific Forum Club;
- Contemporary Cultural Affairs Seminar Club;
- Corbin Forum;
- Japanese Forum Club;
- Korean-American Relations Seminar;
- Latin Cultural Club;
- National Society of Black Engineers Club;
- Native American Heritage Forum;
- Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers;
- Society of Women Engineers Club;
- Spectrum;
- Vietnamese-America Cadet Association.
The memo comes after an executive order from Monday, Jan. 27 titled “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” which orders the US Armed Forces to “operate free from any preference based on race or sex.”
The order includes abolishing “any vestiges of DEI offices, such as sub-offices, programs, elements, or initiatives established to promote a race-based preferences system that subverts meritocracy, perpetuates unconstitutional discrimination, and promotes divisive concepts or gender ideology.”
West Point, located within the Orange County town of Highlands, did not return comment to The Post on Tuesday or Wednesday, Feb. 5, the outlet reported.
Many of the clubs named in Foster’s memo have been around for decades, including the Corbin Forum, which was founded in 1976, the first year that women were allowed into the academy, The Post reported. The organization focuses on educating its members on women’s role in the military, the outlet added.
Class of 1981 West Point graduate William H. Buck told The Post that the Corbin Forum helped its female members “cultivate leadership role models” in a time when nearly all cadets were men.
Buck also told The Post that such extracurricular and social clubs are “essential to the experience of being a cadet” and help create “young men and women with well-rounded perspectives,” the newspaper reported.
Despite this, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated in a memo dated Wednesday, Jan. 29 that “Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies” are “incompatible with the values of [The Department of Defense].”
“The DoD will strive to provide merit-based, color-blind, equal opportunities to Service members but will not guarantee or strive for equal outcomes,” the memo continues.
Click here to read the full report by The Washington Post.
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