New Skipper Puts Naval Academy on Proper Course

ANNAPOLIS, Md. Before there was Tailhook, there was Gwen Dreyer.

Just before Christmas 1989, Dreyer, 19, a second-year studentfrom Encinitas, Calif., was dragged from her room at the U.S. NavalAcademy and handcuffed to a urinal as men jeered and took photos.

Dreyer, whose father and grandfather had attended the academy,quit four months later, disgusted by the leniency of the punishmentsmeted out against her tormentors: Two midshipmen lost leave time andwere issued demerits, while six others received written reprimands.

It was a precursor to the Tailhook incident, when current andformer naval aviators gathered for a Las Vegas convention last yearforced dozens of women to run a gantlet, groping them and tearingtheir clothing.

The Navy still is struggling to overcome the Tailhook scandal.But observers say the service's academy - under the leadership ofAdm. Thomas C. Lynch, who arrived as superintendent in June, 1991 -has made great progress in resolving its own problems.

"We're going to have some problems here . . . but nothing that Ias a superintendent or you as a taxpayer need to be concerned about,"Lynch said in a recent interview.

"I personally believe that our problems . . . are minusculecompared to any other school in the country."

"I think there's no question that Tom Lynch has . . . madesexual, ethnic and academic problems very much high profiles on hisagenda," said Rep. Beverly Byron (D-Md.), a member of the academy'svisitors board and chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee'spersonnel subcommittee.

"I've been looking for any flaws. So far, I'm not familiar withany that have come up."

The Dreyer incident was only one of a series of problems thathad vexed the academy before Lynch's arrival.

Two months after Dreyer was assaulted, faculty memberscomplained that they were ordered to boost grades because too manymidshipmen were failing electrical engineering courses or getting lowgrades.

The following July, a report by the Navy's inspector generalsaid 59 percent of midshipmen surveyed believed that the academy'shonor code was not administered consistently or effectively.

And a report by the General Accounting Office complained ofunacceptable hazing of freshmen by upperclassmen.

Two years later, calm has returned to the Annapolis campus.There have been no new incidents of sexual harassment, nocontroversies over grades and honor code violations, no reports ofabusive hazing.

New programs, some begun before Lynch arrived, were institutedto put the academy on the right course.

Rep. Tom McMillen (D-Md.) said Lynch "has done a lot toreinvigorate the honor code" by requiring midshipmen to monitorviolations and recommend punishment.

Kelly Hoeft, a senior from Ridgefield, Conn., said that when shearrived at the academy three years ago, too many honor code caseswere being reversed by officers after decisions were made bymidshipmen.

Recommendations for punishment now go directly to thesuperintendent and the No. 2 officer at the academy, the commandantof midshipmen. Great weight is given to the decisions made bymidshipmen, Lynch said.

Word went out that sexual harassment will not be tolerated, andthe system for handling sexual harassment complaints was improved.

The academy also added a six-hour seminar for freshmen onleadership rights and responsibilities that focuses on racial andsexual harassment. And midshipmen spend 51 1/2 hours during theirfour years at the academy in a Navywide program, Command ManagementEqual Opportunities, with a heavy emphasis on gender and racialissues.

"What this has done is raise the level of awareness ofmidshipmen on the sensitivities of women and minorities . . . toremarks that white male midshipmen may or may not have known wereoffensive to other people," said Andrea Lindenberg, a senior fromWhite Park, Fla.

"That's really changed the climate a lot."

It hasn't eliminated the frequent complaint by female midshipmenthat many men think they do not belong at the academy, Lindenbergsaid.

"I had people I worked with last semester who told me, `I don'tthink women belong here. I respect you and I respect the job you'redoing, but I don't think you belong here,"' she said.

"That's not sexual harassment. That's their opinion."