AFA survey: Cadets fear racial, religious bias

Nearly half of non-Christian cadets polled in a recent Air Force Academy survey said fellow students have a “low tolerance” for nonbelievers – a 20 percentage-point jump from two years ago.

Twelve percent of women said they have feared for their safety because of their gender, and 42 percent of survey-takers said they had witnessed or experienced illegal discrimination or harassment.

Those findings – which touch on enduring sore spots at the elite service academy – were made public Friday as the academy reversed course and agreed to release the results of a 2009-2010 survey of cadets and staff.

“This has been a personal education for me,” said Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, referring to outside pressure to make the material public.

In other results, the survey found:

- 75 percent of women respondents said they witnessed harassment or discrimination, while 39 percent said they directly experienced it.

- Both men and women responded that women are generally less accepted in the cadet wing.

- Of those reporting they suffered illegal harassment or discrimination, 20 percent cited their minority status as the cause.

- 24 survey-takers said they feared for their safety because of race.

- 22 cadets and eight academy employees said they were victims of stalking.

Gould opened a two-hour discussion of the survey Friday morning by identifying religious freedom, sexual harassment, physical safety and gender and racial discrimination as the academy’s major areas of concern.

He provided an overview of steps the academy has taken to investigate the allegations and ensure an equitable, tolerant environment.

Those include outreach efforts aimed at getting the anonymous survey-takers to provide more details about troubling results and educational programs focused on inculcating respect and tolerance.

Gould also announced the creation of an Office of Chief of Diversity, which will tie together diversity plans that cut across disciplines, offices and departments.

Air Force Academy officials said that some of the most provocative numbers require additional study.

The effort to make side-by-side comparisons between this year’s results and previous surveys was somewhat hampered because of adjustments made to the language in the survey, several commanders said.

For example, in 2006, a question polled Air Force Academy employees on whether sexual harassment occurred in their unit, resulting in positive responses from just more than 20 percent of the survey takers.

On this year’s survey, however, the question was changed to inquire about sexual harassment throughout the Air Force Academy.

That created the possibility that rumor rather than experience accounted for the nearly 40 percentage-point rise in affirmative responses, said Dr. Kathleen O’Donnell, a faculty member who analyzed the figures. 

In some cases, improvements for one group were met by backsliding for another.

Col. Michael Therianos, the academy’s director of plans and programs, pointed out that while fewer nonbelievers felt pressure to be involved in religious activities than in past years, more self-identified Christians complained about religious freedom being abridged.

“To a degree, it becomes a zero-sum game,” Therianos said. “As one group thinks they’re getting better treatment, the other group thinks they are being discriminated against.”

Commanders said they were caught by surprise by anonymous responses indicating overtly criminal activity, such as stalking and physical assaults, because no such reports had been made to law enforcement officers on campus.

Similarly, the minority survey-takers who alleged perceptions of racial discrimination or harassment did not file complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Inspector General’s Office.

Commanders are reviewing chain-of-command reporting procedures to ensure cadets and workers feel open to reporting such incidents as they occur.

The climate survey was administered in December and January and completed by nearly half of the 4,600 cadets and just more than half of the 1,900 faculty, staff and airmen who work at the Air Force base.

The academy began administering the anonymous and voluntary “climate surveys” in their current form in 2004, after a national uproar over claims that female cadets were being harassed and abused by their male counterparts.

The inaugural survey was analyzed in a 68-page report that broke down cadets’ responses to questions about attitudes toward female cadets, drug use, racial matters and many other sensitive topics.

That report and others that followed were made public.

Despite that precedent, Gould initially refused to release detailed figures in August, calling the survey a commander’s tool that could be a distraction from the academy’s mission to train and educate young airmen.

He said Friday that he underestimated public interest in the survey and pledged to release future surveys when results become available. Gould said that he was urged to release the document in discussions with Air Force Chief of Staff Norton A. Schwartz and Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley.

Absent from Friday’s discussion was Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, who emerged as an early voice for releasing the report in full and filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the data.

Weinstein said he was barred from the meeting despite an attorney’s letter to keep the venue open to all who requested the information.

“That speaks volumes more about the Air Force Academy’s climate than two hours of mad spinning by Gould,” Weinstein said.

Air Force Academy spokesman Dave Cannon said the meeting was limited to reporters who had requested the information.

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