U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx reacted to the Logistics Management Institute’s findings on sexual harassment and sexual assault at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, which caused the suspension of the academy’s Sea Year in June 2016.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has reacted to the Logistics Management Institute’s (LMI) findings on sexual harassment and sexual assault at the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) on campus and during Sea Year.
Located in Kings Point, N.Y., the USMMA is the training ground for hundreds of future merchant marine officers. Sea Year is a unique element of the academy’s curriculum, giving USMMA Midshipmen the chance to gain hands on experience aboard U.S. Naval Military Sealift Command vessels or U.S.-flagged commercial ships.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said that in June 2016, Secretary Foxx directed the suspension of Sea Year due to the sexual assault and sexual harassment issues.
The DOT then selected the LMI to conduct a 60-day audit to assess the culture on campus and in the Sea Year program.
“Sea Year, fragmentation, fear, and alcohol, among other cultural dimensions, intersect and intertwine, creating barriers and limiting the academy’s ability to combat sexual assault and sexual harassment and address the underlying root causes,” the LMI said in the Department of Transportation U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Culture Audit. “We identified lack of respect for personal dignity and personal differences, lack of trust, and lack of personal ownership of issues as the root causes shaping the current climate.”
In addition, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s evaluation team noted, “The campus climate and incidence of sexual harassment and sexual assault have been a serious and recognized problem for over 10 years.”
As a solution, the LMI said to start with, the USMMA should build and align its leadership and management team across all levels of the institution; develop and implement a comprehensive, multi-year Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response Strategic Campaign Plan; and create a Sea Year credentialing program that will enable the academy and industry to maximize program effectiveness, while maintaining the health and safety of midshipmen.
Secretary Foxx said Sea Year would resume after the USMMA establishes a protocol that ensures the safety of the cadets working on vessels. “Working with the MARAD Shipboard Climate Compliance Team (SCCT), you are authorized to resume Sea Year training on commercial vessels in a phased, company-bycompany manner, provided that MARAD and the Academy have determined that a company has complied with the credentialing criteria established by the SCCT, as recommended in the LMI report,” Foxx wrote in a letter to USMMA Superintendent James A. Helis.
Foxx reacts to audit on USMMA Sea Year
