24 January 2025 was not a good day for COL (Ret) Mark Bieger. The president and CEO of the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) was likely forced to respond to the Executive Order of 21 JAN 2025 to close all federal DEI entities. While not a government entity directly, AOG has some agreements with West Point for fund raising, office space, and organizational functions held on the military reservation at West Point, NY (government property). Today, the WPAOG website removed its long planned April 2025 Diversity Conference page. At the same time, the WPAOG diversity committee was removed from its home page. Also, the chair of the WPAOG Diversity Committee, Ms Erica Jeffries, was removed from the roster of employees listed on the WPAOG website.

Later in the day, Bieger spoke to the MacArthur Society of West Point graduates’ leadership. The MacArthur Society formed in 2023 in response to recent scandals at USMA and served as an independent watchdog for West Point. Bieger asked the MacArthur Society to back off of its stream of reporting on scandals/crises at West Point and the WPAOG and to publish “good news.”

Good news?

It would be proper to ask Bieger exactly what he calls a "good news" story about West Point and/or the AOG at this exact moment. The issue is that the AOG through its communications only seems to care about Army football and construction projects at West Point. The AOG also seems to be a lapdog to the Supe, doing his dirty work to spread info to the Long Gray Line when the info is contentious and shielding the Supe by distracting grads from the Supe’s poor leadership and decisions. The question is (in my mind) what is a good news story that is commensurate with what makes West Point unique. Army football - nice season, but every college has a football team. Army Football is not what makes USMA worth millions of taxpayer dollars. Building new buildings? Also, not unique. Every school does that. To a non-grad, what is it about West Point that makes it special and worth the money - honor code, concept of ‘duty, honor, country,’ great leaders in charge of West Point. Gilland has failed at all 3. He hides honor code details/manuals/decisions, removed duty honor country from West Point’s mission statement, and I think I have said my piece about bad leaders there in past writings. Sexual assault is even STILL alive and well at USMA – currently there is an ongoing investigation into a Colonel grad stationed at West Point accused of sexual harassment, pressuring cadets to lie, etc. Ongoing congressional inquiries, dozens of unanswered Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, ongoing lawsuits for hiding West Point documents and actions from the public. Perhaps a good news story on West Point cadets washing their hands after going to the bathroom is appropriate (note the sarcasm :)). The issue is 98% of the cadets do the right thing, but nothing noteworthy to demonstrate the academy fixing its core problem. So, what is worthy of a news article from a watchdog group about West Point? Nothing comes to mind. Maybe we should challenge Mark Bieger to give a topic that doesn’t involve grad donations, Army football, Rhodes scholars, or anything not unique to West Point. Bieger and his AOG seem fixated on defending the Supe at all costs, regardless of if the Supe is in the right or acting unethically.

Bieger Ignores Watchdogs…Until They Expose His Poor Decisions… With Effect

Bieger’s timing of the request to back off is curious. Bieger was chosen as President and CEO Of WPAOG in July 2023. In August 2023, the WPAOG hosted the annual Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Conference at West Point on government property. Bieger was given multiple speaking spots to endorse both the event and the concept of DEI and he did so with great spirit and conviction. He inherited a Diversity Committee in his organization that was active in its activities to promote and expand DEI at West Point. At the conference, I approached Mark Bieger during a break on the first day of the conference. I did not speak to the forum at large until the Q&A session at the end of day 2 so I was a relative unknown at that moment except for the MacArthur Society nametag I wore. At the time I was president of MacArthur Society. I restrained my usual candor and attempted to be cordial in introductions. He asked me why the MacArthur Society was formed and what we do. I explained that a rising number of graduates from West Point were concerned about the increasing frequency of scandals at West Point, the mismanagement of COVID vaccines, and the shocking rise of DEI that was permeating nearly everything at West Point. I explained that graduates’ concerns were going unanswered by the Superintendent, LTG Steven Gilland. For years, even retired USMA general officer grads were being blown off by the Supe unless they had a check for millions in their pocket. I said that as the WPAOG CEO, Bieger had the Supe’s ear and perhaps he could tell Gilland that if he stopped ignoring grads and instead engaged with them, it might ameliorate much of the concerns. Bieger changed the subject to ask if I was going to the Army football game that was going to be in Texas that season. When we finished talking, I gave Bieger my business card with my handwritten personal phone number and email address and recommended that we continue dialogue off line after the conference. He never contacted me. I waited a few days and emailed him and never got a reply. At the time, I left Bieger alone in my online commentary to give him a chance to communicate with me.

Fast forward nearly 18 months. Bieger still had not reached out to me. AOG communications to grads seem to be only focused on Army football and getting grad money for big construction projects at West Point. Once President Trump assumed office and issued his edict on 21 January 2025 to end DEI at all federal levels buy 1700 hrs on 23 January 2025, Bieger was likely forced to comply with West Point proper as his ties to West Point likely put him in legal peril if he didn’t fold up his DEI program (like most of corporate America had already done because it is toxic to organizations).

It seems that MacArthur Society and other watchdogs like STARRS are finally getting some traction and causing West Point and WPAOG to react against their will. Only now, Bieger is willing to talk to watchdog groups, suggesting he suffers from not only ignorance for his blind obedience to DEI but also to arrogance and disingenuous behaviors. Perhaps he thought that just disrespecting and ignoring watchdog groups would cause them to go away and he could continue his march to shake the grads of West Point for money for football and other projects and ignore the grads.

Notably, he also changed the mission statement of the WPAOG in 2023 that removed the founding mission of serving graduates. Perhaps the grads of West Point should take note and consider to continue donating or not while he is still the CEO. Perhaps the discussion should begin to replace Bieger with someone who cares about the grads of West Point and their concerns and doesn’t just view USMA grads as ATM machines for the Superintendent and the football team.