The Department of War is considering its most sweeping remake of military higher education, according to an unreleased draft memorandum obtained by CBS News that would abolish civilian tenure and overhaul course offerings at the military service academies and senior war colleges that educate future military officers.

The memorandum, labeled “Refocusing the Military Service Academies and Senior Service College on Warfighter Education,” would direct institutions like the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to eliminate the granting of tenure to civilian faculty.

It would also launch a comprehensive review of the curriculum taught at all service academies and war colleges.

The memorandum has not yet been approved by top Pentagon officials, and it’s unclear when it could be finalized and distributed or how it would be implemented.

It would apply to West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, along with institutions like the Naval War College in Rhode Island and the Army War College in Pennsylvania. More than 10,000 people are enrolled in those institutions.

“Tenure is a construct designed to protect academic freedom within universities. In practice, it more often leads to stagnation, complacency, and inflexibility,” the memorandum states. “It contributes to curriculum that drifts from the mission of educating our warfighters to the research priorities of the tenured academics.”

The draft proposal directs Department of War officials to conduct a comprehensive, “line-by-line” review of every course taught at the military academies and senior service colleges, measuring each against a single standard: whether it directly advanced “tactical, operational, and strategic combat leadership” and “warfighting readiness.”

Courses determined to be non-essential or “ideologically driven” would be slated for elimination.

The policy proposal is being driven by Tim Dill, the assistant defense secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, according to U.S. military officials who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. A former Army Green Beret officer, Dill previously served as national security adviser to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

The memorandum would still need to be approved by Anthony Tata, a West Point graduate and under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

While the memo declares that the practice of granting tenure would be abolished “effective immediately,” it also gives Tata 60 days to issue implementation guidance for ending civilian tenure and initiate the curriculum review.

The proposal marks the latest step in Hegseth’s campaign to reshape military education. Since taking office, the Pentagon has directed service academies to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion instruction, rescind faculty appointments, and scrutinize library collections. The Pentagon has also cut ties with some graduate education opportunities at civilian universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Yale.

The majority of faculty at West Point are active-duty officers, with civilians representing a minority of staff. In 1992, Congress enacted a federal law directing the service academies and senior war colleges to boost their civilian academic ranks. Tenure for civilian faculty has been in place for decades and has repeatedly been defended by academy leaders before Congress as essential to attracting highly qualified scholars.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last year, Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland, West Point’s superintendent, told lawmakers that tenure provided civilian professors opportunities to develop within their academic disciplines while helping West Point recruit and retain talented faculty.

West Point recently declined to appeal a federal judge’s order temporarily suspending enforcement of a policy that required civilian faculty to seek advance approval before engaging in many forms of public speech, including publishing opinion essays and participating in interviews.

Armed Forces Press agrees with this memo as many of our writers are service academy graduates and experienced a different environment with no civilian instructors that in our view provided a better leadership training model.