In February 2025, SECDEF Pete Hegseth posted the following online:
“Last week, I met with the leadership of @westpoint_USMA, @navalacademy and @af_academy. My message was simple: stick to leadership, standards, excellence, war fighting, and readiness. These are MILITARY ACADEMIES, not civilian universities. I was impressed by the changes already underway and look forward to visiting each institution. Social Justice and DEI are OUT; History, Engineering, and War Studies are IN. We must restore the warrior ethos to the @deptofdefense — and it starts with our future leaders.”1
In March 2025, LTG Steven Gilland, Superintendent at West Point, reassured the Senate Armed Services Committee at a public hearing that DEI had been expunged from USMA. Recall that in May 2025, West Point professor Graham Parsons resigned publicly as he defended DEI at West Point. He maintained a public website devoted to his teachings on Toxic Masculinity and other DEI concepts in what appeared to be a violation of the orders to eliminate DEI.
At the time of the writing of this article, current USMA English professor, Nicholas Utzig, had the following book posted on his bio on the official West Point English department home page: Much Ado About Nothing And the New Awareness. (Lexington Books, 2023). He is listed on the cover as the co-editor of the book. His official bio on the www.westpoint.edu government website prominently lists “Dr. Utzig is the co-editor of "Much Ado About Nothing and the New Awareness," and he is working on a book about the midcentury Shakespearean actor-producer Maurice Evans and his circle.”
The problem is that this book is a modern interpretation of the Shakespearean classic. Its introduction lists its lens: Critical Race Theory. The book’s introduction states:
“Through the lens of critical theory, they explore culturally relevant topics such as epistemology and truth, crime and punishment, and the treatment of women by men in the present and the past, women’s agency and the lack of it, and adaptations and performances of the play.”
Once again, it appears that LTG Gilland is failing to comply with the SECDEF and POTUS’ very clear directive to get rid of DEI at West Point. Either Gilland is guilty of failure to control his professors or outright insubordination. Either way, he deserves some attention from the SECDEF and a discussion on why he is still failing to obey orders.
- https://x.com/SecDef/status/1888620512001052907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1888620512001052907%7Ctwgr%5Ea4e21d9ba5817ab532104f112e151350a6871ea2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fpete-hegseth-social-justice-and-dei-are-out-at-military-academies
There is an EASY FIX.Tell those Commie proffessors what Donald used to say:YOU'RE FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When there are consequences for pushing CRT/DEI then it will stop.
CRT1619 is holder's and obama's "mein kampf". And yet, all we hear is CRICKETS from the "NEVER AGAIN!®" crowd.
This IS a weapon formed against Christians, whites!
As long as they don’t use these books in teaching, I don’t care what they write On their own dime. I have had lots of teachers who were great subject matter experts regardless of their personal political beliefs, and they kept politics out of the classroom.
True. It is a free country. However...the professor should not be putting Critical Race Theory items front and center on their faculty page on the West Point government website.
Nicholas Utzig | United States Military Academy West Point
https://www.westpoint.edu/nicholas-utzig
At best, professionalism issue given Executive Order. At worst, insubordination based on Executive Order.
What does this Professor, and his teachings, have to offer in terms of National Defense? How is it critical to the safety of the US?