A longtime professor at West Point has stepped down in protest, saying the military academy is no longer committed to academic freedom or honest education.
Graham Parsons, who taught philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy for 13 years, announced his resignation in a blistering New York Times essay. He says West Point has caved to political pressure from the Trump administration, gutting its curriculum and silencing its faculty.
“I cannot tolerate these changes, which prevent me from doing my job responsibly,” Parsons wrote. “I am ashamed to be associated with the academy in its current form.”
According to Parsons, things started to change after an executive order from former President Donald Trump and a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Those directives banned teaching what they called “un-American” ideas — including topics on gender, race, and critiques of the nation’s founding documents.
Parsons said the academy responded by erasing entire subjects from the curriculum. Classes like Topics in Gender History, Race, Ethnicity, Nation, and Power and Difference were cut. The sociology major was eliminated. A Black history project in the history department was scrapped.
Even the reading lists changed. Books by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker were pulled from syllabi. Faculty were told to steer clear of controversial issues in class. One student debate team, Parsons said, was warned not to argue certain positions in competition.
Research took a hit, too. Parsons said professors now need approval to speak publicly or post online about their academic work — a move he says amounts to censorship.
“West Point seems to believe that by submitting to the Trump administration, it can save itself in the long run,” he wrote. “But the damage cannot be undone.”
“If the academy can’t convincingly invoke the values of free thought and political neutrality when they are needed most, it can’t accomplish its mission,” he added. “Whatever else happens, it will forever be known that when the test came, West Point failed.”
Defense Secretary Hegseth fired back on social media after the essay was published: “You will not be missed Professor Parsons.”
The resignation comes as part of a broader backlash under Trump’s leadership. Military academies have seen programs disbanded and faculty muzzled in what critics call a purge of “woke” ideas. At West Point, at least a dozen cadet clubs were dissolved. Trump also removed entire boards overseeing military education, replacing them with political loyalists.
Parsons’ resignation is now final. His faculty profile was removed from West Point’s website shortly after the announcement.
