West Point planning EPIIC sister program

Given low ROTC numbers and strong opposition to the war in Iraq, it may come as a surprise that the University maintains strong relations with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Director of the Institute for Global Leadership Sherman Teichman said West Point is in the early planning stages of creating a sister program, which would serve as a counterpart to the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship(EPIIC) program.

Participating cadets would participate in a year-long academic seminar with a theme similar to the Tufts program. "What an incredible reality," Teichman said. "We've been dreaming about it for years."

In addition to this newly proposed program Tufts and West Point have maintained a long relationship through a series of exchanges. Most recently West Point sent a delegation of students to the EPIIC annual International Symposium, which took place from Feb. 26 to 29.

The cadets joined Tufts students, international scholars and officials from both non-government organizations (NGOs) and government agencies in a discussion about nation-building and the U.S. role in the world.

"I thought that [the participants from West Point] would all back up Bush's doctrine," sophomore EPIIC student Boryana Damyanova said. "One-on-one, a lot of them were critical. They questioned the way we went about [the operations in Iraq]. Some of them discussed the lack of a coherent exit strategy."

Damyanova acknowledged the benefit of dialogue with the military. "It's a positive thing to have that kind of dialogue between the two schools. It's important to have a broad perspective when you approach complicated issues such as nation-building," Damyanova said.

In addition to participating in this event Damyanova was a member of an annual Tufts delegation to West Point's Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA).

According to Sergeant Cadet Jonathan Blauvelt, a participant from West Point and 2004 SCUSA organizer, cadets at the military academy receive a tax-funded education, which obliges them to respond to their constituents.

"I think it's important to hear from people who are open," Blauvelt said. "It's good to hear our peers' opinions, because sometimes we only listen to one side of issues."

According to Blauvelt, cadets are forbidden from criticizing their superiors' decisions, particularly in a public setting.

Blauvelt also stressed the importance of social interaction between cadets and students at other universities. "Without people actually [meeting] cadets, there are a lot of stereotypes about who we are," Blauvelt said. "We're still just college students in the end."

According to Teichman, the goal is not to criticize the military, but to evaluate U.S. foreign policy in order to inform those who will make decisions in the future. "The military is unbelievably complex in their own thinking," Teichman said. "They're neither saints nor sinners. My job is not to educate students as cynics, but to be skeptics."

"The goal of EPIIC is to divulge what is actually transpiring rather than what is being told to us as the public diplomacy of the U.S. The truth is an elusive reality, but it's our job to reach the truth," Teichman said.

The Tufts Institute for Global Leadership has maintained an 18 year relationship with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

The Tufts Institute for Leadership and International Perspective also organizes a program joining Tufts students and West Point cadets with Chinese students from Hong Kong University, Peking University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.