US air force and naval academies remove race and gender from admissions process in major policy shift

In a major policy shift, the United States' air force academy has removed race, gender, and ethnicity as factors in its admissions process. This move comes after a lawsuit alleged that the institution’s approach to building class diversity was discriminatory.

According to a justice department court filing on Friday, the decision was formalised in early February, reported New York Times. Gwendolyn R DeFilippi, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, issued a memorandum ending any admissions goals or quotas based on identity categories. The policy applies to academic admission, career fields, and overall class composition.

The Colorado-based Air Force Academy is the second US military institution to make such a change this year. The US naval academy announced a similar revision last month. Its superintendent, Vice Admiral Yvette M. Davids, stated in February that race, sex, and ethnicity would no longer play any role during admissions, from qualification to final selection.

Both changes align with a January 27 executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which said that all branches of the US armed forces must be free from any form of preference based on race or gender. The defence department followed up with its own directive on January 29. Secretary of defence Pete Hegseth instructed that no unit or department under the DoD should maintain identity-based goals.

Justice department lawyers have asked the courts to postpone hearings in both ongoing cases while these policy changes are implemented.