Naval Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte on Monday took responsibility for firing Commandant Gilbert Clark, saying Clark was not upholding the academy’s standards and “had to be removed.”

The comments marked the first time the superintendent addressed the removal publicly.

Addressing the school’s board of visitors, Borgschulte acknowledged that in his brief time as superintendent, he had encountered other major challenges, including the suicide of a midshipman, a shooting on campus and the impact of the government shutdown.

Borgschulte was sworn in as superintendent in August, replacing Vice Adm. Yvette Davids.

“I’m 3 1/2 months into this, and we’ve had some high highs,” Borgschulte said — pointing to the noted Forrestal Lecture Series and Navy football’s win over the Air Force Academy in October — “and we’ve had some low lows.”

Clark had been removed Nov. 25, with the academy announcing that it had lost confidence in the commandant. Clark had been in the position only since June. The deputy commandant, Capt. Austin Jackson, was named to the role on an interim basis.

“I made the decision to relieve the commandant of midshipmen, for my lack of confidence for his ability to effectively lead the brigade of midshipmen,” Borgschulte said. “We have standards here. We hold those standards. Doesn’t matter what your rank is, and I won’t get into the details, but he was not hitting those standards, and so he had to be removed. And he was.”

The superintendent indicated that more would be shared in the closed session and remained tight-lipped.

Clark did not immediately respond Monday to a voicemail message seeking comment.

The board of visitors includes U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth. The Maryland Democrats attended the meeting and the closed session.

Reached later, Elfreth said, “(Borgschulte) was appointed to make difficult decisions, including personnel decisions. He has a very high standard of excellence and service for his staff, especially his senior staff, and I respect his decision-making there on the campus.”

Alsobrooks and Van Hollen did not immediately respond Monday afternoon to requests for comment.

Borgschulte said that the search for the new commandant is well underway, that candidates will be presented to him, and that after someone new is hired, Jackson will return to his role as deputy. He said he does not intend to rush the process.

He also touched on the shooting that took place at the academy Sept. 11 that put a student in the hospital. He referenced three investigations related to the violence: the federal criminal investigation of a former midshipmen whom officials believe to have started the rumors, who has since been charged; an inquiry involving the incident itself; and a probe being conducted by the commander of Navy Installations Command, who oversees all of the service’s shore operations.

The academy has also since conducted a dozen tabletop exercises to better prepare for a similar situation in the future, Borgschulte said, as well as fast-tracked some security-focused renovations, like security cameras in the hallways of Bancroft Hall, the dormitory building.

He addressed the death by suicide of 2nd class midshipman Kyle Philbert James, whose body was found off-campus in October. James was 20 and grew up in Connecticut and New Jersey. His goal was to serve in the Marine Corps.

“Right on the heels of (the shooting), we have this other tragedy, and there were some challenges with that,” he said. “The thing I was really proud with our midshipmen was they put a very nice memorial service together. Over 30 of his family came down from the Northeast to be at the memorial ceremony, and I think it was a very healing process for them.”

He said several of the Naval Academy’s 36th company attended the memorial service and attended James’ memorial in Connecticut. Further details were held for the closed session.

Borgschulte described how the 43 days of the government shutdown affected the academy and how military employees had to cover for the civilians who weren’t working. Throughout the shutdown, the academy was able to slowly bring civilian employees back.

“Within one week (of the shutdown beginning), we had over 400 of our instructors accepted and back at work. We had to get that acceptance status for them, because (senior officials) understood, to include our secretary of Navy, how damaging this would be,” Borgschulte said. “It did impact us in the sense that those wearing uniform were working harder, picked up a lot of the class loads.”

According to the provost, Samara Firebaugh, the shutdown ended just in the nick of time on Nov. 12.

“Even with all that support, we still lost classes in advanced major courses and a lot of language courses, and if we’ve gone even one day more without the (civilian) faculty, (we would have) had to start cutting into Saturdays, Thanksgiving, spring break, and really, if we had a full month shutdown without bringing the faculty back, we would have to move graduation or think about graduating students without degrees,” Firebaugh said.

Jackson, the interim commandant, said the academy is focused on the future.

“The general and I are absolutely aligned and really keeping our focus here as we get into the next spring semester, focus on readiness and preparing our future generation to get into the confidence that we’re seeing,” Jackson said.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/12/02/naval-academy-commandant-removal/