Professor who criticized Naval Academy no longer teaching midshipmen

A tenured professor at the U.S. Naval Academy who has often criticized the school is no longer teaching there, according to his lawyer and a school spokesman.

“Bruce Fleming no longer works at the Naval Academy,” said spokesman Cmdr. David McKinney.

He declined to discuss details of Fleming’s departure, citing the school’s privacy policy.

Fleming’s lawyer, Jason Ehrenberg, confirmed the separation and said his client plans to file an appeal with the Merit System Protection Board.

Ehrenberg called the actions “part of an ongoing pattern of targeted harassment” against his client.

Fleming, a civilian English professor, has criticized the academy several times throughout his career, often facing professional consequences.

In 2013, the academy investigated Fleming after students reportedly complained about comments he made criticizing the academy's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program. Fleming was allowed to resume teaching.

In 2005, he published an essay in a Navy trade magazine criticizing the school's admissions process. Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt, the academy's superintendent, issued him a private rebuke, The Sun reported at the time.

That same year, the academy denied him permission to sign copies of a book he wrote — which contained essays questioning the academy's affirmative action policies — at the campus bookstore, a practice regularly allowed for faculty.

Last year, Fleming wrote an opinion piece in The Sun criticizing speeches made by Vice President Michael Pence and others at the school’s graduation.

“Are Annapolis graduates the best Naval officers? No,” he wrote. “In fact the service academies are hideously expensive and don't give taxpayers any extra defense for their dollars.”

The Naval Academy is unique among the nation’s service academies both in the number of civilian professors it employs, and the use of the tenure system.