By Erik Jørstad

TOURS AND DEMERITS

My project is about the system of tours and demerits. I chose this topic because it is something that I feel very strongly about. I interviewed multiple cadets and faculty for their views and opinions about the system.

INTRODUCTION

• “Demerits are a way of Keeping records on conduct or behavior infraction”

• “Tours are the punishment for receiving demerits”

LTC FENDER

MY PERSONAL COMMENTSDemerits provide a record of misconduct while tours act as the punishment. This means that for ten demerits worth of misconduct, due to credits, cadets receive no punishment. Most all of the cadets I interviewed admitted to caring very little about their demerit count, so long as they were not on probation. They also admitted to not being wary of ED anymore because, as one cadet put it, “ED is more bark than bite now. The tours are not hard, and they come off far too easily.” Cadets who care about demerits will already behave. Cadets who do not care about demerits, need to care about something else, like tours.

• Make the cadets want to not be stuck– “Cadets don’t really care about demerits anymore, they care about

tours.”

• Credits, while necessary, allow cadets to not care about being stuck a few times– “Most every good demerit cadet has low demerits because they

care about their demerit count. If cadets have more of a few of being stuck, then they will behave much better”

• Leadership needs to correct more and follow up on It’s corrections

• Places an immediate consequence for being stuck to all cadets– Auto tours; one tour per cat

INTERVIEW WITH CADET SIMS

CAT 1 caries an automatic 1 tour, CAT 2 carries an automatic 2 tours, CAT 3 carries an automatic 3 tours. This is intended so that cadets fear being stuck for everything. Cadets hate tours. This can be implemented a multitude of ways.

• The first stick does not carry tours

• This is only for probation cadets

• This is for everyone

AUTO TOURS

• Reward system after a few weeks of school– There is a conduct performance levels list in the Blue Book.

After a few weeks of school, each level could have certain privilages or punishments.

• “ED should be something that kind of scares us”ED isn’t really much of a deterrent for cadets any more. In many of my interviews they said tours are quick and easy.

• Leadership needs to correct more and follow up on their corrections

CADET 1 AND CADET 2

• Walk over or walk backs to breakfast– When he was a cadet the whole core had walk overs to

breakfast starting at 0615 and breakfast ran until 0700. By 0710 all cadets in barracks for clean up.

• Tours come off to quick– “When cadets get stuck for a CAT 3, it too forever to get the

tours off. Cat 3s were serious. After going through that once, he no cadet wanted it again. Now they can get a CAT 3 and not be too affected, they don’t care.

• Agreed that leadership needs to step up their game

ANONYMOUS ALUMNI

Agree Sleep in Late Breakfast Skip0

5

10

15

20

25

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35

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45

50

Yes No

WALK OVER OR WALK BACK FOR BREAKFAST

CADET MOSIER

• Stick removal or probation review• Since cadets are more familiar with the each other than the

faculty are, the battalion staff can more accurately review cadets.

• Accountability for cadets on probation• Double tours per demerit once credits are gone• “set a standard, and hold cadets to it. I hardly every see cadet

leadership do this”• He went on to say that the system of each level of

leadership following up on the one below it need to be enforced better.

“I really hate to say this, but ED has lost its back bone. If a cadet misbehaved on ED we could make a tour not count, cant do that any more. I understand that provosts could abuse this and it causes LTC Fender a headache when the cadet complains…..But the main blow ED has taken is that cadets don’t fear it anymore. Running was intended for cadets with low tours so they can get off quick or if they were behaving well. The PT side I personally really like because it is kind of a team building thing that they can get pumped during. And if a cadet was causing problems, give him hills. Marching is for when the cadets on ED are being a problem.”

MORE MOSIER

• Very adamant about a reform for ED. – No matter what I tried to ask him it seemed like he somehow

find a way to complain about ED being to quick and easy.

• Endorsed the idea of one tour per CAT

• Leadership needs to correct more and follow up on their corrections

CADET WEISEL

• Leadership needs to correct more, especially with PAI and then follow up

• ED should be more of a threat to cadets

• There should be some form of privileges that can be acquired throughout the year to encourage good behavior

• Activities

LARGE AGREEMENTS

• consistently clean room=TAC looks in the window to check for good general order for a few days before truly inspecting that room again

• Music through headphones during CQ, if they have a good grade/GPA and permission from parents and teacher.

• Music during clean up• Closed door in cleanup• For cadets with zero demerits after a

certain point in the year, they can get walk backs from breakfast or something else• Highly suggested because zero demerit

cadets don’t really “feel the love” sometimes.

• Walk backs

PRIVILEGESAlmost every cadet agreed that there should be incentives for good behavior. Merits were a great idea because they reduce demerits and they provide a public display of that cadets good deed. However as previously stated, many cadets do not care about their cadet records until probation. The cadets I interviewed said they would like privileges, but did not know how it would work or what they would be. They requested me to do this.

The only point I could come up with for how privileges would works is that they do not begin immediately with the school year.

• More events for the core, dodgeball, laser tag, airsoft…and so on.

• Highly requested was military activities, such as obstacle courses or anything really. “We are guys who go to a military school, doing some cool military things would be a lot of fun” (Quote from Sims. Agreed upon by everybody else)

• I tried to get this done this year but it fell through. Ask around the core for a popular multiplayer video game. This can be stretched multiple ways. Best in the core, best in each company, best private, best NCO, best office, best each platoon, company vs company(tournament within a company to find best one or two who then compete against another companies bet one or two) faculty vs cadets, ….or whatever. And the best part, this would likely be in the social center so cadets would probably by stuff. This is why I tried to get this to happen from the moment I started running it. (can also be done with stuff other than video games, trivia, poker…anything)

ACTIVITIES

I had a great time doing my project. I learned that the cadets, much to my surprise, agree on many things I expected them not to. I expected to constantly hear about how horrible or strict the school is. I actually heard from most every cadet that they want specific things to do and that they want to be more afraid of ED. That especially shocked me. Cadets were asking for ED to be tougher. I came to the realization that the system of tours and demerits is fantastic, but desperately needs to be enforced by the cadet leadership in the barracks.

CONCLUSION

Cadet 1, and Cadet 2. Interview by Erik Jørstad. 13 Apr. 2015.

Fender, Col. Interview by Erik Jørstad. 13 Apr. 2015.

Mosier. Interview by Erik Jørstad. 14 Apr. 2015.Sims. Interview by Erik Jørstad. 13 Apr. 2015.Grant, CPT. Interview by Erik Jørstad. 13 Apr

through May 10, 2015.

Works Cited