USMA IN THE NEWS
DURHAM -- Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has forged a partnership with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to send top military officers to business school.
Beginning this fall, two active-duty Army officers will be eligible for "leadership scholarships" at Fuqua. The Army will cover $16,000 of the $33,500 in annual tuition and fees, and Fuqua will chip in the difference. The officers are expected to hone their leadership skills at Fuqua for two years and then return to teach at West Point.
"Without exception, our officers who graduate from Fuqua seem to be especially well prepared to educate, develop and inspire cadets to serve the common defense of our nation," Col. Thomas Kolditz, head of the West Point's Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, said in a statement.
This is the only scholarship the U.S. Army has established with one of the nation's leading graduate business schools.
Maj. Everett Spain, who teaches leadership at West Point, is one of three active duty officers to graduate from Fuqua in the last two years. School officials credit Spain, who was awarded the Asa T. Spaulding Leadership Award while at Duke, with forging the partnership.
Spain said he sought out the partnership because Fuqua valued student contribution, even input aimed at improving the graduate school.
"[Students] were partners, not customers," he said. "That's how Army officers are. They're expected to contribute wherever you are."
Spain graduated from West Point in 1992 and went on to serve in the 82nd Airborne Division. He was also stationed in Kosovo before heading to Durham.
Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski graduated from West Point in 1969 and later coached there from 1976 to 1980, when Duke hired him. He recently joined Fuqua's faculty as an executive-in-residence, lending his thoughts about leadership and name to The Fuqua/Coach K Center of Leadership and Ethics.
Fuqua officials insist Coach K's background did not cement the new partnership with West Point. Rather, his background merged with several more recent ties, including Spain's, that together have linked the Durham university with the New York military academy.