Articles by Andy Simpson, KP '82

As reported here (and elsewhere) yesterday, Maritime Administrator Mark H. Buzby cleared his calendar today so that he could get up to the Academy and […]

[Updated to reflect this report from the Maritime Administrator. Updates are highlighted.] My inbox was inundated today by reports of Academy midshipmen returning from winter […]

I am pleased to report that today MARAD Administrator Mark H. Buzby signed revised sea year SASH standards (the “SCCT standards”) that a shipping company […]

The USMMAAAF has been quietly working the halls of Congress since long before Homecoming to try to avert the closure of the Academy in the […]

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I received an email from Maritime Administrator Mark H. Buzby with additional data about sea year today.  RADM Buzby sent […]

MARAD commissioned an independent assessment to provide a “high level review of its programs and offer[] recommendations for improving the alignment of activities and authorities […]

Maritime TV runs a regular “Ask the Administrator” feature and now that RADM Mark H. Buzby has taken command as Maritime Administrator, it has posted […]

I’m returning (briefly) from post-Hurricane Maria recovery to announce that I have learned that the accreditation warning on the Academy has been removed. The Academy […]

I’m at the Academy homecoming for my 35th reunion. Some of you will recall that I went to last year’s homecoming and reported on what […]

In a few minutes, RADM Mark H. Buzby (USN Ret.) will deliver his opening statement for today’s nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee.  The […]

In my post explaining (and then criticizing) how MARAD arrived at its calculation for the percentage restoration of sea year, part of my criticism analyzed […]

George Banville, the Commissioner of the Village of Kings Point Police Department, is trying to get the word out to midshipmen at the Academy about […]

Because he is the problem. It is critical that the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy have well-defined procedures for assisting victims of sexual assault/sexual harassment (“SASH”). […]

Sea year on the Kings Pointer begins for the B-Splits In contrast with MARAD’s optimistic calculation of the restoration of sea year, a dozen or […]

We aren’t close to full restoration. Over the last six weeks, I’ve had a productive dialogue with Owen Doherty, an Associate Administrator at MARAD regarding […]

UPDATE:  Link to the full Academy monitoring report added at the end of this post. Today the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (“MSCHE”) released […]

Yesterday it was announced that President Trump intends to nominate Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark H. “Buz” Buzby, ’79, as his Maritime Administrator.  The president could […]

The whole soccer team issue sidetracked me from the post that I’ve been preparing about how MARAD calculates the restoration of sea year. I’ll try […]

Update:  At today’s court hearing, the parties reached an agreement that will allow the senior midshipmen on the soccer team to participate in graduation and […]

Dear Secretary Chao: We at KingsPointSentry.com welcomed your nomination as the Secretary of Transportation and we were particularly heartened during your confirmation hearing when Senator […]

In two weeks, B-Splits at the Academy are scheduled to depart on sea year. Unfortunately, 90% of the Class of 2020 B-Splits will be getting […]

Owen Doherty, ’81, an Associate Administrator at MARAD, reached out to me today to provide data on how MARAD calculates the percentage of restoration of […]

Spoiler alert:  Because my source’s data was accurate. Two weeks ago, in a deliberately provocative post entitled  “84% of all MARAD employees who testify before […]

Two days ago, we revealed the true statistics about the restoration of sea year. They were bleak — and not nearly as rosy as the […]

There’s an old saying that figures don’t lie but liars can figure. MARAD is doing a lot of figuring when it comes to calculating the […]

[Updated with a direct link to the video of the testimony instead of taking you to the web page where the video could be found.] […]

As reported here, the permanent, entrenched, bureaucracy in MARAD has refused to make public any of the actions that the Academy has taken to address […]

Spoiler alert: whole lotta’ nothing  . . . so far. In the continuing quest to provide Academy stakeholders with basic information about the ongoing threat […]

(Update has a link to prepared testimony from a House hearing yesterday at the bottom of the page.) At 10:00 a.m. today, the Acting Maritime […]

UPDATE:  After this post was posted on April 4, 2017, the Academy finally updated the reaccreditation page on its website to provide the following information: […]