The U.S. Air Force Academy is under investigation by its accrediting body after more than 50 civilian faculty members left within months, triggering warnings from alumni and former instructors that the Colorado Springs institution risks losing the academic credentials that allow cadets to attend graduate school.
The Higher Learning Commission notified the Academy on Oct. 14, 2025, that a formal complaint filed by a retired colonel raised “potential concerns regarding the institution’s compliance with the Criteria for Accreditation.” The commission gave the school 30 days to explain how it would maintain academic quality after the departures.
What began as budget cuts has turned into a crisis that puts the Academy at odds with the very people it once recruited to teach. At stake is whether the military can replace PhD-level civilian instructors with uniformed officers without damaging programs in engineering, physics and other technical fields that underpin modern warfare.
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How the Exodus Began
The Academy identified 140 civilian positions for elimination in fiscal year 2025 to address a $10 million pay shortfall. While 104 of those jobs were already vacant, 36 remained filled. When the Trump administration introduced the Deferred Resignation Program in January 2025, offering federal workers paid leave through September if they quit, instructors started walking out.
By summer 2025, the mechanical engineering department had been hit particularly hard. Sources told KOAA News the program dropped from 24 instructors as faculty took buyouts and their positions were eliminated rather than filled. Other departments saw similar reductions, though the losses varied widely across campus.
Dr. Brian Johns was among those who left. He had given up a tenured position and department chair role at Cornell College in Iowa to join the Academy’s systems engineering program in 2023. Two years later, he resigned to take a teaching job at Colorado State University.
“I was committing to a long term position at the Air Force Academy, and it kind of felt like they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain,” Johns told KOAA in August 2025.
Johns said he was the only civilian faculty member to leave his department, but the Academy never replaced him. His 300- and 400-level courses in systems design now fall to remaining instructors, all while class sizes grow.
The Push for Military Instructors
Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, who took over as superintendent in 2024, has worked to shift the Academy toward an 80:20 ratio of military to civilian instructors. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reinforced that goal during his confirmation hearing, arguing that uniformed personnel should teach based on their operational experience.
But critics say military and civilian faculty serve different purposes. Uniformed instructors typically rotate through on three- to five-year assignments. Civilian professors, many of them military veterans with doctorates, provide continuity and deep technical expertise in fields like autonomous systems, satellite technology and aerospace engineering.
Tom Bewley, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor from UC San Diego who served as a distinguished visiting professor at the Academy during the 2024-2025 academic year, co-authored an April 2025 op-ed in the Denver Post with more than 90 cosigners. The group included three retired major generals and four former Academy department heads.
“The insidious part of it is those who took the DRP, their positions disappeared,” Bewley told KOAA. “For everyone who took them, we are down a civilian faculty that’s not getting replaced.”
Bewley and others argued that civilian instructors anchor technical programs and help new military faculty learn classroom management while maintaining course standards. Department heads were required to sign nondisclosure agreements before discussing the cuts, multiple sources said, keeping the full scope of reductions from becoming public.
The Accreditation Question
Retired Air Force Col. Kent Murphy filed the Oct. 1, 2025, complaint with the Higher Learning Commission after watching the faculty drain accelerate. Murphy, an Academy alumnus who spent years as a pre-medical advisor for cadets, focused his complaint on the loss of PhD-qualified instructors in STEM departments like aeronautics, astrophysics and mechanical engineering.
Retired Lt. Col. Tony Aretz, who served two terms as a university president and helped prepare the complaint, said accreditation reviews typically start with written responses but can advance to site visits and probation if the accrediting body finds problems.
“It’s pretty serious because one of their major criteria are the sufficient faculty to teach and the qualifications of the faculty to oversee the academic rigor,” Aretz told KOAA. Losing accreditation would prevent cadets from transferring credits to graduate programs.
The Academy acknowledged receiving the commission’s letter and said it would respond according to established protocols. As of mid-January 2026, the commission has not publicly announced whether it accepted the Academy’s response or will take further action.
What the Academy Says
Academy officials maintain that all 26 majors remain available for the current academic year. The institution added four new classes and three new minors to the curriculum and brought in 19 military personnel to teach. The school employed roughly 550 total faculty members as of April 2025, with 308 uniformed instructors and 183 civilians.
“I can confidently attest we are maintaining the academic rigor, accreditation, and high standards expected at the U.S. Air Force Academy,” Bauernfeind said in an August 2025 statement.
The Academy said it is working to reassign the 36 employees whose positions were eliminated to other billets at the school or elsewhere in the Air Force and Space Force. Officials noted that 11 of those staff members had already moved to different roles.
Acting Dean Col. Steven Hasstedt wrote in a July email to faculty that permanent professors were conducting a comprehensive curriculum review “to ensure alignment with future warfighting competencies and officer development.”
What Comes Next
Rep. Jeff Crank, a Colorado Republican whose district includes the Academy and who sits on its Board of Visitors, has pressed Bauernfeind for clarity on staffing plans. During an August 2025 board meeting, Bauernfeind would not commit to maintaining a mix of civilian and military faculty.
The Air Force is also considering cuts to the Distinguished Visiting Professor Program, which currently brings 11 outside experts to campus each year. Faculty expect that number to drop to four for the 2026-2027 academic year, one for each academic division.
Parents who are Academy graduates have started advising their children to consider other schools, according to Bewley. Faculty morale has dropped as instructors absorb additional courses and larger class sizes. Some professors fear the air force academy civilian faculty resignations are just the beginning if budget pressures continue and more cuts arrive in fiscal year 2026.
The Academy built its academic reputation over decades by combining military discipline with rigorous technical education. Whether it can maintain that standard with fewer civilian instructors teaching the engineering and science courses that prepare officers for increasingly complex warfare will depend on decisions made in the coming months by Bauernfeind, Hegseth and Air Force leadership.
