Capital Gazette
By James Matheson September 30, 2025
Under the looming threat of a federal government shutdown this week, we asked: How would that affect midshipmen and general operations at the U.S. Naval Academy?
A shutdown would force active-duty service members to continue to serve without pay until Congress is able to strike a deal. Upon said deal, military personnel would be back-paid, according to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019.
That includes military personnel serving as faculty or in support roles across the Naval Academy yard. However, civilian staff members — who make up about 50% of the academy’s faculty — would not be permitted to work.
Naval Academy media relations declined to comment on the academy’s preparation or policies related to government shutdowns and how they make up for the absence of civilian faculty.
“While the impact caused by the absence of more than half of the personnel who support our academic program is significant and will require interruption to much of our academic program, this guidance is intended to keep the most basic elements of our USNA mission functioning on a temporary basis,” reads a page on the academy website dedicated to government shutdown guidelines.
In March, then-Superintendent Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, reported that the Naval Academy has the highest civilian faculty percentage of fellow military schools represented at the hearing — the Air Force Academy and West Point — at 50%.
“We have a proven formula that works,” Davids said in March. “That includes these incredible civilian faculty that are charged to support everything that we do. They’re completely in our mission, and they complement the military aspect of our faculty as well.”
The Naval Academy, under her purview, maintained a 50% civilian faculty ratio to maintain technical expertise with the “STEM-heavy curriculum,” according to Davids. But the Department of Defense seeks to “strategically” reduce civilian manpower by 5% to 8%, or approximately 50,000 to 60,000 employees, according to a Defense Department statement in February.
It is unclear what the current civilian to military-personnel faculty ratio is across the DOD or at the academy, though Defense One recently reported that more than 60,000 defense civilians have left under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Business as usual?
The Naval Academy website offers guidance to midshipmen and concerned parents in the event of a shutdown.
All students are still required to report to scheduled classes as usual, even if they know their professor won’t be there. Once there, if an instructor doesn’t show up within 10 minutes of the scheduled time, midshipmen can leave.
“Military instructors will likely hold classes as usual, and even sections with civilian instructors may have a military faculty member substitute,” the page states.
All final exams will be held as scheduled with no exceptions. Each department is responsible for having its own plan to administer final exams, even in the case of a shutdown.
The status of extracurricular activities at the Naval Academy during a shutdown also remains unclear. In September 2023, with an impending government shutdown, then-athletic director Chet Gladchuk said Navy athletics would not be impacted by the potential shutdown because the Naval Academy Athletic Association is a private nonprofit organization and does not use any government funds for athletics.
Navy football is slated to play Air Force on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
DOD guidance
The DOD released a contingency plan Friday that prioritizes missions and functions that should continue to be carried out in the absence of available appropriations.
Unused funds appropriated in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill reconciliation package could be considered to support priorities like operations to secure the U.S. southern border, Middle East operations, the U.S. missile defense project Golden Dome for America, depot maintenance, shipbuilding and critical munitions.
The plan also estimates that more than 406,000 of the department’s 741,000 civilian employees would be required to work in the event of a shutdown either because their payment comes from a resource other than annual appropriations or they are “Necessary to protect life and property.”