By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 12, 2006

The U.S. Naval Academy has removed questions about racial and religious preference from the application form that allows local families to sponsor midshipmen, after protests from the civil rights community.

Administrators of the service academy decided late last month to alter the six-page application, which collects personal and professional information from residents who wish to open their homes to incoming academy freshmen, or plebes. The online form disappeared from the academy Web site shortly after July 11 news reports revealed complaints over the questions.

"The concern was raised, and so we decided to take a look at it," said Cmdr. Edward Austin, a spokesman for the Annapolis institution.

Chris Ledoux, an Annapolis resident, touched off the controversy this summer when he began calling local politicians to complain about the questions, which he discovered while perusing the form as a prospective sponsor. His inquiries prompted news coverage and, late last month, a letter to the academy superintendent from the Anne Arundel chapter of the NAACP.

"I am pleased," Ledoux said yesterday of the academy's decision. "What it at least tells me is that they recognized that it was wrong to ask those types of questions."

Questions about race and religion had been a little-noted piece of the sponsor applications for at least 10 years, according to academy officials. The sponsor program itself goes back about 30 years, matching first-year students with families in the community who can provide the plebes a home away from home and a refuge from the rigors of academy life. Nearly 700 sponsors are hosting 1,200 students in the Class of 2010.

The sponsor form solicits information from prospective applicants about race, religion, ethnicity and interests. Until last month, it also asked them to state whether they would prefer a midshipman of a particular religion or race. The form also sought preferred hobbies, music, sports and home states.

Although prospective sponsors were required to answer the questions about race and religion, they could do so by stating that they had no preference. The vast majority of applicants stated no preference, according to academy spokeswoman Deborah Goode.

Carl Snowden, who as an aide to Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens (D) specializes in civil rights, said he was told that midshipmen will still be permitted to state their own racial and religious preferences in a sponsor, if they have any. Austin, at the academy, couldn't confirm that yesterday, but he emphasized that the intent of the program was to help midshipmen, particularly those from remote home towns, to "feel comfortable in their surroundings."

Snowden said the academy "should be applauded" for deleting the disputed questions from its application. Austin said he wasn't sure when the revised application would go online.

July 7 was the deadline for prospective sponsors to apply for the current academic year.