Reconsidering the Maritime Academy: California's Case

Sometimes, I feel that I am repeating blog posts, but with new information comes new angles for reporting. In this case, California State University's (CSU) Maritime college will be merging with a larger polytechnic program by 2026. That maritime college in Vallejo seemingly re-invented itself in the 1990s, but what has worked for two generations no longer works so well. Since 2018, enrollment has fallen by a third, and new capital investment is required to maintain dormitories and other facilities. As a professional school, there is a requirement to wear uniforms to class, stand "watch" as an on-campus job, and to abstain from marijuana (due to the use of a federally-subsidized training ship). Optimistically, CSU intends to retain the maritime licensing program. Yet, these afflictions seem strange due to the fact that CSU operates the only four-year maritime program on the West Coast; five such programs operate in the Eastern time zone, plus Texas A&M in the Gulf Coast (recently blogged about their new tuition policy). The 1990's were a transformational time for maritime colleges in the United States. The labor-intesive American ships built during World War Two were finally retired from service, leaving a smaller fleet of ships for newly-graduated merchant officers to sail. With the Cold War over, Navy veterans downsized from military service provided skilled manpower with little need for new education, under laws and conventions of the era. To this end, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association (MEBA) apprentice program in Easton, MD was closed in favor of continuing education for existing mariners. Then-Vice President Al Gore slated the US Merchant Marine Academy for closure- it is still open. Each state maritime academy began offering new majors, often without the uniform and military-style training requirements. Such new degrees tended to be adjacent to the maritime field, with offerings in logistics, international business, security, and facilities management. Organizationally, only two of the six state schools left the 1990's as autonomous institutions; the transformation of California Maritime Academy into a CSU campus was so complete that it earned the name of "casual maritime academy" due to the students' increase in rights and priveleges. There was certainly dissent about the "dilution" of regimental culture at the time. One alumnus filed a lawsuit against the Maritime College of New York, stating that use of the waterfront Fort Schuyler campus in the Bronx was restricted by the US government to training licensed maritime officers. Such an forestalling effort failed. Despite the maritime orientation of these colleges, oceanography and marine biology are often taught elsewhere. Out of the six state maritime academies, only Texas A&M is a designated Sea Grant University with focus on ocean research. Scholarly research seemed at odds with hands-on, employment focused learning. In the end, restructuring allowed these maritime colleges to exist for Gen X and Millenials. Peak college enrollment of the year 2010 came and went. Maritime colleges, offering graduates high starting salaries, continued to ride high. To this end, CSU Maritime appears to be unique it its troubles caused by a confluence of factors. First is the freshman attrition rate, where many students decide that college, and especially a maritime program, is not for them. Second is the general decreased interest in a college degree: Many of the students in adjacent degrees were not focused on a maritime career, but attended college as low-propensity, general ed students. Third, due to crew shortages, many would-be maritime students are going straight to work, collecting a paycheck instead of paying tuition, and collecting promotions based on work experience rather than classroom time. Unless they happen to have GI Bill Benefits, or a funded college savings account, it is unlikely they will return to a maritime college once they are working in the industry. It appears that, unlike the 1990's, CSU Maritime will be going through its next transformation alone. The unspoken truth is that most college-educated mariners leave shipboard work within 5-10 years of graduation. Thus, going to sea is no longer the way of life, but part of it. Incorporation of a maritime program into a college with other operationally-focused majors will provide strengthening synergies to both the student and the institution.