While implementing Agenda for Change recommendations, Rosa's team also is reviewing the Fowler Commission recommendations. Rosa said about a half-dozen of the commission's 21 recommendations already have been addressed through Agenda for Change initiatives.
Rosa said one big challenge in introducing changes at the academy is to make sure they are backed up by lasting programs, "so that we don't find ourselves 10 years down the road in the same or similar circumstances."
He acknowledged these changes and programs -- and the culture change that they are designed to help bring about -- won't happen overnight. But Rosa said he hopes to be "well down the road" within one to two years toward bringing the academy "to the next level of excellence and (to) make it a place where moms and dads are proud to send their kids."
Rosa said he and his staff are working to rebuild trust and confidence in the academy among the American public, but also among the cadets themselves. That is a two-fold process, he said, that begins by ensuring cadets understand their leaders care about them and will enforce measures in place to protect them. But he said it also involves "getting them to trust us to trust them."
Rosa said cadets at the academy are committed to helping restore their school's image.
"They're ready to get past this," he said. "They want (the academy) to get better. They want this to be the institution they came to. There's a tremendous amount of pride in the institution, and they want to be a part of taking us to the next level of excellence."
