Lieutenant General Steven Gilland
Superintendent, West Point Military Academy
Steven Wesley Gilland is a native of Rock Island, Illinois. He earned an undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point and earned a M.S. from the Air Force Command and Staff College.
He commanded the 1st “Ironhorse” Brigade Combat Team. He participated in numerous deployments to the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan. He was the 17th Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy for one year, then became commanding general of the 2nd Infantry Division, where he served two years.
He served one year as the deputy commander of III Corps at Fort Hood. In May 2022, he was nominated for promotion to lieutenant general, and a month later Gilland was named the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy.
In the News…
The House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on race-based admissions at the nation’s military academies after a Supreme Court decision overturned affirmative action for colleges and universities but did not address the military services.
The superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point told the legislators there is a difference between a “quota” and a “preference” for admissions. “We don’t have quotas,” Lieutenant General Steven Gilland said. “We have goals to meet as I stated with regards to leader goals, categories of young men and women as regards to backgrounds” as well as goals for the scholars, leaders, and athletes.
“We have class composition goals. If we don’t meet them, we don’t meet them,” the superintendent told the committee. He confirmed that West Point has not abandoned the practice, setting composition goals for the most recent incoming class graduating in 2027.
“Those goals are established on the basis of the composition of our officer corps. We would like our graduating classes to look similar to the officer corps,” he said.
