Posted by Captain Jennifer Ward (Presidential Candidate) in Questions for the Candidates - Academy Graduation Requirements and Character Creation

Posted by Joe P in Questions for the Candidates - Academy Graduation Requirements and Character Creation

Posted by Captain Jennifer Ward (Presidential Candidate) in Questions for the Candidates - Academy Graduation Requirements and Character Creation
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
These are questions for Jennifer and Brian’s ticket based on their headquarters post.

What would you consider changing in the requirements for graduation?

Have you noticed graduates of the Academy who struggle with creating solid and realized characters and who feel daunted when they enter the mainfleet?

Adam W.

Specifically I think that the current requirements for graduation should stay in place, but add a component to it. Specifically that while on Challenger (or any other academy ship) cadets should work towards having a solid bio for their character. Now what does solid look like? That is something I would want to work with the academy with to decide. As for my personal experience let me start by clarifying this is not my first time at STF and I have experience writing backgrounds and bios for my characters. That is not so with every cadet. When my class left Challenger and arrived on our new ships a lot of us were told that we couldn’t keep our characters as we had envisioned them/wrote them. There was no bio nor detail of the character and so we got this situation where the CO approved us and then others on the ship pushed back and said no and it was a problem. To the point SEVERAL left STF all together
We feel that a better development of characters and writing quality will help prevent that. The Academy allows for weaker or new writers, and that’s amazing and the goal and purpose of the academy, but currently there is no requirement to help cadets build that character foundation. Without it going into the main fleet becomes a nightmare.
Jennifer and Brian, Supporting Creativity

Jennifer, a bunch of follow up questions for you, based upon what you wrote here.

I’m pretty sure that I’m the CO in question here, as you were assigned to my ship after your second graduation from the Academy. So, I’m very disturbed to learn that you had a negative experience on Europa, especially many months after the fact and in such a public way, after telling me there was nothing wrong on my ship whatsoever when you chose to leave it to RP with other people.

Why did you never talk to me about this if it was such a big deal at the time?

If you knew people were quitting our club over it all together (nobody ever cited this as a reason that they quit my ship), why didn’t you say anything about it? Why did you just let it happen?

Joe

Joe, respectfully I am choosing to message you privately about this.
Jennifer

You know… I don’t actually think that’s appropriate. I asked a public question based upon things you said publicly, and the point of having these questions asked and answered publicly is for those of us who don’t know you well (which… depending on how you define it, can be upwards of dozens of people) to understand the thinking behind your ideas and get a sense of your leadership style.

You weren’t doing that on my account, were you? I mean… I don’t have a problem with anything you said in your private answer being publicly discussed, if that’s the reason you didn’t write it here. (I will withhold any comment on what your private answer was for now).

Joe