The Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College recently sent four students to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where they participated in the 63rd annual Student Conference on Foreign Affairs (SCUSA) from November 2-5, 2011. Delegates to the SCUSA conference participated in roundtable sessions, attended panel discussions, and listened to keynote speakers on several different topics concerning U.S. foreign and military policy.
Since 1949, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has hosted the SCUSA conference, the oldest, most distinguished student conference of its kind in the country. Each fall, SCUSA brings together approximately 200 undergraduate and 40 senior participants from throughout the United States and the world. The conference connects undergraduate students interested in foreign policy, and potentially, a career in foreign service, with the military, as students work with West Point cadet delegates, prominent academics, and policymakers from the highest levels of government to address current issues in foreign affairs.
Susan Eisenhower, Chairman of Leadership & Public Policy Programs at The Eisenhower Institute, was proud of the students’ attendance at the conference and remarked about its implications for Gettysburg students.
“I think the SCUSA conference at West Point was an exceptional opportunity for Gettysburg students to engage with West Point cadets and other students from around the world,” Eisenhower said. “Today, American students – and the American public in general – are disconnected from the military, and there are grave consequences when you have that kind of separation. I believe programs like SCUSA help students connect with the military on a level that, unfortunately, is rare in today’s world.”
SusanEisenhower 
The statue of Ike at West Point (pictured above) is more in keeping with what I would have expected to see in the design of the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington. He looks exactly like he did when smoking and joking with the paratroopers on the eve of D-Day. An image that everyone of my era would recognize, unlike the barefoot Kansas farmboy planned for the monument. I’m not saying that the Washington statue should be a copy of the West Point statue. But the statue in Washington should mirror the Eisenhower we all grew up knowing and revering. There’s no one alive who would recognize the Kansas farmboy incarnation of Eisenhower.