The West Point Association has cancelled the awards ceremony aimed at honoring two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, according to the Washington Post. This move comes as President Donald Trump continues to intervene in Ivy League agencies and military academies across the country.
Mark Beeger, president and CEO of the Alumni West Point Association, announced the cancellation in a faculty email on Friday. The decision made West Point argued that it would be possible to focus on its core mission of leading, fighting and winning cadets as the world’s most lethal military officers.
Alumni West Point Association officials did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment. Hanks’ representatives did not immediately respond to a Variety request for comment.
Hanks was scheduled to win the Silvanus Sayer Award on September 25th. The award aims to celebrate “outstanding citizens” outside the West Point organization, which has a history of social services exemplifying the Academy’s three core ideals: “duty, honor, and nation.”
Beeger said the West Point Alumni Association and the Academy would not “conduct a Sayer Awards Ceremony,” and did not clarify whether the award would still be presented to Hanks at another forum or whether the award had been completely revoked.
Trump has a keen interest in putting his stamp on the country’s top academic institutions, including West Point, in the second term. Following the January executive order, the Trump administration has wielded a red pen around West Point curriculum after committing to overhauling “leadership, curriculum and instructors” at the country’s top military academy.
According to the New York Times, the pentagon also reinserted a portrait of General Robert E. Lee at the West Point Library in late August. In light of the decision, Army Communications Director Rebecca Hodson said, “Under this administration, we respect history and learn from it. We won’t erase it.”
