Why is starfleet acadamy so small?

[biotech]

Ok, so back in Kirk's day, there were only 12 ships of the enterprises size, and there had only been 1700 or so ships made since they started making them.

But by the time of 24 centuary, starships numbers have reached the 70,000s, huge fleets are in battles all over the place, each of them with anything up to 1000 crew.

When you are talking that many officers need training all the time, starfleet acadamy shouldnt be in sanfransico, it should BE sanfranscisco!

 

[Nerys Myk]

What makes you think it isn't?

 

[Crewman47]

Wouldn't San Francisco just be the primary campus on Earth? There could be other campuse's elsewhere on Earth as well as on other planets that could possibly be far larger than SF campus.

 

[Computer]

Here in the Northeast (US) The University of New England has campus sites and buildings in just about every New England state so on a galactic scale I would imagine Starfleet does the same thing.

 

[Anwar]

I think the Academy on Earth is just the Academy HQ, and that there are likely Academies on several other Fed worlds, like Andoria or Vulcan.

 

[exodus]

Anwar said:
I think the Academy on Earth is just the Academy HQ, and that there are likely Academies on several other Fed worlds, like Andoria or Vulcan.

Yes, hasn't it been referred to as Starfleet HQ on some of the shows?

Also, we're only seeing the outside of it. I have no doubt Starfleet Acadamy has several underground levels as well. Best example would be the Jacob Javits Center in NYC or the San Diego Convention center. If you divide up the massive amount of space those two places have into class rooms and training centers, you can still easily fit thousands of people into them.

 

[FPAlpha]

However it would have been nice to sneak in a throwaway line about Starfleet academies on Vulcan, Betazed or Andoria just to show that not everything is earth-centric.

Realistically speaking it would be unwise to only have the academy on Earth (as large as it may be).. Starfleet is about diversity and it would be good for human cadets to spend a semester on Andoria and for Vulcans to spend a semester on Andoria.

 

[exodus]

FPAlpha said:


Realistically speaking it would be unwise to only have the academy on Earth (as large as it may be).. Starfleet is about diversity and it would be good for human cadets to spend a semester on Andoria and for Vulcans to spend a semester on Andoria.

Frankly I'm starting to think that's B.S. in modern Trek.

If Starfleet is so diversified, why are starships full of mostly humans?

 

[Smiley]

We only see the mostly human starships because of budget and time constraints. We do see and hear about Vulcan ships like the Intrepid, so we know it's not all humans everywhere.

Starfleet Academy on Earth is probably the hub campus with some satellites scattered about the Federation for concerns of space and biological necessity.

 

[Vanyel]

Computer said:
Here in the Northeast (US) The University of New England has campus sites and buildings in just about every New England state so on a galactic scale I would imagine Starfleet does the same thing.

This, I believe, is the most likely answer. Here in Texas we have the University of Texas System with 15 schools throughout Texas, and the Texas A&M University System with 9 schools throughout Texas. There is no reason to believe Starfleet Academy is any different.

 

[exodus]

Frowny said:
We only see the mostly human starships because of budget and time constraints. We do see and hear about Vulcan ships like the Intrepid, so we know it's not all humans everywhere.

I really do understand budget & time, however even in films(using your example of Vulcans) don't you think far more Vulcans would have intergrated into Starfleet and have more of a presents on Starships being they've been amoung us for so long?

 

[John Picard]

Hull numbers are not indicative of actual ship counts. The US Navy has, at times, scrapped ships/programs/classes and rather than recycle the hull number, merely left it to the annals of history, never to have graced a vessel.

With that in mind, Starfleet may have used similar logic/procedures with the numbering of its vessels.

 

[Alisium]

FPAlpha said:
However it would have been nice to sneak in a throwaway line about Starfleet academies on Vulcan, Betazed or Andoria just to show that not everything is earth-centric.

Realistically speaking it would be unwise to only have the academy on Earth (as large as it may be).. Starfleet is about diversity and it would be good for human cadets to spend a semester on Andoria and for Vulcans to spend a semester on Andoria.

Well, what about exposing the aliens to human culture. But, you're right. It is a multi-racial federation and Starfleet so it should have other campuses on other planets to give people more exposure. Assuming in that era they don't already have plenty.

It's also unwise to place your entire group of new officers in one location and probably not logistically feesable either. One major mishap could take out four years worth of potential new officers.

They should have some sort of ROTC or other Comissioning programs available for people who either don't want to or don't need to go to the academy.

 

[Alisium]

Frowny said:
We only see the mostly human starships because of budget and time constraints. We do see and hear about Vulcan ships like the Intrepid, so we know it's not all humans everywhere.

Good point.

That's why I love TAS so much. The animation eliminates much of those constraining elemnts. We had to aliens on the bridge, besides Spock, one even with four arms, sheild belts, loss of gravity, plant people and so forth.

Maybe the movie, allowed more money and time, combined with modern movie tech may bring us some more interesting characters.

 

[MarianLH]

exodus said:

Frowny said:
We only see the mostly human starships because of budget and time constraints. We do see and hear about Vulcan ships like the Intrepid, so we know it's not all humans everywhere.

I really do understand budget & time, however even in films(using your example of Vulcans) don't you think far more Vulcans would have intergrated into Starfleet and have more of a presents on Starships being they've been amoung us for so long?

As Frowny said, there are all-Vulcan ships, like the Intrepid and the T'Kumbra. If you're a Vulcan in Starfleet, would you really want to serve on a Human ship? It's always chilly, the light is the wrong color, the gravity is too low, the air's too thick and too oxygen-rich...


Marian

 

[Ro_Laren]

It's small because Star Trek has a small budget.

 

[Corran Horn]

Hey, it gets bigger! It's just really cold in here!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It's supposed to be at the Presidio (after they kick George Lucas' fat ass out ) but it looks like a park, which makes sense: it's part of the National Parks System and those guys NEVER let anyone develop anything so there won't be any aboveground buildings, I guess they can move into the historic old buildings scattered around and build the real stuff underground. The whole campus could be underneath San Francisco and even extend under the Bay. They can have realistic viewscreens that look like windows - no claustrophobia and good training for the days when the students will be on spaceships with viewscreens.

 

[WillsBabe]

Maybe it really is that small. Remember the episode where Wesley was competing to be allowed into the Academy? They had four or five standout candidates and they made them compete against each other. To me, if Starfleet is so vast and there are so many fine candidates you'd take as many of them as you could not make them compete for limited places. I don't think I've explained myself properly. Hopefully you know what I'm saying, which is, basically the whole thing hasn't been though through!

 

[Vanyel]

Pixie Dark said:
Maybe it really is that small. Remember the episode where Wesley was competing to be allowed into the Academy? They had four or five standout candidates and they made them compete against each other. To me, if Starfleet is so vast and there are so many fine candidates you'd take as many of them as you could not make them compete for limited places. I don't think I've explained myself properly. Hopefully you know what I'm saying, which is, basically the whole thing hasn't been though through!

Well like the UT and A&M Systems, each university has limited space and students due have to meet standards to enter.