10 U.S.C. § 7432

(a) The Secretary of the Army may prescribe the titles of each of the departments of instruction and the professors of the Academy. However, the change of the title of a department or officer does not affect the status, rank, or eligibility for promotion or retirement of, or otherwise prejudice, a professor at the Academy. (b) Upon becoming the senior professor in a department, a permanent professor thereby becomes the head of that department.