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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Homeland security moving to classrooms Schools offer programs to train professionals You can fight terror with bombs, or guns, or even with tough words. It's a battle that has taken Americans to foreign lands and into the realm of cyberspace. In Delaware, the struggle has entered the classroom. The weapon of choice is knowledge. Across the nation and around the world, colleges are increasingly creating degree programs and other courses to prepare students for work in "homeland security," the broadly defined realm of protecting communities and businesses against terror attacks and natural disasters. At Wilmington College, a master's degree concentration in the field will begin in September, and has attracted about 25 students. At Delaware Technical & Community College, officials are exploring a two-year degree in homeland security and emergency management. "We saw regional need for homeland security at the master's level," said Chris Trowbridge, an assistant professor and the coordinator of Wilmington College's graduate administration of justice programs. Increasingly, he said, business and law enforcement professionals see the benefit of studying the dynamics of terrorism and the complexities of assessing risk. Many firms and government agencies already have people in place who are working to cope with these security issues, said Bill Esposito, a former deputy director of the FBI who will be teaching two of the four courses included in Wilmington College's yearlong homeland security program. "The question is, how much training do these people really have and how much education do they have in those programs?" he said. Across the country, schools have been addressing that question by adding homeland security classes, from the bachelor's degree available since last fall at Virginia Commonwealth University to the four-year curriculum at Joppatowne High School in Maryland. Across the country, such programs are showing "dramatic growth," said Todd I. Stewart, director of the National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security, an organization that encourages collaboration among schools. The alliance now includes more than 330 universities and community colleges, including some overseas. "There is not much consistency in these programs," he said. "They tend to emphasize different things. Some are broader, others are much more focused. Typically, a college or university takes a program they already have a strength in and builds on that." At Virginia Commonwealth, the program grew from four students last year to more than 100 this fall. Soon, it may begin offering it as an online master's degree as well. Growth in the homeland security field is estimated at between 21 and 35 percent through 2012 by the job site Career Explorer, which says salaries can range from $12,776 to $142,498 a year. "I am not surprised by the overwhelming response," said William H. Parrish, a professor in Virginia Commonwealth's program and a former associate director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Americans remain acutely aware of the uncertainties created by 9/11, but "not everybody is ready to raise their right arm and put on a uniform and serve their country," he said. One big benefit of the increasing number of academic programs could be to speed the pace and intensity of planning for disasters, Parrish said. "That's one of our weakest links in the country," he said. "We don't do well in planning." Experts say the programs may also encourage communication across emergency agency barriers. "The lines of demarcation, if you will, between police, fire, EMS, health, agriculture are not very bright anymore," said David B. Mitchell, secretary of Delaware's Department of Safety and Homeland Security. "They're very blurry." The college programs should help build better lines of communication among agencies and businesses, he said. "It brings an excellent opportunity to our community for first responders, members of the business community and others to come together in an academic setting to discuss and learn new ways of handling new challenges." Practical expertise One of those first responders is Cpl. Tom Finch, a 17-year police veteran who now works with the New Castle city force. His patrols take him out to the banks of the Delaware, where he sees the towers of the nuclear and chemical plants and realizes what targets they must seem. While pursuing his master's degree at Wilmington College, he was uncertain which of the school's concentrations he favored. "When the homeland security [program] came, I said, 'That's it,' " he said. "The academic side of it is a complement to the first-responder training we're getting." With college certification, experts said, students and even current workers can burnish their appeal to prospective employers who have a big stake in emergency preparedness, from law enforcement agencies to corporations. Wilmington College's programs include classes in modern terrorism, risk assessment, and management and legal aspects of homeland security. The concentration is also available as a post-master's certificate. "Our program is designed for working practitioners, so the vast majority of our students are already working in the criminal justice system, in the field," Trowbridge said. "They're always looking at ways to be on the front end of what's happening in society," said Dominic Murgido, vice president and director of loss prevention for the Boscov's department store chain. A member of the college's criminal justice advisory board, he said businesses also have a crucial interest in the homeland security process. "It helps corporations and businesses to be part of the whole makeup of the national effort for homeland security," he said of the college programs. For the community, the growth in such programs may even help create a more secure society, experts said. "Five years ago, we probably wouldn't have been talking about this kind of stuff in the classroom," Parrish said. "But times have changed." Contact Eric Ruth at 324-2428 or eruth@delawareonline.com.
Poster Comment: I can't imagine who's funding this. ;)
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#9. To: Eoghan (#0)
A bunch of goose stepping Nazis. Mark
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