For the college students who are still undeclared or undecided on their current majors, the U.S. government wants them to consider an option few know is even a possibility: homeland security. Due in part to the U.S. government’s commitment to finding new leaders to fight the war on terror, the homeland security major finds itself gaining popularity throughout the country as universities start to offer it as part of their curriculum.
These programs intend to train the next generation of leaders and administrators in the war on terror. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security offers competitive, merit-based scholarships to individual students interested in “basic science and technology innovations that can be applied to the DHS mission,” according to the department’s website.
According to a Dec. 11 article in The Boston Globe, federal expenditures on homeland security research and education have grown from $1 billion to $11 billion since Sept. 11, 2001, with $70 million allocated for universities.
In 2003, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, granted the first masters degree in homeland security.
In terms of research, many universities have received access to federal funding under a new initiative by the DHS called the “centers of excellence.” Described on the department’s website as “centers of multi-disciplinary research,” each school is implemented into a network of other institutions, including the DHS, to analyze and discuss issues of national defense.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, Texas A’M University, University of Minnesota and University of Maryland are all part of the growing list of centers of excellence. Each center focuses on a specific problem, such as preparation and response, economic analysis and food protection and defense.
But defining the concentration in academic terms and creating a curriculum represents a significant hurdle in the formation of homeland security courses and majors, said Dr. Todd Stewart, director of the Ohio State University Program for International and Homeland Security.
“One of the challenges is to get people to agree on what ‘homeland security’ means,” Stewart said. “There is a great variety in the programs offered [by various schools] – some of them are principally criminal justice, others are public administration and emergency management.”
The large number of concentrations that could potentially fall under the umbrella of a homeland security major also includes bio-terrorism, food science, architectural analysis and cyber-terrorism, Stewart said.
Some schools have modified existing programs to focus on current pertinent security issues. For example, Ohio State University recently created a new major entitled “Security and Intelligence” under the “International Studies” degree program, Stewart added.
Preparing students with disaster-response techniques and counter-terrorism skills also makes the programs vulnerable to terrorists, who could infiltrate such programs and learn from their enemy.
Stewart said that while possible, the acquisition of sensitive or specific information by terrorists would be unlikely.
“There is nothing that is presented [in any homeland security-related course] that is classified or wouldn’t be available in open literature. Nothing to my knowledge is particularly sensitive,” he said.
While the results of research and technological innovations are measurable, the effects of undergraduate college programs can be more difficult to determine.
Katie Ford, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, said gauging the effectiveness of academic programs in its early stages is difficult and an education program that focuses on exchanging ideas and stimulating discussion would be a more reasonable strategy.
“I think we are seeing more of colleges and universities recognizing that they have a role to play in terms of bringing executive-level individuals [who are already in the field of homeland security] into an academic environment to share their experiences and to learn from others,” Ford said.