Choosing a Path of Intelligence

In 2005, Lenora Gant, Ph.D., visiting officer-in-residence, professor of international affairs at Trinity University in Washington, D.C., on suggestion of the CIA’s former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, developed a pre-pilot concept of operations for what would later become the Intelligence Community- Centers for Academic Excellence (IC CAE) Program. Sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the purpose of IC CAE is to foster awareness among prospective postsecondary students regarding career opportunities within the field of national intelligence. Among this pool of talent are active and transitioning military who bring myriad talents often directly translatable to the public sector.

Basedonthebestpracticestakenfromthe pre-pilot phase at Trinity, three more institutions were brought into concept of operations testing including Tennessee State, Florida International and Clark Atlanta universities. Four academic components comprised the initial IC CAE concept:

• curriculum development in multidisciplines
• foreign language study, travel abroad and cultural immersion
• an intelligence community on national security colloquium seminar
• a pre-collegiate, high school outreach component.

In academic year 2006– 2007, the IC CAE consortium brought in six additional institutions including California State University, University of Texas-El Paso, University of Texas-Pan American, University of Washington, Norfolk State University and Wayne State University.

The IC CAE school selection process includes a request that each institution provide a list of core areas of focus that they determine are their most creditable for application within the national security and intelligence arena. These areas of study, laid out by IC CAE, include scientific/ technical, political/economic issues, threat specialist, language specialist, information technology and information systems and general core competencies common to all IC CAE universities. “Our IC CAE member institutions develop their core areas of focus based on their academic strengths,” said Gant. “To give you an example, the California State University-San Bernadino campus is the lead institution of a seven-school consortium of multidisciplinary certificate programs,” said Gant. “Courses are offered in areas that are recognized as core programs at these particular schools such as geography, political science, sociology, electrical engineering, psychology and information systems. In focusing on a school’s primary areas of concentration, IC CAE taps the best program offerings by each institution.”

IC CAE is one of 10 such programs funded in the nation. Many of the activities initiated by IC CAE are now beginning to establish “best practices” for all IC CAE centers.

PARTNERING WITH DOD

A strong IC CAE focus on exposing prospective students to opportunities within the greater national intelligence community has opened the door to deployed servicemembers pursuing degrees and certificate credentialing. “IC CAE partnerships with the military are key because, in sending people to our IC CAE member schools, the military reciprocates in offering graduates of IC CAE institutions entrée into DoD-sponsored internships and co-ops with the expectation that these students will be the first hired into corresponding DoD core mission areas,” said Gant. “This is a win-win for IC CAE and DoD in that it prepares military students for continued service careers and careers beyond military service as well as preparing those students wishing to enter military career fields.”

In an example of partnering between IC CAE institutions and the military, Norfolk State University (NSU) has been working with the U.S. Air Force and other military services in the Norfolk area to start a national security focused graduate program at NSU as a branch off of the current undergraduate IC CAE program already in place.

“The proposed NSU graduate program is a good example of how IC CAE is supporting the military in the Norfolk area,” said Gant. “IC CAE funding not only helps connect schools with the services, but enables the growth of new programs benefiting all students, whether military or civilian.”

At the University of Texas-El Paso campus, a partnership with the U.S. Army installation at Fort Bliss, Texas, has seen numerous servicemembers, at home and deployed, offered opportunities through a certificate program in national security.

As a non-work-mandated program, in that students matriculating through IC CAE-sponsored course offerings are not mandated to work for the U.S. intelligence community once graduated, IC CAE has a variety of grant-funded areas such as revisions to existing course curricula and advising as to potential new curricula additions. Another grantfunded IC CAE focus area is in critical language, regional studies and cultural immersion.

“In partnering with the military services, IC CAE found a growing DoD interest in exposing its servicemembers to critical foreign languages and cultures in preparing them for better assimilation into international communities where DoD has a presence,” said Gant. “In response to this, IC CAE offers grant funding for military and civilian students to learn a foreign language and travel abroad to engage in regional studies in areas where they are deployed or likely to be in the future. This gives military personnel the real-world education they need to bridge the cultural divide that often hampers the military in establishing critical communications during operations overseas.”

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

In 2004, FIU answered a broad agency announcement for entry into the pilot IC CAE program. FIU’s course selection within the categories of intelligence studies and national security studies offers a variation of certificate, undergraduate and graduate level options in such areas as U.S. foreign policy/national security, politics, history, international relations, geography, and Latin American/ Asian/Middle East studies.

“Of the programs offered, we found that we needed to strengthen Middle East studies,” said John Stack, director and professor, Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at FIU. “To rectify this, we hired assistant professors in political science and geography with specializations in central Middle East studies and Dubai focusing on globalization. A third faculty member with a specialty in the Middle East and a research interest in Arab communities in the Diaspora [Brazil] joined the history department,” said Stack.

“Taking a broad, interdisciplinary approach to the study of national security, FIU emphasizes research methodology as a key dimension of analytical competence,” said Dave Twigg, associate director and lecturer, Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship, FIU. “Our focus is on increasing students’ analytical capabilities so that our students can think more creatively to help potential employers in the national intelligence community better gather the information needed to keep our nation secure amid rising currents of globalization,” said Twigg.

FIU is one of 10 IC CAE universities hosting a partnership with DoD’s worldwide command structure. In 2007, FIU signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) to provide student interns for SOUTHCOM core mission areas at the Miami area headquarters. Consequently, FIU offers programs for the course matriculation of SOUTHCOM- assigned military personnel in areas such as international relations, computer science, business, law, political science, economics, and modern languages among many other graduate and undergraduate programs.

Other offerings at FIU are study abroad and language and cultural immersion programs that are funded as part of the IC CAE program. “These programs help prepare students to compete in the global arena,” said Stack. “With the intelligence community becoming more diverse each year, knowing how to communicate cross-culturally can be as important as communicating in writing or orally. Firstgeneration American college graduates leaving the FIU community bring important life experiences with them that should enhance whatever career trajectory they pursue. Our students represent an important linkage between the U.S. and other nations that can be tapped by the U.S. government agencies to help better understand how global interests are defined.”

Stack also notes that “along with foreign study programs, the FIU IC CAE program offers internship opportunities with a number of agencies in Washington, D.C., and also has an outreach internship to Miami-Dade high schools in an effort to teach secondary education students about the dynamic arena of world politics in the globalized world of the 21st Century”.

NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY

In 2006, ODNI released funding for the Internationally Diverse Education and Area Studies (IDEAS) program at Norfolk State University in an effort to provide access to NSU students seeking careers in the intelligence community. Since its inception, IDEAS has provided international cultural immersion experiences to 37 students within the Washington/Baltimore/ Hampton Roads Alliance. The principal objectives of the program are to prepare students with background and expertise to work in the intelligence community, diversify the work force of the IC, develop new programs related to national security and intelligence, and support curriculum development efforts. Three of the IC scholars have been ROTC cadets, and it is expected that the number of ROTC students taking the strategic language courses will increase.

Over the past year, at the request of officials in the Air Force and in response to an address given last April by General James Poss, commanding officer of intelligence at Langley AFB, NSU has developed a curriculum for a master’s degree in intelligence studies (MSIS) program.

“We have had experts in intelligence from the Air Force, Navy and Army intimately involved in this activity,” said Dr. Arlene Maclin, director of the centers for academic excellence program and professor of engineering, Norfolk State University. “All of the armed services see the proposed MSIS program as a way to assist them in professionalizing their officers.” The proposed MSIS program, slated to offer three core courses in distance format starting in January 2009, comprises the following components and key persons involved in its development:

• A core curriculum was established (18 credit hours). Courses include:
  
  • Intelligence Fundamentals
  • Applied Research Methods
  • Theory of International Relations
  • Strategy and Critical Management of Intelligence
  • Leadership and Diplomacy
  • Introduction to International Studies
    
• Six concentrations were agreed upon (12 credit hours + thesis). They are:
  
  • Homeland Security
  • Intelligence Operations
  • Regional Studies
  • Terrorism Threat Analysis
  • Business and Industrial Intelligence
    
• Each concentration includes four courses plus thesis.
  
  • Publication of articles from the thesis will be strongly encouraged.
  • Potential publishing of a peer reviewed journal under the IC CAE is contemplated.
  • A research tool (EBSCO) is included as part of the program budget.
    
• Status
  
  • All syllabi have been written.
  • A proposal has been drafted in accordance with SCHEV guidelines.

NSU’s college of liberal arts has reviewed the proposal, and the school’s graduate council has approved the program. “The MSIS program is ready for delivery, and we expect that several of the core courses will be delivered as a supplement to the current national security certificate program in January 2009,” said Maclin. “Major Lynnette Hebert, USAF, and Lieutennt Matt Acanfora, USN, were pivotal in developing the program syllabi. The other persons involved in this initiative include the IC CAE program director and faculty in political science, e-learning division and school of business.”

Owing to NSU’s strategic location and the needs of the various armed services, NSU initiated a degree program in interdisciplinary studies more than 20 years ago. Typically, more than 100 students graduate from this program each year. Many of the courses are offered electronically, which makes this degree program attractive to students in the military. Typically, about half of the graduates from this program are in the military. The interdisciplinary studies program is one of the targeted programs included in the NSU IC CAE program. “We expect to expand this relationship as we develop more courses in intelligence studies to the National Security Certificate Program,” Maclin said.

Currently, NSU has a full-time employee who works for the Office of Extended Learning working on site at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. “This person works with personnel at the Navy College to ensure that military people know about and enroll in courses at NSU,” said Maclin. “Many of these classes are ones that are offered electronically. There is a new emphasis on increasing the number of degree programs that are offered by NSU electronically. This strategy is particularly interesting to military personnel. There are no special tuition assistance packages offered to military; however, the costs for in-state students to take courses at NSU are very cost-effective,” Maclin added.

TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY

Launched in October 2005, the IC CAE pilot center for academic excellence in intelligence studies (PCAEIS) program at Tennessee State University (TSU) was born with three strategic goals:

• Enhance understanding of the U.S. national intelligence organization

• Provide a better understanding of U.S. national intelligence career opportunities

• Strengthen the economic, political and cultural awareness of individuals pursuing careers in national intelligence

Mark Brinkley, director of PCAEIS, Tennessee State University, emphasizes that one of the most important challenges in intelligence studies today is to get students to understand “the impact of globalization” on national security at home and abroad. “Our mission is to provide a culturally diverse pool of qualified leaders for the U.S. intelligence community,” said Brinkley. “This diversity is key to helping U.S. intelligence personnel compete on a global stage in better securing our nation’s interests.”

During the fall semester 2008, TSU introduced a program called “Tiger Pages,” a fully-integrated, online enrollment system that enables incoming students to apply for enrollment and check the status of their progress 24 hours a day. A large impetus for this distance admissions format is a growing pool of military servicemembers stationed at nearby facilities such as Fort Campbell, Ky., unable to take advantage of TSU campus services in person.

“Recognizing that the military population closest to us is somewhat distant, we decided we needed an easier way for potential military students to access enrollment,” said Brinkley. “Using Tiger Pages as a medium for offering access to these servicemembers and other non-traditional students, we took two of our classes—the introduction to the intelligence community and geospatial issues in environmental security—and are developing them as distance-format accessible.” PCAEIS intends to have these two course offerings available online for the fall semester 2010.

Following a summer 2008 awareness program for potential military students, TSU PCAEIS is working with the Air Force detachment 790 on campus and an Army ROTC detachment housed at Vanderbilt in connecting servicemembers interested in a college-level education with the tools to pursue their interests and goals. One such tool is financial assistance offered by TSU in coordination with the U.S. Veterans Administration. “Under the Montgomery G.I., tuition assistance for active servicemembers ranges from $300 to around $1,300 a month,” Brinkley noted. “We look at the transitioning military students in conjunction with what they are eligible for under VA regulation in helping them bridge the gap between their means and their needs.”

CONTINUED FUNDING

IC CAE grant funding allows for students to travel abroad to study and attend national security related conferences and meetings as part of fulfilling requirements within their major areas of concentration. “We bring students who matriculate in IC CAE certificate or degree programs back to speak to IC CAE’s senior-executive advisory board (SAB) comprising senior officials from across the national intelligence community, academia and representatives from scientific and technical fields,” said Dr. Gant. “Since inception, on an annual basis, primary investigators representing the IC CAE institutions accompany selected students within their respective intelligence fields of study to meet with the SAB to share IC CAE programs’ implementation strategies, lessons learned, best practices, accomplishments and challenges.”

In July 2008, IC CAE held its fourth annual summer seminar, which hosted a roundtable of front line intelligence experts with all 10 IC CAE institutions and their student representatives, along with 50 selected institutions, to discuss issues facing the national intelligence community as a whole. During the seminar, students get to tour high-level intelligence agencies in getting valuable out-of-classroom field experience within their core areas of study.

At the high school level, IC CAE encourages outreach from its 10 member institutions and across the nation to assist high school students in understanding the career options within the national intelligence field that are available to them. Each summer, all 10 IC CAE universities are required to sponsor a summer camp for high school students with a focus on an introduction to the intelligence community through their core areas of study. Wayne State, Tennessee State and the University of Texas-El Paso also host summer seminars for high school teachers in helping the educators to infuse particular intelligence topics into their curricula.

One of the largest challenges facing IC CAE in its first two years of operation as a 10-school consortium is helping to demystify a limited view that many students have regarding the U.S. national intelligence community. “We have found that many folks only see our national intelligence community as the CIA or [maybe] NSA,” noted Gant. “When we educate them as to the broad scope of the IC Enterprise, which includes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and 16 nationallevel agencies like the departments of State, Homeland Security and Energy, and that we hire specialists such as economists, accountants and financial personnel, they are quite surprised that intelligence is much more than just clandestine work. Defeating these stigmas and opening students’ eyes to the career choices and potential opportunities within the world of national intelligence is a primary goal of IC CAE.” ♦