[Infowarrior] - Terror U

Wed Apr 9 13:46:02 UTC 2008

Terror U
What's behind the boom in homeland-security and emergency-management majors?
By Jessica Portner
Posted Friday, March 28, 2008, at 11:33 AM ET

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2187648/

The traditionally slow-moving education industry is churning out a slew of
students with specialties in "mass catastrophe" and "international
disaster." More than 200 colleges have created homeland-security degree and
certificate programs since 9/11, and another 144 have added emergency
management with a terrorism bent.

Homeland security is outpacing most other majors in part because governments
and corporations are hungry to hire professionals schooled in disaster.
One-quarter of the top slots‹from presidential appointments to high-level
civil servants to scientific posts‹at the Department of Homeland Security
remained empty last year. And with one-third of posts at the Federal
Emergency Management Agency vacant, thousands of graduates are landing
lucrative government gigs before they've finished their weapons of mass
destruction final. A student at the University of North Texas now works as
an emergency planner in Florida when he's not tracking hurricanes for fun. A
graduate of the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and
Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events is using his dissertation, rooted in
game theory, to help police at Los Angeles International Airport improve
inspections. Others are security directors on ships or bomb specialists at
luxury hotels.

DHS has doled out more than $300 million since 9/11 to eight prestigious
U.S. universities to open "centers of excellence" devoted to narrow topics
like "the psyche of terrorists" or "microbial risk analysis." Though the
funding is a pittance in federal-budget terms, the investment is a notable
deposit into higher-education coffers and a forceful message to colleges:
Build these degree programs and students will register.

Universities, which recognize a good business venture and an admirable
mission, have spent millions of dollars trying to enhance their offerings
with electives on cybersecurity and agricultural terrorism. Thousands of
military and law-enforcement experts have also enrolled in certificate
programs to expand their expertise.

Educators say terrorist training camps probably have rigorous curricula with
hefty reading lists and hard-grading teachers. America could use an army of
tech-savvy terror experts who have the smarts to thwart the next Chernobyl
or to whip out an orderly evacuation plan when Katrina's sister arrives.
It's fitting that the generation of American students that grew up with
violent video games are the ones outsmarting the real villains.

Rarely has an academic field swept through American campuses this quickly.
When the Russians beat America into space in 1957 by launching Sputnik, the
first unmanned spacecraft to orbit Earth, Washington helped universities
respond. The federal bounty boosted college science and technology programs
to counter the perceived intellectual threat from the Soviets during the
Cold War. Physics and astronomy programs flourished. Products like
ready-to-eat foods, no-fog ski goggles, and water-resistant clothing were
born.

The next time such a major academic shift whipped through university
campuses, it was a product of rage rather than government investment. In the
1960s and '70s, students at colleges across the country rallied their
schools to create African-American and women's studies majors to counter the
prevailing white-male-dominated canon.

The ballooning number of homeland-security and emergency-management majors
must be making some campuses feel like Terror U. Homeland-security majors
type out term papers on how to identify and outwit America's foes. The
inevitability of disaster permeates every syllabus whether the threat is
al-Qaida or avian flu.

Students are learning lessons written by the same international security
experts who also instruct ex-police-chiefs-turned-emergency-management
consultants on how to respond to changing global threats. The Center for
Homeland Defense and Security, funded by DHS and FEMA, offers a free,
ready-made curriculum to more than 130 universities. Packed with critical
expertise, the Naval Post Graduate School's curriculum has been a hit with
university leaders. Most schools use bits and pieces to flesh out their
existing courses. The University of Connecticut copied it almost exactly.
Universities say they are vigilant in making sure courses in every major are
written and taught to entertain all points of view, however unpopular. But
homeland security, which is a young academic discipline still developing its
faculty, tends to be especially welcome territory for disaffected Bush
administration officials who talk openly about bureaucratic hurdles to
preventing disasters. A respected doctor enlisted to lead major
disaster-response teams vented in one seminar about the "inadequate" and
"dangerous" decisions made by DHS leaders.

Lecturers with real-world know-how are in demand across campus. Since 9/11,
professors in more established disciplines like international relations and
criminal justice are taking time away from teaching students how to
negotiate treaties or win legal arguments to quiz them on genetically
engineered pathogens and dirty bombs. Other majors, studying everything from
genetics to linguistics, are checking out homeland-security courses, too.
Not since the space race have so many different disciplines abandoned their
academic fiefdoms to collaborate. Emergency-preparedness and
disaster-management classes might have geography majors and biologists,
language majors and economists all dreaming about rescue scenarios in a mock
situation room. An anthropologist might look at how culture makes people
susceptible to foreign influence, while engineers look at a building's
vulnerability to attack. Hopefully, these future spies, corporate disaster
planners, and biohazard specialists will continue this multidisciplinary
communication well past graduation.

The question is, Will federal-government bosses listen to these young
advisers? Experts on counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction were
sidelined before the Iraq war. The President's Commission on Intelligence
Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction
reported to Congress in 2005 that former CIA Director George Tenet failed to
pass along a senior intelligence officer's doubts about the presence of WMD
to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell before the Iraq invasion. The
2003 estimate on Iraq intelligence produced by then-CIA intelligence analyst
Paul Pillar found that a U.S.-led war against and occupation of Iraq would
increase popular sympathy for terrorist goals. The government is encouraging
people to gain academic credentials even after the establishment ignored
advice from the existing experts after 9/11.

It's hopeful to think that by helping to create an elite squad of
terrorism-savvy graduates, some government officials may be trying to
correct that mistake. Listening to a fresh cadre of professional paranoids
could help prevent an anemic response to a natural or manmade disaster. Not
only could that save agency bosses from literal danger and the bad press
that follows a botched operation‹it could help them keep their jobs.
Jessica Portner, a former education reporter for the San Jose Mercury News,
has written for the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor. She
is currently writing a book about science and bioterrorism.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2187648/