The leader in homeland security education
Community colleges excel in anti-terrorism, safety training
 |
Medical workers from Buffalo train with staff from Monroe Community College in New York on a simulated mass casualty incident.
Story Tools
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
|
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
|
|
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- With classes like "Terrorism Risk Assessment" and "Radioactive Materials" already in course catalogs, community colleges are trying to cement their position as the country's leader in homeland security education.
About 20 community college presidents from around the nation will gather in Washington, D.C., this weekend to develop a long-term strategy and national standards.
"Five years ago if you wanted to take a course on terrorism you basically had to go to the military," said Dan Snyder, president of Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, 60 miles north of Philadelphia. "Today I think you're seeing a lot more training, and the facilities that are necessary to provide that high-level training."
Homeland security classes are now offered nationwide. Surging interest after September 11, 2001, has fueled new degree programs and the building of homeland security training centers.
Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, last month opened the Homeland Security Management Institute, run by a retired Army colonel who was a commander at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio, will break ground in April on a $10 million homeland security center featuring an anti-terrorism simulation center.
Community colleges, which educate more than 80 percent of the country's fire, police and emergency medical personnel, teach port security in Miami and border security in south Texas. New courses focus on agriculture, bank and computer security.
And many subject matters -- a course on structural collapse, for example -- now focus on terrorism-related causes instead of natural ones.
Outside experts see community colleges playing an increasing role in national security. Ellen Gordon, Iowa's Homeland Security Adviser and a member of the Senior Advisory Council for the Department of Homeland Security, said Iowa has embraced the security education offered by community colleges.
"I see within the next 20 to 25 years that the community colleges are going to be the base for training and education for all the different areas within our homeland security," she said.
Thomas Flynn, president of Monroe Community College and a member of the American Association of Community Colleges security task force meeting this weekend, said the federal government needs to embrace community colleges even more for security training.
"No one can do it better," Flynn said. "We've proven that."
While the American Association of Community Colleges says attendance is up overall since September 11, numbers were not available.
But a snapshot from Bucks County Community College, north of Philadelphia, shows an increasing interest. Attendance at hazardous materials classes rose 50 percent after the September 11 attacks, from 1,000 to 1,500 students, and new terrorism courses brought in another 250 students, school records show.
College leaders say first responders still aren't uniformly prepared to deal with another large terrorist attack, but that in several years community schools will have them ready. And while school officials say the colleges can educate the nation in the most cost-effective manner, they said that's not the only reason for the terrorism classes.
"We're not looking at this as a business decisions," said Dr. Paul Unger, provost of Owens Community College. "We're looking at this as a duty."
Copyright 2004 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
