UNL receives federal grant for careers in intelligence

A $3 million federal grant to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will give students the opportunity to pursue a career in organizations such as the CIA or National Security Agency.

Sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the grant allows UNL to partner with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University and Bellevue University to create the Great Plains National Security Education Consortium. The consortium is part of the Intelligence Community Centers of Academic Excellence Program and will make study abroad, foreign language and other outreach programs available to students interested in national security.

"There are a lot of students who are already studying these particular skills," said James Le Sueur, an associate history professor at UNL. "They don’t know the opportunities that exist in terms of transferring these skills into employment."

Le Sueur and five other faculty members from the political science, classics and modern languages departments began working last spring on the grant proposal.

The consortium is one of 21 new and existing centers funded by the Intelligence Community Centers of Academic Excellence program at various universities.

Through the consortium, students from various backgrounds will develop skills necessary to work in any of the U.S. intelligence community’s 16 federal agencies. The faculty involved in writing the grant proposal will now build a curriculum — through redesigning and creating courses — to cover everything from Le Sueur’s course in the History of Radical Islam to critical languages such as Chinese and Arabic.

The list of critical languages has been shaped by China’s emergence as a world power, security concerns in the Middle East and other current events, said Russell Ganim, chairman of UNL’s modern languages department, who worked on the grant proposal.

"A knowledge of Chinese and Arabic is important to America’s financial future, its diplomatic future and its political future," Ganim said. "It’s going to be important for students to understand these languages and understand these cultures."

UNL already offers some classes in Chinese, through the modern languages department, and Arabic, through the classics department, but Ganim said the consortium will hopefully allow faculty to develop advanced grammar and conversation courses as well as a possible minor or major in Chinese or Arabic studies.

With the money in place, Dean of Graduate Studies Ellen Weissinger, Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development Prem Paul and Deputy Director Marc Warburton will be putting the planning into motion.

"Basically when you apply for grants, you’re in a dream world," Le Sueur said. "And when you get the money, then you have the reality of implementing this."

First, the participating universities will nail down the mission and parameters of the consortium.

In the grant’s five-year span, another goal of the consortium is to create an annual national security colloquium and offer students scholarships in relevant disciplines.

As the country’s emphasis on national security grows, Le Sueur said this will not only benefit Nebraska students, but the nation as a whole. From a historical perspective, he said, "(We) need to have people who are better prepared."

"That’s the bottom line," Le Sueur said. "And this is a way to prepare them."

• Facebook Comments
• Site Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out