“After Sept. 11, the government took action to protect its citizens. In almost six years since then, six students have graduated from the University of Akron certified to assist with the effort; with a minor in homeland security. This spring, an additional three students have applied to graduate with the minor.”
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After Sept. 11, the government took action to protect its citizens. In almost six years since then, six students have graduated from the University of Akron certified to assist with the effort; with a minor in homeland security.

This spring, an additional three students have applied to graduate with the minor.

The program started fall ’05 and we had one person graduate because he was lucky enough to have already taken all the requirements, said Cathy Moore, the administrative assistant in the political science department.

The minor was created to introduce students to existing threats to national security and the steps government agencies take to respond to them. The curriculum offers a broad approach to threats posed by international terrorism. The classes are taught by international relations and American politics faculty and include six new courses on the subject.

While the number of students who have achieved the minor so far is low, the number of students in the program is growing, according to Alethia Cook, professor of political science.

After Sept. 11, we started teaching class to help students understand terrorism in the world, she said. Students started asking questions about it, and we decided to create a minor.

Students are interested in the minor for many reasons, Cook said.

For a lot of them, they are already taking the classes and love the class and this is a way to use those credit hours, she said. They’re taking them because they’re driven and enjoy the classwork and want the minor.

Cook said there were selected topic courses available prior to the minor on many of the topics covered in homeland security courses. Due to growing interests, these selected topic courses were turned into permanent curriculum courses.

We created six new classes, Cook said.

Homeland Security Policy & Process, and Terrorism: Perpetrators, Politics, Response, are both new courses required for the minor. Politics of 9/11, Terrorism and the Constitution, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Future International Threats are the other new courses that are offered as electives toward the minor.

Cook said that the minor was not something specific employers were looking for, and when it comes right down to it, graduating students are competing with everyone else in the world who has a bachelor’s degree.

The fact of the matter is, nobody ever will have a job that says ‘must have minor in homeland security,’ she said. It gives you another credential that maybe the other candidate doesn’t have.

Cook explained that political science majors have an advantage in earning the homeland security minor because some tracks may include the minor’s coursework as electives for their major.

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