Students at Curry College, outside Boston, are learning to answer these questions as part of the school’s new seven-course certificate program in homeland defense, one of the first concentrations of its kind in the nation. The courses teach topics ranging from understanding Islam and the roots of terrorism to evacuating a sports arena. So far, it’s been mostly the community and small, four-year colleges that have created degree programs (with exceptions like Johns Hopkins University, which just added courses).
“It’s just so relevant now,” says flight attendant Dawn Fletcher, who was one of the first students to enroll in Curry’s program. The Department of Homeland Security agrees with her: it just earmarked $10 million for university security programs in 2004.
