Class Warfare

Between the university’s cybersecurity program, its Model UN and Arab League courses, Arabic studies and a national security studies program that has gained national attention, CSUSB has planted a firm foot in the perilous fields of American security and diplomacy.

By Joe Gutierrez

Mention 9-11 and most people remember instantly where they were and what they were doing when they heard or saw the horrific images and videos of two jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers.

International terrorists delivered the most deadly strikes in the United States, leaving nearly 3,000 people dead from the attacks, plus a jetliner crashing into the Pentagon and a fourth plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field when the flight crew and passengers tried to overpower the hijackers.

“9-11 was a defining moment in a lot of people’s minds and it especially affected a lot of young people, who now look at the world with a different perspective,” said Mark T. Clark, a professor of political science at Cal State San Bernardino.

The aspiration to work in public service mirrors the growing need in America for college graduates educated and trained in fields that are useful in the gathering, research and analysis of intelligence. That need has manifested itself at CSUSB. Today, the university offers programs that directly or indirectly address issues of national security — the National Security Studies graduate program, the Model UN and Model Arab League competitions, the Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, the Scholarship for Service Cyber Corps, and the Arabic Language and Culture and Arabic Summer Language programs.

National Security Studies Graduate Program

The NSS program, said Clark, is “tailor-made for careers in defense analysis or the intelligence community, and with many government agencies looking for employees, our enrollments continue to skyrocket.”

But just as quickly Clark points out that NSS is not a program for wannabe James Bonds. “Our program is nothing about spying. It is about learning to think critically, research and writing well. The program really prepares people to work in federal service,” Clark said.

Interest in the program has seen the number of applications from students double and even triple, pushing the program to tighten its admission requirements. The program has received applications from students around the country, including Utah, Oregon, North Carolina, New York and Connecticut, as well as from universities such as UCLA, USC, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and San Diego State University.

NSS also is home to the CSU Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, which was established in September 2006 with a five-year grant from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Through the grant, a seven-campus California State University consortium was created to help the ODNI achieve its objectives of diversifying and increasing the talent pool of eligible applicants for service in the intelligence community

Information Assurance and Security Management

Across campus, students in the Information Assurance and Security Management program focus on a different aspect of national security – protecting cyberspace. “An attack on the public or private digital infrastructure would prove to be disastrous to the nation’s economy. Nearly 90 percent of all financial commerce is done electronically,” said Tony Coulson, a professor of information and decision sciences.

But it’s more than just staring at a computer screen and coming up with technical solutions. The program balances technology, policy and practice, with awareness, training and education. Coupled with the technical computer skills, students also learn budgeting, marketing, how to give presentations, speak in public, do job interviews and even use etiquette, such as eating at a business luncheon.

Interest in the program comes from all areas, not just from techno geeks.

“We see students from all walks of life, in ethnicity, rich, poor and middle class kids,” Coulson said. One group, in particular, that can be found in the program is military veterans. “They want to continue to serve, but their battlefield will be on computer screens.” IASM has been so successful that it received a designation by the Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. It also received a four-year $2 million federal grant to establish a scholarship at Cal State San Bernardino for the Federal Service Cyber Corps program, where qualified students receive scholarship funds in exchange for paid service in the federal government for a period equivalent to the length of their scholarship.

Arabic Language

The roots of CSUSB’s Arabic Language Program are not the result of 9-11, but from a pro-active decision by the university in 2000 to teach Arabic. Still, the terrorist attacks spurred student interest in learning Arabic and its culture, which is considered a strategic language by the United States government, said Dany Doueiri, coordinator for the CSUSB program. Enrollment has more than tripled since the language was first offered. Prior to 9-11, Arabic was being taught at less than 1 percent of colleges teaching foreign languages.

“Today, out of the nearly 550,000 college students learning a foreign language in the U.S., 65,000 of them, nearly 12 percent have chosen Arabic, a drastic shift from the pre 9-11 period when only 3,000, about 0.5 percent of college students were learning Arabic,” said Doueiri.
“Historically, the Middle East region serves as a buffer zone from Russia and plays a critical role for national security and the military. But it also plays a vital role in political security, economic security and ideological security.

“The U.S. has vital interests in the Middle East and North Africa that include the massive oil reserves, technological advances and business opportunities. Several multinational corporations have already placed corporate hubs there, such as in Dubai, and there is the purchase by these countries of billions of dollars worth of aircraft both military and civilian,” Doueiri said. “Even higher education has made an imprint there. A number of universities have located campuses there or have entered into agreements with existing universities, such as Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Harvard.”

Because of the region’s critical importance, there has been a great push by the U.S. government to teach Arabic. Earlier this year, the National Security Language Initiative awarded CSUSB nearly $200,000 for its 2010 Summer Intensive Arabic Program for college and high school juniors and seniors.

The key, said Doueiri, is that the courses are not just teaching the Arabic language, but also the culture, its customs, its history and current events. Students learn about Islamic pacts and contracts, relationships between Muslims, Christians and Jews. “The more we learn about the people, the more we improve our relationships with them and with that we build more trust and that goes toward our national security.”

Model UN and Model Arab League

National security education at Cal State San Bernardino also involves two of the university’s most competitive and award-winning teams. CSUSB’s Model United Nations and Model Arab League teams have consistently come away from competitions with top honors in the past 20 years. No mean feat, considering the competitions include many of the top colleges and universities in the United States and around the world.

In April, at the annual Model UN competition in New York City, the CSUSB Model UN team earned an Outstanding Delegation Award for the 14th time in 17 years. The prize was given to only 15 colleges and universities of the 340 from five continents that participated. The honor placed CSUSB in the top 4 percent of all Model UN programs worldwide. Later that month, the CSUSB Model Arab League team extended its perfect streak in that competition to 18 years in receiving an Outstanding Delegation award at the 2010 West Coast Model Arab League Conference.

While the teams are not under the umbrella of national security, many of the aspects of their class work, research and analysis complement the skills needed for a career in national security, said the team’s faculty adviser, Kevin Grisham, who is a CSUSB lecturer in the geography department. Grisham himself was on the Model UN team while a CSUSB student from 1998 to 2002.

“I would say that about 85 percent of what our students learn and work on is developing analytical, diplomatic and negotiating skills, as well as conflict resolution,” Grisham said. “The key is that our students understand how to be a diplomat and that can be useful in national security.”

At every competition the team is assigned a country to represent. In April, the team represented Morocco. Team members went about researching nearly every aspect of Morocco, including its current events, history, politics, economics and its people.

Being on a Model UN or Arab League team has helped students looking for work in government or the private sector. “Many of our CSUSB graduates have stood out because they list on their CV (curriculum vitae) or resume that they were a member of an outstanding delegation team,” Grisham said. “Most people know the Model UN takes an immense amount of preparation and work to succeed and that’s especially true whether it’s in intelligence or national security.”

That was the case for CSUSB alumna Lisa Canini, who received a master’s degree in national security studies and was on the Model UN team at the same time. Canini said being on the Model UN tipped an internship at the Government Accounting Office in her favor. She is now an analyst in the Homeland Security and Justice Group of the Government Accountability Office in Los Angeles.

“Our team won the outstanding position paper and that impressed them,” said Canini. But GAO interviewers also keyed in on the teamwork, which is a major part of the Model UN.

“At the GAO there are small teams – three to four people, which is part of a larger group, where there is more collaborating and working within a larger group. We were well trained.” Her studies in national security and participation on the Model UN team involved a lot of hard work. “It was the most challenging quarter I had during my time in national security studies,” Canini said. “But it was worth it.”

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