Developed over a three-and-half-year period, USC Beaufort's program in security studies is set to begin in January 2007 with its first class offering. The program offers Liberal Studies students an interdisciplinary curriculum in Security Studies.
"Following 9/11, virtually every profession has had to address new security and emergency response demands, creating a critical need for qualified security professionals," said Rayburn Barton, executive vice chancellor of academic affairs at USC Beaufort. "The Security Studies Program at USCB has been created to help meet that need on a federal, regional and local level and to prepare program graduates for responsible positions in this important field."
The product of close cooperation between academia and leading security professionals, the USC Beaufort program is very similar to the bachelor's degree program offered by Virginia Commonwealth University's L. Douglas School of Government and Public Affairs, the first such bachelor's degree program offered by a major research university in the country. The program also closely parallels the federally funded Homeland Defense and Security Master's Degree program at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA.
The USC Beaufort Security Studies planning group included: General Stephen Cheney, former commanding general for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and chief operating officer of Business Executives for National Security; Lieutenant Richard Hunton of SLED, one of the first master's degree recipients in Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Post Graduate School; and Kent Herrington, formerly with the CIA and now CEO for The Herrington Group, LLC an intelligence consulting group.
Stanley B. Supinski, director of University and Agency Partnership Programs, Center for Homeland Defense and Security, reviewed the program's curriculum. He indicated that "the proposed program clearly captures key elements of this nationally critical subject and is consistent with currently established academic practice."
USC Beaufort also consulted state Port Authority, law enforcement, and public health officials in developing curriculum for the program which will address security and emergency preparedness policy and strategy issues. At the same time, the interdisciplinary program at USC Beaufort will combine studies in psychology, sociology, anthropology, geography, government, international studies, political science, history, and philosophy. The program is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the social, cultural, legal, and ethical issues that have become part of maintaining the often subtle balance between security and freedom in the post-9/11 world.
While the USC Beaufort program will be training needed professionals for the security field, graduates are expected to benefit from their own form of security--job security. In a world where the practice of outsourcing by American businesses has increasingly taken American jobs overseas, the security-trained professional has the advantage of being virtually outsourcing immune. The demand for medical, legal, business, information technology, financial, law enforcement, and military professionals with security training continues on the rise and is expected only to increase in both the public and private sectors.
The first course in the USC Beaufort Security Studies Program will be taught by Donald M. Snow, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, where he specialized in foreign and national security policy and international relations. Snow has held visiting faculty positions at the U.S. Air Command and Staff College, U.S. Naval War College, U.S. Army War College, and U.S. Air Command and War College. The author of nearly 40 books and more than 40 articles and book chapters, Snow has lectured broadly on security topics, including giving the Olin Lecture at the U.S. Air Force Academy and lecturing nationally for the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D in political science from Indiana University. According to Snow, the USC Beaufort program's introductory class "will cover all aspects of security: its challenges, components, and critical role in providing a stable environment for the country and the world."
Also teaching the first course offering in the USC Beaufort Security Studies Program is Colin D. Pearce, who has been teaching political science at USC Beaufort since 2003. He is currently president of the South Carolina Political Science Association and was the William Gilmore Simms Professor at USC in 2004. In 2005, he visited Israel as a fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies as part of a program to familiarize academics in the Security Studies field with Israel's security procedures and institutions. Pearce has published in such journals as the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Journal of the History of Ideas, Interpretation, The South Carolina Review, The Kipling Review, and Clio, among others.
"It is an exciting prospect to be offering the 'start-up' course for a new offering such as this," Pearce said of the new USC Beaufort program. "I'm sure both the faculty and the students taking part in this new venture will find the experience a rich and rewarding one."
10/06
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