Central Penn College Homeland Security Program Ahead of the Curve

Aug. 3, 2010 - PRLog -- Central Penn College Professor of Criminal Justice Sam Morgan will be traveling to Monterey, Calif. August 9 through 17 for a faculty development workshop at the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS). At the workshop, Morgan and 29 other academics with practical experience in homeland security will gather to address the shortfall this nation is experiencing in qualified faculty for homeland security degrees. The number of institutions now offering degrees and certificates at the undergraduate level has grown significantly and the CHDS is working to ensure excellence in educational delivery.

The ultimate goal of the workshop is to improve the breadth of offerings that CHDS partner colleges and universities can provide for homeland security education. While there, attendees will devote time to go over materials and educational methodologies for the following courses: comparative homeland security, which looks at how other nations practice homeland security; technology in homeland security; interdisciplinary approaches to homeland security, which looks at various dispatchers’ roles and how they work together; and homeland security leadership.

“I’ve had a working relationship with Sam for several years and am impressed with his enthusiasm to continue his education in the homeland security field,” said Stan Supinski, director of partnership programs at the CHDS. “He’s made a lot of contributions toward creating a national standard in homeland security, and Central Penn College’s program is a great example of the level – both in curriculum and core competencies – that other programs should aspire to.”

Morgan will bring the knowledge he obtains from the faculty development workshop back to Central Penn, incorporating it into the college’s homeland security curriculum and making the college one of the first in the nation to bring these advanced methodologies to the classroom.

“Any chance I get to ensure Central Penn is offering the most current coursework in the homeland security tract, I jump on it,” said Morgan, who leads the Central Penn homeland security management degree program and who has more than 25 years of law enforcement, community service and military experience. “I am pleased to see that the college is ahead of the curve and on track with what a national model would recommend.”

Last year, Morgan was selected by the CHDS to be part of a 26-person panel to create a national curriculum model for a homeland security degree. The Undergraduate Model Curriculum Development Conference, held in June 2009, gathered together academics representing institutions from across the nation to debate the requirements for future undergraduate homeland security programs. Attendees were carefully selected based upon their experience in homeland security education and their success in developing individual programs and curriculum. Morgan also served as one of eight presenters at the conference.

The conference resulted in concrete curricular recommendations that serve as a guide for other colleges and universities, and assist in the establishment and improvement of undergraduate homeland security academic programs.

Recently, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Education approved Central Penn to begin offering its homeland security management degree as a fully online program. The College now offers twelve fully-online degree programs and three fully-online certificate programs for busy adults who desire flexible, convenient and academically rigorous online degree options.

For more information about Central Penn's homeland security management degree program, visit www.centralpenn.edu or contact Sam Morgan at 1-800-759-2727 or samuelmorgan@centralpenn.edu.

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