New academic degrees focus on homeland security

SAN DIEGO — The first students to earn master's degrees in homeland security from San Diego State University have faced a lot of curious questions about their eclectic, even controversial academic discipline.

"The first thing they ask me is are you a spy? I tell them no, I'm the furthest thing from a spy," said student Steve Price, who was among those receiving the new degrees Sunday and is considering becoming a cybersecurity consultant. "There is a novelty factor. People are incredulous."

The program and others like it around the United States study the history and tactics of terrorism but often also look at technology, surveillance, pandemics, drug trafficking and society's problems during earthquakes, hurricanes and bombings.

"What we are trying to do is education, not training. There is a distinction," said Eric Frost, a geology professor who is co-director of the master's program, which began two years ago.

For example, the classes do not teach how to set up or read chemical-contamination sensors but might consider motives and consequences of a sarin nerve-gas attack and how to prevent and respond to one.

"There is not a specific outcome that we want you to do," Frost explained. "It's that we want you to think. And people are going to wind up thinking in lots of different directions. Our society really needs that."

Nationwide, the field itself is still emerging, buffeted by skeptics who question whether it is a coherent discipline or a trendy repackaging of courses to boost enrollments.

A study last year by the National Research Council of the National Academies noted that homeland-security studies "could be stretched to include almost every discipline and topic area imaginable." Still, the report said experimentation, as with Soviet studies during the Cold War, is "a strength rather than a weakness."

Laura Petonito, acting director of university programs for the Department of Homeland Security, said some academic subjects take 10 years to jell. "Homeland security may be one of those areas that is constantly evolving as we get new information."

Meanwhile, she added, colleges should ensure that students are "employable as a result of going to any institution. Do they have the skills and competencies necessary to make them successful?"

Angela Fanucchi, 36, an officer for the San Diego Harbor Police, said the classes help her grasp terrorism's roots and methods. "As a beat cop, we might inadvertently run into the person who has the capacity to hurt the masses. ... In order to combat something, you have to understand what it comes from," she said.

Lance Larson, 24, a reserve police officer in Laguna Beach, liked the mix of high-tech and policy topics: "This is a perfect degree to merge all those skills together and make me a more marketable person."

Tiffany Campbell, 33, a former art teacher, said that when she tells people about earning a homeland-security degree, "it does raise eyebrows. ... They think of law enforcement and the military. People don't think of it as diplomatic interactions." She recently took the exam to join the Foreign Service.