Mercyhurst Magazine Spring 2014

’ Mercyhurst s intelligence studies program educates students for careers in national security, law enforcement and business and is the university s top major and leader in distance and online ’ learning. It draws students from across the nation and abroad. From its European headquarters at Mercyhurst Ireland in Dungarvan to its role in educating partner nations of the U. S. Department of State in intelligence analysis, its reach is global. ’ In recognition of its growth and as a vehicle by which it can best structure bold new objectives, the department recently reconfgured to become the university s seventh school, incorporating not only intelligence studies, but mathematics, computer systems and communication. The amalgam of disciplines is in direct response to the extraordinary volume, complexity and variety of data in the world today: from the billion social- media posts every couple days to the more than 1 million customer transactions Walmart handles every hour. There is a compelling need to assimilate, analyze and extract information from data to assist corporations, government and law enforcement in making critical decisions going forward. “ Mercyhurst has the opportunity to fll an exploitable educational niche, provide exciting career opportunities for our students, and meet the security and business demands of the 21st century environment, Breckenridge said. Currently, no higher education institution in the United States has developed an equivalent initiative. ” “ ” “ In closing, Breckenridge said, We have only to look at 9/11, WMD, the recent fnancial crisis, disease outbreaks and an aggressively competitive global environment to know that the information and analytic skill set requires constant revision and new learning. Our curriculum, teaching and research approaches will not – and in fact cannot – remain the same. As prevailing practice incorporates new and better ways of doing business, those new and better ways should also be taught to the next generation of intelligence practitioners. But the frst task is to identify those better ways of doing business. Governor Ridge personifes this approach and our new school embodies this spirit of educational innovation. ”

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