…And Getting Schooled In Security

While the rest of us are learning this stuff as we go along (sometimes the hard way), at least one aviation school has included a security component in its curriculum. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University now offers a BSc. in Global Security and Intelligence Studies. The course is run in conjunction with aviation-related studies and includes foreign languages, comparative religion and study of the effects of world events on security. It’s taught by former CIA analyst Philip E. Jones. Enrollment topped 100 students for the first semester and the university expects that to increase in coming years. “Aviation has always had its dark margins,” said Richard W. Bloom, the director of the program. He said the Sept. 11 attacks “finally broke down resistances and increased motivations that a number of security issues were finally important enough to address.” Student Laura McDaniel had more practical concerns. “My friends are saying, ‘Hey, there [are] no jobs. I need a marketable skill other than flying airplanes.'”