Leah Samuels: A Degree of Security

I noticed when I was visiting the University of Kentucky this week that the military was out in full force recruiting students facing steep rises in their college admission/housing fees. Here is another form of recruitment in the face of Pell Grant cuts (a main form of funding for Community College students):

(Courtesy of Anna Froula)

A Degree of Security
by Leah Samuels
Originally published by ColorLines; reposted at AlterNet

Is the government training community college students for war?

Young, poor people of color who signed up with the U.S. military to get college money ended up fighting in Iraq. Meanwhile, their peers back home who take the community college route to higher education may also end up fighting the "war on terror."

Money problems for community colleges, as well as their students, are forcing both to buy into what can only be called "homeland security education." The federal government is offering colleges a way to survive and the students a way to get educated: money specifically earmarked for the war on terror.

This year's federal budget includes more than $4 billion for homeland security research and development. The Department of Homeland Security is offering $64 million directly to colleges and universities that will develop anti-terrorism programs.

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There has been resistance to the growth of homeland security training at community colleges. In December 2004, students and faculty members at the New York's Borough of Manhattan Community College demanded that the school abandon plans for a certificate program in security management. They viewed it as an endorsement of the Bush administration's Department of Homeland Security. Members of student government leafleted an administrative meeting with a flyer titled, "Stop BMCC 'Homeland' Repression Program Now!" The flyer stated concerns that, among other things, a homeland security program at the college "will intimidate and drive away many present and potential students, especially immigrants."

Another concern is that students studying homeland security may not find jobs. In Michigan, Lansing Community College instructor Charles Bogle fears that community college students are being steered away from programs that will allow them more flexibility in their careers. "Michigan community colleges will no doubt have to get their own homeland security departments in order to compete," he wrote in 2003. "But what will our working class students do when, after having received a program degree or certificate in a defunct or saturated field, they are forced to compete with a graduate of a good liberal arts college for a job that requires an education rather than training?"

Students and activists can expect to see community colleges become the newest battlefield in the war on terror.

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