WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (Both D-Md.) announced that Morgan State University is one of two academic institutions selected by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to receive federal dollars in order to promote the objectives of its National Security Studies Program. The grant for $745,146 is provided by the Intelligence Community (IC) Centers of Academic Excellence.
“As a hub of America’s intelligence and cybersecurity sectors, Maryland has the capacity to kickstart our regional and national economies with quality jobs that keep us safer and more secure, but we need to attract bright and diverse minds,” Senator Cardin said. “This federal investment in Morgan State University will help advance minority students in intelligence careers, strengthen U.S. national security, and help spur our economic recovery.”
“These federal dollars are crucial to developing a strong, educated and capable intelligence workforce,” said Senator Mikulski, a member of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and senior member of the Senate Help, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. “This partnership between the Intelligence Community and Morgan State, one of Maryland’s and the nation’s great historically black college and universities, will lead to a safer country, stronger economy and will help to build an unparalleled national security and cyber workforce here in Maryland.”
Senators Mikulski and Cardin have made it a top priority to support Maryland’s world-class university system in developing highly-skilled experts who help defend our nation. In particular, Senator Mikulski has worked to help make Maryland the national epicenter in areas such as cyber security education in order to bring diverse talent into the IC and law enforcement communities.
The goals of IC’s CEA program are to develop long-term academic partnerships with accredited colleges and universities with diverse populations and courses of academic study, to provide financial and technical support to those universities, adapt curricula to meet IC needs, and to leverage and cultivate IC relationships with students and faculty to ensure IC has a qualified and motivated applicant pool for mission-critical occupations.
The National Security Studies program aims to promote the curricula at academic institutes with IC core mission skills requirements, including international relations, foreign language and cultural immersion, scientific and technical programs of study, including cyber security. Foreign language and cultural fluency, for example, are needed in the IC to better understand cultural indicators that shape world events and U.S. national security strategies.
Founded in 1867, Morgan State is among the oldest historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) offering both undergraduate and graduate programs of study. Each year, Morgan State awards more than 50 percent of all undergraduate degrees earned by African Americans in Maryland and is among the top five universities nationally in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded to African Americans yearly.
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