When classes resume in the fall, the University of Maryland University College will be offering several courses in understanding terrorism, including “Counterterrorism” and “Terrorism, Antiterrorism and Homeland Security.” Utah Valley University in Orem is looking for an assistant professor of emergency services. Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., advertises that its environmental engineering majors will be equipped to tackle such frightening issues as global warming, acid rain and pollution.
More American colleges are offering classes that teach students to deal with a shrinking and increasingly dangerous world. Whole programs — anti-terrorism, emergency management, cybersecurity, environmental pollution control — are designed to prepare students for lucrative careers battling the things that scare us.
“Traditionally,” says Gregory L. Shaw, co-director of the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University in Washington, “emergency management has been primarily a second or later career for professionals from the first-responder community — fire, police and emergency medical services — and military personnel.”
