YPSILANTI ? The Center for Regional and National Security (CeRNS) at Eastern Michigan University could soon become the second college in Michigan to earn the coveted Center of Excellence Status from the National Security Agency. The other is Walsh College in Troy.
With a Center For Excellence designation, CeRNS could get more scholarship money for its students and additional Security research funding, said Center Director Gerald V. “Skip” Lawver.
?We hope to get the Center For Excellence designation in April,? Lawver said. ?It tells the rest of country we have met NSA standards for data integrity and all the rest. We?d have to renew it every three years.?
CeRNS operates on three platforms :
Information Assurance, Law Enforcement and Homeland Security. These three disciplines are then linked to safety and security, Lawver said.
For instance, CeRNS runs six-week training sessions for law enforcement professionals to learn forensics and learn how to deal with cyber crimes. About 80 adult students a year attend. Now that training module has been opened to Eastern Michigan University students and the general public.
The Information Assurance platform has been awarded CNSS Certification for its curriculum, while the platform in Homeland Security integrates the School of Fire Staff and Command with programs in incident command, unified command, first response to terrorist bombing, GIS, weapons of mass destruction, emergency management and hazardous materials.
Rounding out this platform is the applied health care concentration in biological terrorism. CeRNS also sponsors the Citizen Corps programs in Community Emergency Response Training and the School Emergency Response Training Programs.
CeRNS began life in 1985 as the Policy Staff and Command School. Fifteen years later, this school evolved into CeRNS. Since 2000, CeRNS has attracted $3 million in grants and Security consulting contracts.
To learn more, click on EMich.Edu/cerns
