USGIF is excited to announce the addition of Fayetteville State University (FSU) and the University of South Carolina (USC) to its growing list of USGIF-accredited GEOINTprograms.
Through the USGIF Academic Accreditation program, colleges and universities have the opportunity to receive accreditation of their geospatial intelligence programs accompanying a college degree. Students who meet high academic standards and graduate from accredited programs receive USGIF’s GEOINT Certificate, which helps ensure the GEOINT Community has a robust workforce now and in the future. To date, 477 students have graduated with USGIF GEOINT certificates, with all but one school reporting its 2014 end-of-year graduates.
FSU’s GEOINT curriculum was developed collaboratively by its computer science, geography, and intelligence studies programs. FSU is also the first historically black college/university (HBCU) to receive USGIF accreditation. The university was able to develop its GEOINT offerings with the assistance of a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Academic Research Program Grant, which provided funds and laboratory equipment.
“We at FSU are proud of being the first HBCU to be accorded this accreditation,” said Dr. Adogoke Ademiluyi, FSU associate professor of geography and government and history department chair. “We are very excited about the opportunities this interdisciplinaryGEOINT certificate program will bring to our students, our department, and our university. This certification will assist us in attracting quality students and in producing highly motivated professionals in this emerging field of geospatial intelligence.”
USC’s geography department was established in 1963 and is the only program in South Carolina to offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees in geography. The program offers focuses in physical geography, human geography, geographic information sciences, and remote sensing. The geography department also ranks among the top departments in the discipline by the National Research Council.
“We are excited to be formally approved by USGIF to offer a USGIF Certificate in Geospatial Intelligence,” said Dr. Sarah Battersby, USC director of undergraduate studies and GEOINT program coordinator. “This approval will help us acknowledge our outstanding students with career interests in geospatial intelligence and will strengthen our ties with the Intelligence Community in South Carolina and across the nation.”
To date, USGIF has accredited 11 collegiate programs, including FSU, USC, Northeastern University, the University of Redlands, the University of Utah, George Mason University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Texas at Dallas, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Several more university programs are in the pipeline to achieve USGIFaccreditation.