GW COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES ANNOUNCES NEW UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAM IN POLICE SCIENCE CUSTOMIZED FOR D.C. METRO REGION LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

University Also Unveils Walter Washington Scholarships for Police Professionals to Help Pay Tuition Costs

WASHINGTON - The George Washington University's College of Professional Studies (CPS) announced today its Police Science Undergraduate Certificates, Associate's and Bachelor's Degree Program specifically designed for the police through a year-long collaboration with metropolitan-area law enforcement experts and police specialists. CPS plans a July 2004 launch for this challenging new curriculum. In addition, individuals entering the program will receive a newly chartered "GW Walter Washington Scholarship for Police Professionals," which is a 50 percent reduction in GW's current undergraduate tuition rate.

Drawn from six different schools at GW, the custom-designed program will serve law enforcement officials at all levels within D.C., Maryland and Virginia metro-region police departments and security agencies. In three undergraduate credit certificates "stackable" towards the associate's or bachelor's degree, students learn the fundamental standards supporting focused law enforcement, strategic procedures for sustaining success and leadership principles in managing the resources of government and other organizations to work on the underlying causes of crime and disorder confronting today's police.

"In addition to their time-honored law enforcement responsibilities, police face increasing demands in the context of Homeland Security and attendant Œfirst response' initiatives," said GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. "This broadening and evolving role in the face of complex threats merits a fresh perspective for GW on the nature and scope of the applied knowledge our police forces receive, and this is our purpose in establishing the Walter Washington Scholarships for Police Professionals in honor of D.C.'s first Mayor and representing GW's continuing commitment to the communities it serves."

The GW police professionals undergraduate degree program includes a number of innovative curricular features, such as enabling students to receive up to six academic credit hours of prior learning assessment courses they completed at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Ga., or for other eligible relevant experiential learning. Specialized subjects include criminal justice, professional technologies and crisis, emergency and risk management, transnational security, weapons of mass destruction, and leadership, values and ethics. Classes will be scheduled to accommodate work schedules - Tuesday and Thursday nights and every other Saturday - and are conveniently blended with user-friendly and accessible online learning resources.

CPS Dean Roger Whitaker said, "With the advice, support and encouragement we received at all levels within Washington metropolitan area police departments and agencies this past year, we believe the GW undergraduate police professionals degree program can help prepare police officers to identify, analyze and solve problems for the benefit of the communities they serve, to prevent crime and build safe and healthy neighborhoods."

"Recent years bear witness to fundamental changes in the ways public safety must be secured," added Richard F. Southby, GW police science academic program director. "CPS exemplifies a new model of teaching and learning that addresses this need and engages adult students - in this case, police officers - as active participants in their own education."

Located four blocks from the White House, The George Washington University was created by an Act of Congress in 1821. Today, GW is the largest institution of higher education in the nation's capital. The University offers comprehensive programs of undergraduate and graduate liberal arts study as well as degree programs in medicine, law, engineering, education, business/public management and international affairs. Each year, GW enrolls a diverse population of undergraduates, graduate and professional students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 140 countries.

For more news and information about the GW Police Science Undergraduate Certificates, Associate's, and Bachelor's Degree Program, please call 202-994-2083 or cps@gwu.edu. Please also see www.cps.gwu.edu.