An emergency operations center at North Dakota State University would supply the state with valuable manpower during disasters and enhance the school's curriculum, Gov. John Hoeven says.
The Division of Emergency Management and the North Dakota National Guard's top official are working on plans for a backup for the Emergency Operations Center in Bismarck.
"I've asked them to push this concept as vigorously as they can," Hoeven said.
Doug Friez, the state's director of homeland security, said intense focus on the issue after Sept. 11, 2001, raised the need for an alternate center, should the primary center be destroyed by terrorism or other means.
Friez and Maj. Gen. Michael Haugen, adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard, pitched the idea to Hoeven this fall. Hoeven brought it up to NDSU students and administrators during a campus visit in November.
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"We need to explore a lot of different areas, and there's no lock-in on any one area, but it makes sense that we should talk about a partnership with NDSU," Friez said.
NDSU won state approval in September to expand its emergency management minor to include a major, master's and doctorate degrees. Only six schools nationwide offer a Ph.D. related to the subject.
The bachelor's degree, and possibly the master's degree, will be offered next fall, said program coordinator and sociology professor George Youngs. Eighty to 120 students are expected to enroll in the program when it hits full steam.
While an emergency operations center at NDSU would always be at the state's disposal, most of the time it would serve as a hands-on lab and classroom for students, university spokesman Keith Bjerke said.
And, in times of disaster, the students could help state and federal officials gather information and disseminate it to the public, Friez said.
Funding for the center will likely come from federal sources, including the new Homeland Security Department, Friez said. He declined to speculate on the size of the state's homeland security appropriation for 2003.
The biggest challenge facing NDSU may be location. Bjerke was told Monday that an ongoing addition to Minard Hall, which houses the emergency management program, won't have space for an operations center.
A former adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard, Bjerke was the state's coordinating officer for disaster response and recovery during the Red River flood of 1997.
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He was instrumental in persuading the state to upgrade the Bismarck center in 1998 and 1999.
Instead of installing permanent computers, the state put in data ports for laptop computers so agencies could plug in with ease, Bjerke said. NDSU is already wired to the state's computer system and could operate a center in the same way, he said.
Bjerke met with 40 NDSU faculty and staff members Monday to keep them up to date on the proposed center and to discuss the school's current classes and research related to homeland security.
The research projects range from food safety and microchip-size ID tags to improving devices used to detect microbes and explosives.
The bill that created the new Homeland Security Department contains a provision for a number of homeland security centers to be named within the next year, said Bonnie Neas, NDSU's assistant vice president of federal government relations.
"With some of the expertise we have, it seems we could make a good case for a center, or take advantage of what the state wants to do," Neas said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
