On Monday, during their Welcome Block Party at the Gary Campus, Crown Point and Gary Police were on hand to demonstrate and celebrate the importance of security with a special presentation by their K-9 units.
"Police work is police work and these dogs are just as important to what we do as anything," said Jeff Eldridge, Crown Point police officer. "When we look for dogs, we look for character and temperament and make sure they are stable. They are part of our family."
Dean of Business and Public Services, Dr. Kevin Tullis, has been an administrator for 10 years and says Ivy Tech is the first university he has worked at that will have a hands-on program.
"There are many with online courses but I feel our program will benefit our students tremendously," said Tullis. "The most fulfilling thing about education is to see your students in the workforce. Our goal is graduating them and putting them to work starting at a range of $50,000."
Tullis feels that most people do not think about security on a local level since national security is always at the forefront. He says that securing cyber resources like financial institutions, universities and businesses are extremely vulnerable to security issues as well.
The development of the programs became a reality when Ivy Tech was awarded a $2.5 million grant for training, which will be dedicated to labs across 24 different campuses, in the "high-growth career fields" of information and technology and cyber security, according to campus president Marlon Mitchell.
"We have already secured a classroom that will be complete with a network training system so that students get first-hand experience and professional development," said Mitchell. "Our focus remains our students and sparking their interests and preparing them for real-world applications."
©2017 The Times (Munster, Ind.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
