The reality is that national security has an ongoing, fundamental responsibility to protect the people of our country. If service to your country is your calling, TU offers a premier national security program that will enable you to define, detect and defend against emerging threats. Our grads have gone on to work in the Department of Defense, CIA, FBI, United Nations and Secret Service. You can, too.
You Are The Next Generation
Our national security depends upon the creativity, energy, and skills of young people serving with federal, state, and local agencies and operating in our homeland at our borders and overseas. The next generation of diplomats, military officers, and analysts with the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and state and local offices will help define, detect, and defend against threats to our national security that emerge in coming years. Hiring at all levels of government reflects our urgent and continuing need for more and better-educated professionals to defend our nation and its interests.
Tiffin University has developed a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Government & National Security to help meet the growing and demanding needs of our governing agencies for motivated and well-educated graduates. Recruiters and other representatives from the CIA, FBI, Department of Defense, Department of State, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Marshals, among others, have come to TU to encourage our graduating seniors to apply for permanent positions with their agencies. They look to TU because they know our graduates have the kind of practical, real-world education necessary to meet the many security challenges in the coming years.
A Faculty With Real World Experience
Our Government & National Security program reflects the real world of national security because our faculty comes from that world. Our faculty has served in combat, in CIA stations, in military installations, with international organizations, in FBI field offices, with U.S. Marshals, and in the White House. They bring the real world of national security to our program through outside speakers, internships, and, most of all, through instruction every day in the classroom.
TU Makes It All Relevant!
You won’t be doing book reports. You’ll be doing written and oral briefings on both real and hypothetical security situations that require quick analysis and problem solving. You will learn using the same tools and methods that our national security agencies use for current employees. You will learn how everything taught in our classrooms applies in the real world and TU makes it all relevant!
The first section of this major draws on those parts of a traditional curriculum that bear directly upon the workings of our governmental system in general, and our national security system in particular, at the federal, state, and local levels.
The second section of this major focuses on the structure, elements, and history of our consideration and the six major instruments of national power: diplomacy, information, military, economic, finance, intelligence and law enforcement – used to protect and promote our national security. The curriculum also applies these elements to the issues of international security and globalization that our majors will face upon graduation.
What You Can Expect From Your TU Government & National Security Degree:
Ohio Police Officer Training Academy (OPOTA)
To be a sworn police officer in Ohio, you must successfully complete the Ohio Police Officer Training Academy (OPOTA). Tiffin University partners with Terra State Community College to include the cost of the academy in tuition and can be earned in just one semester.
This unique training academy is state mandated for all police officers and covers firearms, legal administration, human relations, traffic, patrol, driving, subject control, investigations, civil disorder, physical conditioning and other aspects of law enforcement. Students apply direct, hands-on practice in the crime lab, firing range and police cruisers. With experienced, certified instructors and hands-on application, our students consistently achieve passing rates on the state-certified exam.
Once graduates of the program earn the certification, they are immediately eligible for full-time employment.
Testimonial
“Tiffin University gave me my best friend and pushed me to my highest potential. The OPOTA program put me ahead in the hiring process and my bachelor’s degree set me apart from other candidates.”
Cassidy Ralph
Hometown: Marion, Ohio
Graduation: Spring, 2019
Major: Bachelor of Criminal Justice in Law Enforcement
Position: Police Officer with the City of Marysville Division of Police
Core Curriculum of the School of Criminal Justice & Social Sciences 12 hours
Government & National Security Major 48 hours
Total BA hours 121-123 hours
This is a sample course sequence to illustrate course offerings for this major. Consult the official Academic Bulletin for detailed registration and advising information.
On Campus - Offered in a 15-week semester format with start dates of January and August
There are no related concentrations available
Counterintelligence/Counter-terrorism (ENF441) - This course addresses the issues of counterintelligence and counter-terrorism (covert information modification and planned preemptive responses). This course will provide an explanation of these two different tactical operational modalities. The interconnectivity of these two separate operational fields will be examined to determine their structural relationship in combating an enemy threat. Additionally, this course will examine the geopolitical utilization of these operational methodologies by U.S. domestic and foreign-based operatives providing security to U.S. domestic security interests. Lastly, this course will examine the use of technology and human intelligence in their application regarding counterintelligence.
American National Security Policy (POL313) - Students trace the development of national security in the United States from its conceptual birth during World War II to the present day, including the role that intelligence plays in national security policy. The course examines how national security policy has developed through succeeding presidential administrations.
Transnational and Unconventional Threats (POL420) - Students will examine some of the unconventional security threats posed by transnational actors and organizations. Topics to be covered include globalization, WMD proliferation, drug cartels, energy security, information security, pandemics and border security. Students will also critically assess how best to organize America’s national security apparatus to respond to these wide-ranging unconventional threats.
Intelligence Analysis (POL425) - The intelligence world is one of ambiguity, nuance, and complexity. Knowing one’s enemies and knowing one’s self has been sage advice for centuries. But how does one know what your enemies are thinking? This course focuses on the conversion of processed information into intelligence through the integration, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of all source data and the preparation of intelligence products in support of known or anticipated user requirements. Analysis is but one phase of the intelligence process, but it is perhaps the most important. Students who take this course will expand their research, computer, communication and analytical skills in order to identify significant facts and derive sound conclusions from imperfect and often contradictory information and flawed evidence.
While it is extremely competitive to obtain such appointments, TU alumni have gone on to careers in these agencies:
"I chose Tiffin University because I heard so many great things about it from other students. Now that I am here, I am very happy. TU has numerous resources on campus, such as the Pfeiffer Library and Student Success Center. These places offer assistance for all of my academic needs."
- Ali Alshehri, Saudi Arabia
The on-campus events and activities that are offered have made it easy to learn about a number of different topics. I also believe because of the diverse population here at TU it allows me to gain a broader perspective of different cultures and customs that I have not encountered before.
-Payne VanTilburg '16
“I was faced with the pressure of being the very first to graduate from college in my immediate family. Not coming from a wealthy or 'well off' background, college was just a very faint thought, even approaching my senior year in high school. I dealt with self-esteem issues throughout my high school career and I found it hard to see myself anywhere than where I was. My perceived challenges were rooted from me and my surrounding circumstances. Here at TU, I was able to overcome my fears and put myself in a position that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Becoming a Dragon was the best decision I have ever made.”
Nellene Arnett
Class of 2017
Toledo, Ohio
TU helped grow my network and give me experience by meeting students from other cultures and countries, and learning from a range of professors. Anyone who wants to feel connected to their fellow students, to their personable professors, and the community, then TU is place for you.
-Alexis Mohr '06
"TU wasn’t just the place I went to get my degree. It was the place I grew up and I am forever thankful for my Dragon family. It’s always a great day to be a Dragon.”
– Allison Marie Staunton, Class of 2016
