USSTRATCOM now holding courses at UNO

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July 21st, 2016

The UNO-USSTRATCOM-NDU partnership includes a 10-week course which is underway at Mammel Hall. (Courtesy UNO)

The UNO-USSTRATCOM-NDU is the first of it’s kind on a civilian campus. (Courtesy UNO)

National Defense University and US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is now holding a 10-week higher education satellite course at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The course is located at the home of UNO’s School of Business, Mammel Hall. KVNO’s Brandon McDermott reports.


The University of Nebraska at Omaha is creating a partnership with both US Strategic Command (US STRATCOM) in Bellevue and the National Defense University (NDU).

 

In Norfolk, Virginia. NDU is a higher education organization for national security leadership which prepares senior leaders to think and operate effectively.

The partnership, called the Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) will now allow some military members to take classes on the UNO campus, instead of traveling to Virginia.

Dr. Ken Pisel is the Program manager of the Joint and Combined War Fighting School Satellite program.  He says the course started in June and so far, is going smoothly.

“This is education and we are not training them to do anything,” Dr. Pisel said. ‘We want them to learn how to think not what to think it’s a very important aspect of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

UNO’s Mammel Hall was one of many locations looked at around the country. Its proximity to Offutt Air Force Base was key in making the final decision, because close to home for the students stationed at Offutt. Dr. Pisel says the facilities at UNO are tremendous, as is, the help he’s received from the university.

“If we have an issue, we will get it resolved in (no time) flat. They are very forward leaning in supporting our efforts.”

David Nielsen is the Assistant Dean at the College of Business Administration at UNO. He says coordinating with NDU and US STRATCOM is a great thing for UNO.

“You know and that’s why UNO and the College of Business, I think, is number one when it comes to working with the vets in the military,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen says UNO has a long history of being a military-friendly university and there is a mutual benefit to the partnership.

‘We can do something that benefits them, and also benefits us, they’re utilizing one of our classrooms. But at the same time we have military members from here gives us a chance to interact with them.

Dr. Pisel says it would make sense on the surface to conduct the class at Offutt Air Force Base. But, he says taking the students off a military installation will help them stay focused.

“A very big aspect I am looking at that every site is some degree of separation between the classroom and the staff officer’s desk. Because there’s a gravitational pull between them and their work that will destroy the academic environment.

Nielsen says from an academic standpoint – it makes complete sense.

‘If there’s an issue or there’s a question, it gets interrupted like. ‘hey I need you know someone needs this,’ or whatever, this way they’re away from that and they can really focus on the educational part of it.’

Right now, it’s up in the air if the Joint Professional Military Education program will be back at UNO. Dr. Pisel says if it all works out as planned, though, UNO could be a future site for the program in the coming years on a rotational basis.

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