The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence (IC CAE) program is a highly competitive, innovative federal award program created to identify highly motivated, diverse candidates for mission-critical occupations within the 17 intelligence agencies.
Syracuse University IC CAE Program Focus and Goals
As a forward-leaning university, Syracuse University aims to meet the knowledge demands of today’s highly dynamic environments, especially as emergent technologies transform daily life, including in the domains of national and global security.
Syracuse University’s IC CAE is organized around three of Syracuse University’s strengths: adaptive professionalism, diversity of experiences and perspectives, and ethics and rule of law. Given the unique rule of law-based national security system that distinguishes the U.S. from many countries in the world, Syracuse University’s IC CAE presumes the best security and intelligence emergent professionals put ethics, rule of law and norms at the heart of their analysis and practice.
The Syracuse University IC CAE has two goals:
- Leverage longstanding University commitments to public service, inclusive diversity and security and intelligence-related research to build concrete pathways for diversifying the U.S. Intelligence Community pipeline.
- Build a robust, dynamic and sustained Center of Excellence with consortium partners to expand the capacity to attract, recruit and educate talented under-resourced students with diverse experiences for intelligence community careers.
Syracuse University’s Commitment to Diversity: The IC CAE’s Broad Understanding of Diversity
Since its founding, Syracuse University has understood the educational value of diversity . The ability to see a problem differently and from multiple angles often stems from diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and innovative approaches to engaging in the world—all of which are assets to complex problem-solving, necessary in the security and intelligence domains.
At Syracuse University’s IC CAE program, we are enthusiastically committed to sharing and providing resources, courses and curricular content, programs, faculty expertise and mentorship on diversity and inclusion issues in and beyond Syracuse University. We see ourselves as part of a broader mosaic of academic diversity-serving programs at the University (beyond specific administrative offices like Diversity and Inclusion, Disability Services, LGBTQ Resource Center, Multicultural Affairs, Institute for Veterans and Military Families, etc.). We intend to offer in-depth diversity and inclusion learning opportunities for students, so that they may build substantive knowledge in this area, including in ways that advance their disciplinary degree programs. Syracuse University’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity—in perspectives, demographics, experiences, background, languages, national service, and abilities—provide a firm foundation to recruit and educate a dynamic public-service oriented student cohort with IC knowledge, technical expertise, and special skills sets.
In keeping with a commitment to inclusivity and as a federally awarded program, we understand diversity in the broadest terms, including women in the security and intelligence domains; cultural, ethnic, religious, and geographical diversity; diversity in background experiences, degree programs, disciplines and professional experiences; diversity in gender and sexuality; military service members, family members, and veterans; students with a range of abilities and disabilities.