Mount Launches Delaney Center for Public Sector Information

Four years after the death of Mount St. Mary’s beloved sociology professor Father James Delaney, the Mount is preparing to launch a unique graduate-level program that honors his life and legacy. The Delaney Center for Public Sector Information (CPSI), founded through a grant from the Delaney Foundation, will begin offering courses January 14, 2002, as part of a certification program to educate and train professional data analysts who work in the field of intelligence in both the private and public sectors.

"The launch of CPSI is an important first step in filling a critical shortage of qualified data analysts in the United States," said Center Director Joe Vince, a former official with the Department of Treasury’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division. "Law enforcement agencies at all levels - local, state and federal - are collecting huge amounts of data every day, and there is a real need for professionals who know how to analyze and understand what all that information means."

CPSI’s inaugural offering, an accredited certification program in Information Management/Analytical Intelligence, represents an extension of Mount St. Mary’s mission to "educate men and women who are ethically mature and who seek to resolve social problems."

The Center is committed to:

• Providing relevant, quality educational opportunities for current professionals
• Improving the understanding of the ethical use of information technology
• Applying the results of basic social research to solving public-sector problems
• Supporting and developing a national standard of excellence for data analysis

A unique aspect of the Delaney Center’s program is its commitment to recruiting public safety officers who have been physically injured in the line of duty. This focus on providing professional re-training to disabled individuals is a particularly significant nod to Father Delaney, the center’s namesake, who was legally blind due to diabetes in his last years yet continued teaching some of the most popular classes at the Mount.

"Public safety agencies are facing a dilemma in retaining skilled officers who have been physically injured on the job and are no longer able to perform the duties of their previous positions," said Vince. "This population, already educated and trained in a public-safety mission, can provide unique insight and perspective into the complexities of practical analysis and intelligence."

The program also targets professionals who want to upgrade their analytical skills, as well as those who want to enter the burgeoning field of data analysis. Vince said the program offers a viable career for aging law-enforcement officers, as well.

Vince, a 28-year veteran of the law enforcement, has worked since his appointment last November to forge partnerships and support from various public and private sector organizations to create an elite advisory board that includes among its many dignitaries the deputy director of the White House’s National Drug Control Policy, the superintendent of the Maryland State Police and the rehabilitation supervisor of the Maryland State Department of Education. In addition, the CPSI advisory board boasts unparalleled corporate and academic support from a variety of insurance agencies, software manufacturers, and accredited educational institutions.

Both practicing professionals and academic scholars will instruct working professionals from both the public and private sectors, said Dr. Martin Malone, chair of the Mount St. Mary’s department of sociology and the college’s liaison/advisor to CPSI.

"We at the Mount see this certification program as the first of many graduate-level offerings related to criminal justice and analysis," Malone said. "The Delaney Center is at the forefront of a national initiative for the ethical and informed analysis of data in the new economy of the 21st century."

"Mount St. Mary’s has long been known for its commitment to socially responsible programs," added Vince. "Now the college is able to offer an unprecedented service to thousands of professionals in the area."

The Mount has locations in Emmitsburg, Frederick and Westminster, making it easily accessible to the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area, where 50,000 sworn law-enforcement officers and intelligence analysts reside. And the Mount’s reach is expanding even more. The initial courses in January will be taught at Urbana High School in Frederick County, just north of the Montgomery County line and conveniently located off I-270.