Guantanamo commander leads MCC Homeland Security Program

December 9, 2003 MCC news release announces former head of Guantanamo detention program (and, by the way, also formerly of the Monroe Co. Sheriff's Dept.) to lead new Homeland Security program at MCC. Maybe the program grads can get jobs downtown underground..... Is it a coincidence, too, that the D and C recently reported intensified training by police recruits at MCC?

MCC Launches Homeland Security Institute (12/09/2003)

ROCHESTER, NY Monroe Community College (MCC) is
launching a Homeland Security Management Institute aimed
at preparing business and industry, public officials, schools,
citizens and first-responders for public safety crises.

"The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the subsequent war on
terrorism have led all of us to adjust how we do things," said
MCC President R. Thomas Flynn. "This is particularly true for
first-responders, but security-motivated adjustments are not
limited to them. Every business, elected official and citizen
should live every day with a new eye toward safety issues.
MCC's Homeland Security Management Institute
acknowledges these new realities and is focused on helping
all of us prepare for them. We can only be a safe nation when
each of us is prepared to assist."

The Homeland Security Management Institute will be a regional source for homeland security
training of first-responders, elected officials, citizens and professionals whose jobs may
place them in a leadership or response role in a homeland security emergency. While
focused regionally, the institute also has a role in the national homeland security training
picture.

The institute will educate other community college trainers, thereby extending its reach
through the country's network of 1,100 community colleges. Additionally, higher education
leaders are looking to MCC to become a national model for homeland security training one
that can be duplicated across the country.

The institute has support from a variety of sectors.

MCC's Flynn has discussed the institute at length with a number of Congressional
representatives and senators. Congressmen Tom Reynolds, R-I-C, 26th District, and Amo
Houghton, R-C, 29th District, have named representatives to the Institute's advisory
committee. Discussions are continuing with other federal officials.

Houghton also facilitated a visit last summer by a representative from the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security to MCC's Public Safety Training Center. With that entrée and
encouragement, MCC officials have been talking with Washington, D.C., officials for months,
building support for the institute. The College will aggressively seek state and federal funding
for the institute, says Flynn.

Local law enforcement leaders are supporting the institute. Rochester City Police Chief
Robert Duffy and Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn have met with Flynn and endorse the
institute.

MCC is working with the League for Innovation in the Community College, the American
Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the State University of New York (SUNY) to
tap existing homeland security training expertise at the country's community colleges.
Leaders from all three organizations have visited MCC to discuss the college's institute and
national initiatives.

Community colleges already train 80 percent of first-responders, according to the AACC. In an
article he co-authored in July, Flynn said, "Our review of homeland security training and civic
engagement programs in community and technical colleges nationwide reveals powerful
programs in place, along with significant untapped potential. Given these findings, we should
not duplicate, at great expense to the American taxpayer, education and training programs
already in place."

On Monday, Dec. 8, the MCC Board of Trustees approved the institute's first employee:
Colonel John J. Perrone Jr., an Army veteran and former Monroe County Sheriff's major. Most
recently, Perrone served as commander of the Joint Detainee Operations Group at the Al
Qaeda Terrorist Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

MCC has trained police, fire and emergency medical professionals in Monroe County for
nearly 30 years. Since 2001, that training has taken place at the state-of-the-art Public Safety
Training Facility, 1190 Scottsville Road, a collaborative effort of the College, Monroe County
and the City of Rochester.

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Media Contact:
Cooper, Cynthia L.
585-292-3022
ccooper@monroecc.edu