FVEY partnerships with IC and U.S. institutions of higher education.

• posted October 8, 2017

From active shooters, to counter-terrorism, to counter-proliferation, and counter-intelligence, the U.S. Intelligence Community and law enforcement are actively partnering with U.S. institutions of high education. The partnership extends to FVEY country counterparts.

In 2015 and 2016, William M. Arkin and I published a multi-month investigation into the most ‘militarized’ universities in the United States, outlining the entities that comprise the national security partnerships between U.S. institutions of higher education and the U.S. I.C. and law enforcement.

Below are responsive documents I obtained late last year by way of the Freedom of Information Act concerning the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board (NSHEAB), the FBI Academic Alliance, and the FBI Campus Liaison Program (CLI).

As Arkin and I reported in 2015, “former FBI Director Robert Mueller established the [National Security Higher Education Advisory Board] NSHEAB in 2005 to ‘bridge historical gaps between the US Intelligence Community and academe with respect to national security issues.’ The NSHEAB currently has 25 members, including presidents from public and private schools who meet with the senior leadership of the FBI and meets approximately three times a year. These documents report that counter-parts from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have partnered with the NSHEAB and participated at a 2009 meeting.

The FBI created the Campus Liaison Initiative in 2008 with institutions of higher learning to combat the threat of international and domestic terrorism. The entity also advises campuses how to deal with threats from active shooters.

As a counterintelligence strategic partnership the Academic Alliance is a national outreach effort charged with sharing information and establishing a dialogue with academic institutions to increase awareness of threat and national security issues in order to foster a spirit of cooperation.