UArizona joins pilot program to offer courses to enlisted military members

PHOENIX — The University of Arizona is one of three universities joining a pilot program to offer online college courses to enlisted military members.

The university, in partnership with the United States Naval Community College, will offer intelligence and applied computing programs to 150 sailors, marines and coast guardsmen in the spring through UArizona’s College of Applied Science and Technology.

The courses will be entirely online via the university’s Arizona Online portal.

“The partnership with the University of Arizona and the United States Naval Community College speaks to the university commitment to serve our service members across the globe,” Cody Nicholls, UArizona assistant dean of students for military and veteran engagement, said in a press release.

The United States Naval Community College is a division of Marine Corps University and partners with various institutions to bring programs to its students.

Students can choose from four classes, which will be split up into two tracks.

The first track focuses on teaching students how to turn data into information that can be used for decision-making at various levels of leadership through a statistics course and an intelligence analysis course.

The second track will teach students how to use statistics and basic computer programs to solve complex problems in large data sets.

The college’s Bachelor of Applied Science in intelligence and information operations is the first of its kind in the country.

It was created in 2019 after the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency designated the college’s intelligence studies emphasis of the applied science degree program as an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, according to the release.

The recognition came with $1.5 million that shaped the emphasis into a full degree program.

“Participation in this exciting pilot program is a testament to the quality of the CAST team and the college’s commitment to future focused, career-ready education in support of the University of Arizona’s land-grant mission,” Gary Packard, dean of the college, said in the release.

The other institutions part of this pilot program are Alexandra Technical and Community College in Minnesota, the State University of New York, the University of Maryland Global Campus and Virginia’s Community Colleges.

In total, the pilot program is expected to serve nearly 600 enlisted service members.