Homeland Security Expert and "Open Target" Author Visits Rutgers-Camden Dec. 8

CAMDEN – Since the devastating attacks on 9/11, efforts to improve homeland security have been unprecedented. But is the

nation any safer? A free, public lecture at Rutgers University—Camden will expose the country’s continuing vulnerabilities to terrorism at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8.

The first annual Jacob Abraham and Mildred Amelia Baron Lecture will feature Clark Kent Ervin, director of the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Program, who will discuss his book Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack (Palgrave MacMillan, 2006). A former director general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ervin makes frequent appearances on CNN, discussing issues of homeland security, national security, and intelligence.  Ervin’s commentary has also been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and on National Public Radio.

Ervin’s lecture will be the first in the Jacob Abraham and Mildred Amelia Baron Lecture Series, made possible by a $100,000 donation from 1969 Rutgers–Camden alumnus Jeffrey Baron to the department that inspired him as an undergraduate: political science.  Now a partner at Baron, Riefberg & Brennan in Voorhees, Baron established the fund to honor his parents who contributed to his Rutgers’ education. The topic of homeland security, he says is critical to today’s political science majors.

“In these times, academic study of homeland security is essential to an understanding of where the United States stands in the world community and the activities which America must pursue to protect and preserve the principles of democracy which we all enjoy,” says Baron.

The endowed fund will also support student fellowships and research, seminars, visiting faculty, and academic awards. 

According to Kim Shienbaum, chair of the Rutgers–Camden Department of Political Science and director of the campus’ National Security/Homeland Security Program, these newly funded efforts will be enormously important to students heading into an in-demand field. 

“This donation means students have an opportunity to be exposed to the profession through conferences and hear from national figures in the political scene during free public lectures,” she notes. “The lives and careers of students most certainly will be enriched.”

The lecture will be held in Penn 401, accessible from the southern side of the Paul Robeson Library, which is located on Fifth Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus.

For directions, visit camden.rutgers.edu.

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