Wednesday, October 17, 2001

A New Online Course Teaches Police Officers How to Handle Hate Crimes By BROCK READ Robert J. Van Der Velde says that the key to his new online course, which trains law-enforcement officers in the handling of hate crimes, can be found in a quotation that he posts on its syllabus: "The terrorists actually want to provoke attacks on Arabs or Muslims in the U.S., because if the American communities start going after each other, if we see America fragment, then you destroy that special thing that America stands for." The quote comes not from an American politician or pundit, but from Jordan's King Abdullah. Mr. Van Der Velde says it highlights the views of most Muslims. In doing so, it points to the need for a police force that is prepared to handle any hate crimes that might occur against Arab-Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Mr. Van Der Velde's course, "Introduction to Hate/Bias Crimes," will be offered this fall by Auburn University at Montgomery, where he is an associate professor of justice and public safety. Participating officers will pay nothing: The Southern Poverty Law Center has given the university a grant that will subsidize the enrollment fees of the first class, which starts on October 30. The center has also promised to pay half of the $112-per-student cost for future groups taking the course. Title: "Introduction to Hate/Bias Crimes" Institution: Auburn University at Montgomery Instructor: Robert J. Van Der Velde, associate professor of justice and public safety Course content: The course aims to provide law-enforcement officers with comprehensive training in responding to hate crimes. Officers will be taught to recognize and report hate crimes, interpret relevant laws, set department policies, and work with hate-crime victims. Other topics discussed will include the history and common causes of hate crimes. Mr. Van Der Velde has adapted materials that the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center has used in its educational programs, and he collaborated with a board of advisers that includes faculty members from the university's criminal-justice department, distance-education experts, and law-enforcement officers. How delivered: The course will be delivered entirely online, in a series of lectures augmented by external links to Web sites run by hate groups, organizations that combat them, government agencies, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The lectures will also be sprinkled with video clips demonstrating techniques and terminology. For students from police departments without high-speed Internet connections, Mr. Van Der Velde has made the videos available on a CD-ROM. Discussions will play a large role in the instruction. Officers will use threaded discussion boards to share research and questions with one another. They will also participate in real-time online chats with a wide array of experts in hate-crime prevention: One guest will be New Jersey's chief investigator of hate crimes, Mr. Van Der Velde says. Course requirements: Enrolled officers will receive an hour of college credit if they successfully complete the course. To do so, they must participate in all discussions, pass quizzes covering the material from each unit, and conduct research on hate- and bias-crime policies used by law-enforcement agents in the United States. Eventually, the students will draft sample departmental policies; Mr. Van Der Velde says he hopes that some of the policies will actually be put into practice. When offered: The first session of the course begins on October 30. Enrollment: Thirty-five officers have enrolled in this year's program, but Mr. Van Der Velde expects more in the future. The Southern Poverty Law Center has promised to pay half of the enrollment fee for up to 500 officers a year. Instructor comment: Mr. Van Der Velde says that even without the center's grant money, the course is a bargain for law-enforcement groups looking to combat hate crimes more effectively. "We think it's going to be a good way to reach out to small-town and rural [police] departments," he says. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Author blames scholarly orthodoxy for "repeated failures" of Middle East studies in U.S. Bush to nominate former congressional aide to be top policy maker on higher education U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Nike agree on $28-million deal with anti-sweatshop clause Report documents poor academic performance of athletes at New England liberal-arts colleges Purdue U. political-science department grapples with what to do about neo-Nazi graduate student Graduate students give their programs mixed reviews in new survey Board ousts chancellor of Spokane community-college district Ghana's student-loan system faces major financial problems Campus computing beyond PC's A new online course teaches police officers how to handle hate crimes