DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- The students' hands are up in the air as the classroom discussion at the University of Dayton heats up over whether it's moral or wise to assassinate terrorist leaders.
Geoff Pipoly, a senior from Sylvania, said assassination should not be ruled out given the terrorist threat to the United States after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
``I think we need a full bag of tools,'' he said.
Pipoly is among 15 students in the class called Human Rights in the War on Terrorism, which the university in southwest Ohio started this winter as its second class on terrorism.
Colleges across the country are adding terrorism and homeland security courses because of student curiosity about the topics and interest in careers in homeland security.
``Immediately after 9/11, everyone was in shock and wanted to know how this happened,'' said Mark Ensalaco, the university's international studies director who teaches the terrorism courses. ``One student came up to me and said, 'Where did this come from?'''
The Department of Homeland Security also is encouraging study of terrorism by spending about $70 million in this budget year to fund university research into homeland security and to develop graduates devoted to the field.
The department is paying full tuition and a stipend to about 200 students at 93 colleges and universities as part of its scholars and internship program, designed to get students into careers studying how to prevent terrorist attacks, reduce America's vulnerability and speed recovery after attacks.
For example, psychology graduates in the program could try to predict terrorists' behavior, engineers could design buildings better able to withstand attacks and biologists and chemists might find faster ways to detect and recovery from chemical or biologist attacks.
Department spokesman Donald Tighe said there are jobs at the agency for graduates to analyze intelligence, enforce immigration and customs laws and work on computer security. But the nation also will benefit from having them work for other government agencies or in the private sector, he said.
``We need these people in every part of the country,'' he said.
About 60 students are on a waiting list to get into Kevin Kuswa's 30-student rhetoric-of-terrorism course at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
The class, which was started two years ago, touches on topics such as whether violence is avoidable.
``We knew that terrorism needed to be introduced into the classroom,'' said Kuswa, an assistant professor. ``It's on the students' minds daily. It's becoming popular because it's important.''
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is offering more terrorism courses and is including terrorism as a greater component in many of the international-studies courses because of student interest.
``9/11 was a life-changing event for our students. That's something they are never going to forget,'' said professor Steven David, director of international studies.
The courses cover topics including how the U.S. government can organize itself to deal with terrorist threats, why some people hate Americans and how America can build alliances overseas, David said.
Kuswa said students in his terrorism class major in everything from business to history and philosophy to anthropology. He said many just want to try to understand terrorism.
``As we start to think about the reasons behind terrorist attacks and the reasons behind anti-Americanism, we have to find better ways to sort of package what America means or sell a better sense of America,'' Kuswa said. ``It requires multiple perspectives, being able to step out of one's own standpoint.''
