Status of the SEI Program
by Ken Hackman

The only thing new on this topic is that there will definitely not be a university level training program for photojournalism and videojournalism this year. I sent a letter to Ms. Clarke, ASD/PA expressing my interest in and concern over the demise of this program. In a response, Ms. Clarke indicated that the program had not been cancelled. The current contract for training has expired and a new request for proposals must be prepared. Funding for this program will not be available until next fiscal year.
     There will be a review of the training requirement and the Commandant of DINFOS, the program manager, will after coordination with the Services will forward his recommendations to Ms. Clarke. To quote, "Once decisions have been made, we will be able to conduct training during the 2004-2005 academic year.
     My recommendation is, if you have not already done so, contact your appropriate service representative and give them some good concrete reasons why it is important to keep university-level (Syracuse) training. Avoid emotional responses, try to stick to the facts of the benefits of this training. In other words give them some, talking points, ammunition, etc. to justify why this program is important. Many of you are graduates of the program, and many of you are now in supervisory positions. Discuss how the "product" - the images and your ability to support your commanders with a professional product will suffer.
     I will keep you all posted via the MPJ Forum when I hear anything new.  - Ken

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