USGIF Accredits New University: USGIF is pleased to announce its accreditation of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in Indiana, Penn., under its Collegiate Accreditation Program. This latest accreditation brings the total of USGIF-accredited colleges and universities to 17.

IUP offers both undergraduate and graduate GEOINT certificates. The university’s department of geography and regional planning has a long history of geography education with strong programs in cartography and geographic information science. Chartered in 1871, the university began with a mission to train students as public school teachers and has a tradition of serving many of Pennsylvania’s first-generation college students.

“The students, faculty, and administration at IUP are extremely excited about USGIF’s accreditation of the department’s undergraduate and graduate geospatial intelligence certificate programs,” said John Benhart, Jr., Chair of IUP’s Department of Geography & Regional Planning and Director of Geospatial Intelligence Certificate Programs. “USGIF accreditation is an acknowledgement of the quality, rigor, and applicability of the department’s geospatial curriculum, and will provide students vastly increased opportunities for internships, professional development, and employment in the fast-growing geospatial intelligence sector.”

The department’s modern cartography program was established in the mid-1950s and grew to be one of the largest undergraduate geography programs in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s. As stated in the university’s accreditation application, “IUP combines the academic opportunities of a large university with the highly personalized and intimate learning-centered environment of a small university.”

“IUP’s program has a regional development focus, aiming to enhance teaching and research in regional and urban planning, emergency response, and potentially crime mapping,” said USGIF Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Camelia Kantor. “The IUP GEOINT Certificate program will draw upon this rich history of teaching, cartography, and regional planning to equip students with a unique set of skills and knowledge needed when growing a diverse geospatial intelligence workforce.”

IUP joins 16 other USGIF-accredited institutions: Fayetteville State University, George Mason University, James Madison University, North Carolina Central University, Northeastern University, Pennsylvania State University, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the University of Maryland, the University of Missouri at Columbia, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of South Carolina, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Utah, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Military Academy.

For more information on USGIF’s Collegiate Accreditation Program, please visit usgif.org/education/accreditation.