EL PASO, Texas -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday the designation of the University of Texas at El Paso as an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. The $6 million grant will be used to open the National Center for Border Security and Immigration.

"We submitted our proposal along with many other competing universities, and I think we were selected because we presented the best proposal with the most robust kind of context for the topic of border security and immigration," said Dr. Diana Natalicio, UTEP president.

The center will focus on developing long-term solutions to border security and immigration through extensive research, and it will develop technologies that could make the jobs of Border Patrol agents safer.

"They have many challenges to keep the border secure, and we're looking forward to work force development with the students here at UTEP," said Jay Cohen, Under Secretary for Science and Technology, for the Department of Homeland Security.

UTEP is among 10 universities nationwide that will receive the grant over the next six years. Aside from research projects, the university will use grant money to develop a degree program that can prepare students for careers in the intelligence field, such as foreign languages, regional politics and policy, geographic information systems.

"After we've done the research, to come up with a program that offer a degree that will benefit homeland security," said Luis Barker, the managing director for the National Center for Border Security and Immigration.

UTEP's center will partner with the University of Arizona at Tucson. About half a dozen other universities are involved in research benefiting Homeland Security, including international universities.

For more information, contact the Strategic Initiative Office at 747-6300. The office is located in Kelly Hall.