Applied Languages

    Posted by Jaiken Struck on April 8th, 2009

Indiana University has signed an open-ended agreement to provide language and culture training to the Indiana National Guard.

IU President Michael McRobbie and Indiana’s Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, signed a document on Tuesday that cemented the institutions’ 3-year-old partnership. The contract gives IU and the Indiana National Guard flexibility if the Guard needs different language trainers, said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.

Currently, faculty and staff from IU teach Pashto and Dari at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Ind. Both languages are spoken in Afghanistan. IU will also teach culture and regional laws.  The agreement makes it easier for the Indiana National Guard to contract IU’s expertise in language and culture.

Camp Atterbury is where civilians and members of the military prepare for deployment to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. McRobbie thinks the agreement will help support national defence as well as the state economy, as Camp Atterbury receives outgoing military. The agreement is supported by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The war in Afghanistan is not going to be won on the battlefield, but through thinking, said IU’s director of community relations Kirk White. He also said there is academic freedom in which faculty members would not have to participate in any agreement to which they morally object.

Read more: Indiana Daily Student

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