Half a century ago, modern computing began its rapid march across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Rooms brimming with racks of equipment fueled the postwar age of automation, demanding an entirely new set of military skills. While practical training was aimed at the mechanics of computing - programming, maintaining and operating - the Pentagon soon realized that educating leadership was also important and senior managers would need to be schooled in the fundamentals of IT if such a capability was to be appropriately leveraged. This recognition led to the creation of the DoD Computer Institute, a joint program that by the early '70s reached nearly 3,000 students per year.

This bit of historical perspective is important when considering the present-day equivalent of that bygone training venture, which underwent an official name change in 1988 and inherited its current moniker, the Information Resources Management College (IRMC). No longer anchored to an era of punch cards and transistors, the IRMC enjoys a modern identity all its own, and this year it ticks through its 20th anniversary as a component of the fully accredited and widely respected National Defense University (NDU). The college isn't just for educating DoD leaders, but also serves federal, state and local governments and international leaders.

The IRMC has good cause to reflect on its evolution since its relatively modest beginnings and consider the landscape of pending challenges and what they may mean for a new generation of government leaders. Although it was ostensibly created with information resources in mind, the IRMC is anything but a "DoD computer school." The coming years will test the college's ability to innovate, widen its aperture of influence and posture itself as an enduring leader within the DoD and throughout the full range of federal, public, private and international partners.

A Tectonic Shift
Tucked within the gates of Fort Lesley J. McNair along the Washington, D.C., waterfront, the IRMC occupies a place of geographic and historical distinction, shoulder-to-shoulder with NDU's other schools: the National War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Although the IRMC is the newest of these colleges, it has grown into a critical NDU component and is certainly no less important in terms of molding the nation's leadership in the face of evolving geopolitics, emerging technologies and national security challenges.

When the IRMC was officially designated a graduate institution in 1988, its chief offering was the Advanced Management Program, a course of instruction still well attended today. Yet this academic staple is now complemented by a number of newer IRMC certificates that have gained momentum in recent years. Most notable are the Information Assurance and Chief Information Officer certificates, the latter of which was born with the passage of the Clinger-Cohen Act in 1996. The act created a tectonic shift in the management of federal information resources because it put formal structure and competencies behind the acquisition and integration of IT - a significant legislative nod of endorsement for a government college catering to such skills. All told, the college now awards 11 graduate certificates.

The IRMC and its certificate programs have gained increasing exposure and recognition, and are attended by students from a variety of sectors - military, civilian, private sector, international and public sector. With a student body composed of graduate-level leadership, the college fills 3,500 seats annually, a number that far exceeds other management institutes of its kind. Of course, other federal entities administer department-level education programs; every agency, from Interior to Treasury, offers courses geared for upper management. In fact, more than 100 such programs spill from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Federal Leadership Development Catalog, but only half of them invite federal students from outside the sponsoring agency. Far fewer open their classrooms to nonfederal employees, and virtually none offer the type of graduate-level certificates granted by the