IU, National Guard collaborate on language, culture training

IU signed an open-ended agreement Tuesday 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 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.

IU has more than 60 language programs, said IU’s director of community relations Kirk White. White is also a Lt. Colonel in the Indiana National Guard.

Camp Atterbury is where civilians and members of the military prepare for deployment to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The agreement is one of McRobbie’s priorities, MacIntyre said.

“We want to support the state and the federal government,” MacIntyre said.

McRobbie thinks the agreement will help support national defense as well as the state economy, as Camp Atterbury receives outgoing military, MacIntyre said.

“A lot of people come through Atterbury every year,” MacIntyre said.

The agreement is supported by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, White said.

The war in Afghanistan isn’t going to be won on the battlefield, White said, but through thinking.

He also said there is academic freedom in which faculty members would not have to participate in any agreement to which they morally object.