Director of National Intelligence Visits Baylor, Urges Students to Consider Public Service Career
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WACO, Texas (April 3, 2018) – The Honorable Daniel Coats, the nation’s fifth Director of National Intelligence (DNI), encouraged Baylor University students to consider a career in public service during a stop at Baylor on March 28.
Coats was the guest of the University’s Office of Governmental Relations and Baylor Ambassadors, a student group that represents Baylor on important issues on the federal, state and local levels. Before heading to Austin for a conference on “U.S. Intelligence: Confronting 21st Century Challenges,” Coats met with faculty and students for lunch, then spoke to more than 100 students, faculty and staff in the McClinton Auditorium in the Paul L. Foster for Campus for Business and Innovation.
“I came to Baylor because I thought this is a rich ground for people who have a balanced view of their life and who they are, fully understand and live on basic time-tested eternal principles that I think are necessary to provide the kind of character and the kind of leadership that we need,” Coats said. “You’re graduating from a school that can provide you with some very significant skills that will be very important to the Intelligence Community. I will guarantee that if you join us, or get involved in public service, you will never be bored. We can use people not only with the skills but with the character, and I think there are a lot of people here at Baylor University who have that combination.”
A former U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Indiana, Coats was sworn in as DNI on March 16, 2017. As DNI, he leads his office and its 16 agencies and organizations and serves as the principal intelligence advisor to the President. The IC agencies work both independently and collaboratively to gather and analyze the intelligence necessary to conduct foreign relations and national security activities.
Coats encouraged students to consider the entire range of talent needed in various public service roles, from cybersecurity to nursing, analysis to linguistics. He suggested that students research the various opportunities available on www.Intelligence.gov or www.CIA.gov.
“That can be foreign service through the State Department, it could be service through our intelligence agencies, it could be involvement in your neighborhood, giving back whether it’s at the state level, at the local level, the church level, at the neighborhood level or the federal level,” Coats said. “Giving back in thanks to be so privileged to be born into a country like America, where the freedoms that we enjoy are almost unparalleled anywhere in the world.”
Following his presentation, Coats participated in a question-and-answer session with students, moderated by David Clinton, Ph.D., professor and chair of political science in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences.
“Throughout his visit, Director Coats has emphasized one thing in particular, and that is the importance not only of native intelligence and good training but high moral character to be a really successful public servant,” Clinton said. “He has told us more than once that he finds that particularly evident in students here at Baylor. I hope students will take him up on his invitation to explore all the avenues of public service. I’m sure they would find it rewarding.”
Baylor Ambassadors hosted Coats, as they do with VIPs while they are on campus. With an organizational focus on public service, the group has been looking for a speaker who emphasized that same quality.
“Through some Baylor connections, we reached out to Daniel Coats and asked if he could come to campus and speak about the importance of public service and how that has profoundly impacted his life. He has a long and distinguished career in the Army, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, and continues to serve. We are incredibly thankful that he managed to find the time,” said Nik Fisher, a senior political science major from Kyle, Texas, and president of Baylor Ambassadors. Upon graduation, Fisher plans to attend graduate school with a focus on public service.
“Baylor is a great place to prepare me to do that, so I’m really thankful for all of the opportunities that Baylor has,” Fisher said.
Baylor offers students summer opportunities via the University’s long-running Washington Internship Program, through which they can serve as interns in a wide variety of governmental positions and nongovernmental organizations in the nation’s capital. Baylor also provides semester-long opportunities for students through the Baylor in Washington Semester Program. Both programs are competitive, and both offer scholarships.
“We are looking for the best,” Clinton said.
A graduate of Wheaton College, Coats served in the U.S. Army and then earned his law degree from Indiana University. From 1981 to 1999, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives and then in the U.S. Senate. During this time in Congress, he served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence. He retired from the Senate in 1999.
In 2001, Coats was named Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, arriving in country just three days before the tragic events of Sept. 11.
“I looked at what was happening at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and that was a game changer in terms of where we now are as an Intelligence Community. As a result of that and information learned from the commission that we could have potentially prevented that, it woke up America, and we had to make a decision,” Coats said. “It was recommended to the Congress that we create an Office of the Director of National Intelligence and give that person and that entity the authority to pull together all the intelligence efforts of the 16 different agencies.”
Coats returned to the U.S. Senate in January 2011, where served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as the Finance, Appropriations and Joint Economic committees. He did not seek reelection in 2016 and retired from the Senate in January 2017, before becoming DNI in March.
He and his wife have been active in charitable causes, including The Foundation for American Renewal, which they formed together. Coats has served as president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and on the boards of many civic and volunteer organizations.
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.