PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - As the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), marks its fifth year of occupancy in its new campus, the event provides a good opportunity to take a look back at the history of the Institute and remember why it's so critical to mission success today for the nation's military commanders.

With a single snip of a pair of scissors, Dr. David S. Chu, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, joined by several high-ranking military and civilian leaders, easily cut a ceremonial dedication ribbon Jan. 14, 2004, symbolizing the opening of the new home of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute here.

Getting the two-story, 94,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility built was anything but-easy that is.

More than six years in the making, a new campus task force was established in the early 1990's with construction beginning in April 2002. DEOMI's first students in the new Mediterranean style structure on the beautiful Banana River began classes in late January 2004.

During the ceremony, Dr. Chu commented on the factors that led to DEOMI's emergence more than three decades ago.

"Years ago, our military was deeply troubled with racial unrest and turmoil plagued several military installations and ships. None of the military services was exempt," said Dr. Chu, who reached the rank of Captain when he left the Army in 1970.

"In some cases, these civil disturbances directly interfered with the military's ability to execute its mission and fight effectively," he said.

To counteract these disturbances, an inter-service task force was formed to examine the causes-and more importantly-to find possible solutions for the racial strife within the Services.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Lucius Theus [then Colonel Theus] was chosen to head the task force, which resulted in the Department of Defense Directive 1322.11, establishing the Race Relations Board, and in 1971, created the Defense Race Relations Institute, the original name for DEOMI, which was renamed in July 1979, with an expanded mission to consider areas of equity beyond race.

Since that first seven-week course, the Institute has continuously expanded to meet the needs of field commanders and agency heads. As a result, DEOMI now addresses a wide array of issues, including disability, diversity, sexism, extremism, religious accommodations, and anti-Semitism.

In addition to being the leader in Equal Opportunity and Equal Employment Opportunity training, DEOMI is now also emerging as a Center of Excellence for DOD for research of Cross-Cultural Competence.

While always researching new field requirements to maintain currency of its curriculum, DEOMI was reaccredited for six years in 2006 by the Council on Occupational Education (COE), a national institutional accrediting agency that assures quality in education. Six years is the maximum time allowable before a return COE visit.

A tremendous amount of work is done each year to ensure the curriculum of each course taught at DEOMI provides students the tools they need to do their jobs.

After years of research, analysis, and curriculum development by the Research Directorate, Curriculum & Faculty Programs Directorate, as well as other subject matter experts, DEOMI is currently launching a re-designed Equal Opportunity Advisor Program (EOAP) with students now enrolling into Phase I of the program.

The new EOAP consists of Phase 1 (online training), Phase 2 (in-resident training), and service specific training at DEOMI.

Students now enrolling in the new EOAP will be pioneers of sorts as they become the first students enrolled in the redesigned course-the biggest change to training curriculum at the Institute in more than 30 years.

DEOMI also reaches out across the spectrum of DOD and civilian Federal Government organizations with its Mobile Training Teams or MTTs to conduct Equal Opportunity and Equal Employment Opportunity training. Since 2004 the MTTs have reached thousands of students in various training sessions including the Leadership Team Awareness Seminar, Senior Executive Equal Opportunity Seminar, Equal Opportunity Program Managers Course and others.

Another very important tool that DEOMI provides military commanders with is the DEOMI Climate Survey or DEOCS which is now mandated for use by three of the five Services including the Army National Guard. Launched just four years ago, the online version of DEOCS has come a long way since being introduced by the DEOMI Research Directorate in October 2004. The DEOCS builds upon the database developed first by the Military Equal Opportunity Climate Survey-or MEOCS, and now includes more than 3.5 million respondents in the database.