Andrew M., a senior intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency who briefed President George W. Bush every morning, will be staking out the uptown campus on Friday (Nov. 3). The CIA officer will be giving a declassified briefing similar to those he gave each morning to the president and talking to Tulane students about his work.

"This is a special opportunity that not very many people get," says Amjad Ayoubi, executive director of the Tulane Career Center, which is sponsoring the event.

"We are trying to bring to Tulane students unique and distinctive opportunities they will not have anywhere else — 'Only at Tulane ... Only in New Orleans' types of opportunities and events," Ayoubi says, referring to the unofficial motto that has been adopted by the Tulane student affairs and admissions offices.

Andrew M. — just call him Andy — currently serves as the deputy director of the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center. In December 2001 Andy was selected to be President Bush's briefer and served in that capacity until January 2004.

Accompanying Andy M. will be James S., who will speak on "A Day in the Life of a CIA Analyst." James is a team chief in the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, whose team was responsible for providing the analysis of the TWA 800 flight in 1998.

Gertie Starks, director of management, leadership and diversity programs at the Directorate of Intelligence, says the agency has selected universities for its outreach program.

"These outreach programs have allowed us to take our message directly to the student populations we want to attract and hire; to engage in candid conversation to dispel myths and untruths about the agency; and to educate students about our mission, the role of intelligence analysis, the intelligence analyst, and the kinds of academic backgrounds we find most useful," Starks says.

"We are having good, open dialogue with students, particularly minority students, about who we are — not who Hollywood and the media have painted us to be — what we really do, and how they can be a part of this exciting mission."

The CIA agents will speak in John G. Weinmann Hall (law school), room 257. The first 100 students to come to these talks will receive a CIA T-shirt. The opportunities to hear the agents speak on Nov. 3 are:

• Briefing the President of the United States: 3-3:30 p.m. or 5-5:30 p.m.
   
• A Day in the Life of a CIA Analyst: 3:30-4 p.m. or 5:30-6 p.m.

Andy joined the CIA's Directorate of Operations in 1986. From January 2004 to January 2006 he served as chief of the Nuclear Threats Group in the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center. Born in Rochester, N.Y., Andy received a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Buffalo and a master's degree in computer science from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

James joined the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence in 1987 as a recipient of the Stokes Educational Scholarship. Born in Cincinnati, James received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering with an Army ROTC minor from Howard University.