Kathe Conlon, a nurse at the Burn Center at Saint Barnabas Medical Center, planned to get her master's degree in administrative science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Then she saw the courses being offered by the school's newest degree program.

Weapons of mass destruction. The face of terror. Cyber-forensics. Disaster management. Preparing for catastrophic emergencies.

Now Conlon is one of a dozen students enrolled in the Madison University's master's degree program in homeland security. The master's program is the first of its kind in New Jersey, according to FDU and state education officials.

A police chief, several emergency managers, health officers and members of the National Guard have joined Conlon in the two-year program that was launched last month. The program, they hope, will improve their careers, but also make them better members of the community.

"I think one of the biggest lessons we learned post 9/11 is that we're all in this together," said Conlon, who also serves as the emergency management coordinator for Saint Barnabas' burn unit.

FDU's 36-credit program has eight instructors, most of them professionals or experts from the military, state departments, health organizations and law enforcement. The program builds on certificate programs in terrorism, emergency management and computer security that began in 2004.

Students in the degree program take four mandatory courses offering a broad overview of homeland security, constitutional issues, weapons of mass destruction and terrorism awareness. They then choose from a list of about 25 courses to specialize in one of three areas: terrorism and security studies; emergency management, and homeland security leadership.

"Years ago, homeland security was just handled by the military, but now it's much broader than that," said Paulette Laubsch, program director. "Medical, law enforcement, firefighters, emergency responders - they want a piece of paper that says they know what they're doing."

Former Bergen County executive William Pat Schuber, who is teaching a class called Homeland Security and the Constitution, said the field is so new that he had to go to a publisher to get a textbook made for his course, which traces the history of homeland security issues.

"This is extremely timely," said Schuber, a former FDU politics professor. "The very issues we're debating in our classroom with students . . . the nation is debating in presidential elections, in Congress, in the Supreme Court."

In his two lectures so far, Schuber talked about how the United States has dealt with national security threats. The motives behind the Patriot Act and the detainment of people at Guant namo Bay are in many ways similar to the ones that fueled Japanese-American internment during World War II and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, he tells students.

"What is happening today isn't necessarily new to the nation," Schuber said. "To what extent can our liberties be curtailed to protect us, and can the government truly balance the two?"

Already, some homeland security employers are recognizing the master's degree as a sign of expertise. At the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, officials said those who have a degree have a competitive edge over those who do not.

Creating a degree program from current circumstances isn't unique, experts said. Environmental calamities - including oil spills and a river catching on fire - spurred environmental studies courses in the 1970s, and the black power and women's rights movements of the 1960s generated black studies and women's studies. The events lend the programs credibility.