CIA spies new recruits at Costa Mesa college

COSTA MESA ? The CIA set up shop at Vanguard University on Thursday ? and, true to form, it did so quietly.

At Vanguard’s annual job fair, held outdoors on the campus, the CIA’s table sat unassumingly between a pair representing the Costa Mesa Police Department and South Coast Plaza security force. The moment, however, was a historic one. Over the last year, the CIA has taken steps to expand its workforce, and Thursday marked the first time it has recruited at Vanguard.

In November 2004, President Bush declared a mandate to increase the size of the CIA’s personnel, due to increasing demands in the war on terrorism. The organization has long recruited on large college campuses, but the mandate has led it to set up tables at smaller ones as well.

“As our recruiting requirements have grown, we’ve caught up with the resources to expand recruiting,” said Michael Mau, the CIA recruiter who oversaw the visit to Vanguard. “We do all major universities, but now that we have more resources, we’re able to go to some of the smaller liberal arts colleges that we didn’t have the resources to go to before.”

Last fall, Mau and other representatives came to Vanguard for an information session on the CIA, speaking to around two dozen students. On Thursday, Mau and one other CIA official set out a table with fliers and pamphlets, outlining different intelligence careers and inviting Vanguard students to apply for internships.

Founded in 1920, Vanguard is a small four-year Christian university of about 2,300 students. It offers an array of liberal arts majors and often leads students on outreach missions to other countries. Rosanne Frielich, the university’s director of career services, said Vanguard’s curriculum is compatible with the intelligence field.

“A lot of our students are world travelers, just because of the kind of school we are,” she said. “Our students go on missions, and the CIA is looking for people who are comfortable in other countries, familiar with other languages and cultures. So I think our student body is just as viable as any other.”

Some of the students who stopped by to pick up materials had attended the information session last fall and said they were looking into careers with the CIA.

“I would say that it’s a crucial part of our future,” said Jon Primrose, a senior and business marketing major. “It’s a crucial aspect to sustain the American way of life against worldwide threats.”

Primrose, whose cousin is a special agent for the FBI, said he was thinking of applying to the CIA after his graduation from Vanguard next month. Hollywood, he said, had made intelligence work look thrilling, but there was a methodical side to it as well.

“Some of those spy movies are appealing,” he said. “From what I’ve heard, it’s not quite as glamorous as they make it out to be. At the end of the day, it’s a job, and you’re on a mission.”