Board of Visitors to hear comments on institute at Fort Benning

The Board of Visitors will meet Thursday at Fort Benning to review the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation’s performance over the last year.

Results of the annual meeting have been sent to Congress since the institute opened in January 2001 under a new name and curriculum. Composed of distinguished civilian and military leaders, the board meets from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Bradley Hall, Room 428, at 7301 Baltzell Ave. on Main Post, said Lee Rials, a spokesman for the institute.

It is the first meeting for Army Col. Robert Alvaro, who assumed duties in July as commandant of the school which trains more than 1,200 students a year from countries in the Western Hemisphere. The institute provides professional education and training to military, law enforcement and civilian personnel through 18 courses within the context of democratic principles.

The institute operated as the School of the Americas from 1984 to December 2000 at Fort Benning before the curriculum faced heavy scrutiny from critics. It has operated as the institute since 2001.

Rials said 11 of the 14 members from the board will be at Fort Benning, but four members of Congress will not attend. There will be high-level representatives from the U.S Northern Command, U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. A representative from the State Department, along with five of six members appointed by the Secretary of Defense, also will be on hand for the meeting.

The board will focus on curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs and methods of the institute and other matters the board decides to consider. “It’s going to be really a focus on what we have done and what we are hoping to do,” Rials said.

Every meeting of the Board of Visitors is open to the public. Anyone with questions for the board may speak during the public comment period from 10:30-11 a.m. Rials said Wednesday that no one was on the schedule to appear before the board.

“No one is on the public agenda now, but the board will hear comments,” Rials said. “The board will allow them to speak if anybody shows up.”

After the session at Fort Benning, Rials said the board will report findings in the form of minutes to the U.S. Congress.

The institute is operating under the 2018 fiscal budget. It operates on more than $10 million a year and is expected to train more than 1,200 students during the fiscal year.

This story was originally published November 1, 2017 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Board of Visitors to hear comments on institute at Fort Benning."