News That Impacts Your Career

Recent Developments in Contracting
DFARS, FAR and the EPA have recently issued rules changes and proposals.

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New Program Management Credential Introduced
The Project Management Institute (PMI) has introduced the Program Management Professional (PgMP) credential, designed for professionals to demonstrate their program and project management skills.

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How Does AGU Measure Up?
AGU scores a 99% satisfaction rate among students and consistently excels among DETC schools.

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AGU Update

AGU Launches New Services
In a continuing effort to improve services for our students and faculty, AGU has added two new capabilities.

New Student Portal
New Online Library Services

Student Spotlight:
MCM candidate earned a 4.0 GPA and recently started her own federal procurement consulting business.

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News That Impacts Your Career

Recent Developments in Contracting

DFARS, FAR and the EPA have recently issued these rule changes and proposals:

• A DFARS final rule (212.102) specifies that when using FAR Part 12 procedures for acquisitions totaling $1 million in value, the contracting officer must determine in writing that the acquisition meets the commercial item definition in FAR 2.101.

• An interim rule has been issued to the DFARS to implement Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 to require DOD to modify regulations regarding the assessment of program risk in the determination of contract type.

• The Environmental Protection Agency has amended the EPA Acquisition Regulation to add policies, procedures and contract clauses for use of award term incentives. Also, the EPAÌs new forum for contract appeals is the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals.

• Proposals have been made to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to limit the length of contracts awarded noncompetitively under unusual and compelling urgent circumstances to the minimum contract period necessary to meet the requirements, and no longer than one year unless approved by the head of the contracting activity. Persons interested in keeping up with developments in acquisition and contracting should regularly visit ÏWhere in Federal ContractingÓ (www.wifcon.com). This website is an excellent source of information in all aspects of government contracting.

New Program Management Credential Introduced
The Project Management Institute (PMI) has introduced the Program Management Professional (PgMP) credential. The PgMP credential is designed for professionals to demonstrate their program and project management skills. Persons achieving the PgMP designation must successfully complete a multi-stage knowledge, skills and experience assessment process.

Applicants for the PgMP credential must complete: (1) a comprehensive application process including a review of education and professional work experience; (2) a four-hour examination that measures knowledge and skills; and (3) an assessment by a team of colleagues and peers evaluates the applicantÌs performance as a program manager.

Applicants for the PgMP credential do not have to hold the PMP or CAPM credential. For further information, please go to www.pmi.org.

How Does AGU Measure Up?
Quality – Founded in 1976 and nationally accredited, AGU is a member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) to ensure rigorous standards focusing on quality of education and learning outcomes are met. DETC schools score high in student satisfaction, and AGU consistently excels among DETC schools.

Cost – Tuition is $750 per course ($250 per unit). This includes all textbooks and study guides. This is one of the best values in education.

Value – AGU helps you attain professional certifications and maintain other mandated and voluntary training requirements while you work on your graduate degree.

AGU Update

New Student Portal
Student personal information, unofficial transcript and online library services are available by logging into the Student Portal in the Student Center. Students must enter their student number and password. This information was given to them in their acceptance package. Please contact student services at studentservices@agu.edu if help is needed.

Students can change their personal information (address, phone number, e-mail address, etc.) by logging into the student portal and making the corrections.

Current grades can be accessed from the student portal. Grades can also be printed out in an unofficial transcript format.

New Online Library Services
American Graduate University is now a member of the Library and Information Resources Network (LIRN). This on-line library service is accessible through the AGU Student Portal in the website’s Student Center.

LIRN provides a core library collection with access to:

• Gale/InfoTrac: Business and Company Resource Center with PROMT and Newsletters, Computer Database, Custom Newspapers (contains full text articles from 128 newspapers), Expanded Academic ASAP, Gale Virtual Reference Library, General Business File ASAP, Health and Wellness Resource Center and Alternative Health Module, Health Reference Center Academic, InfoTrac LegalTrac, InfoTrac OneFile, Literature Resource Center, Newsletters ASAP, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, and the Student Resource Center-Gold.

• ProQuest: ABI/INFORM Dateline, ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, National Newspaper Abstracts, ProQuest Psychology Journals, and ProQuest Research Library (with 15 subject modules).

• eLibrary: Selected periodicals, reference books, maps, pictures, newspapers from around the world, and transcripts of news and public affairs broadcasts.

• Bowker: Books in Print

Access to the student portal is 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Student Spotlight MCM candidate earned a 4.0 GPA and recently started her own federal procurement consulting business. Leslie D. Williams is a Certified Public Accountant with 18 years of government contracting experience. Leslie began her career as an Auditor with the Defense Contract Audit Agency. After 10 years as an Auditor, she joined the industry side of the table as a Chief Financial Officer of what is now the very successful Alaska Native Corporation. After taking American Graduate UniversityÌs Earned Value Management seminar, she applied for AGUÌs graduate program to round out her experience and education. Leslie earned her Master of Contract Management degree with a 4.0 GPA and achieved one of the highest scores ever earned on the AGU comprehensive examination. Leslie has recently started her own consulting business specializing in assisting small businesses entering the world of federal procurement. She performs as DCAA liaison, develops policies and procedures, prepares and reviews proposals along with a myriad of financial and contract management services. Leslie loves to travel, but spends as much time as possible improving her handicap on the golf courses of Alaska. ÏAGUÌs distance learning program has allowed me to integrate what I learned on the job into a more logical understanding of federal procurement and has provided me a library of resources to use.Ó

Advance Your Career With AGU

AGU Course Receives Equivalency for Three DAU Courses
American Graduate University has achieved equivalency for its Course 601, ÏFederal Government Contracting,Ó for several Defense Acquisition University courses. The DAU courses are CON 110, ÏMission Support Planning,Ó CON 111, ÏMission Planning Execution,Ó and CON 112, ÏMission Performance Assessment.Ó AGU students completing the 30 module distance education course will receive credit for the three DAU courses. AGU Course 601 includes coverage on:

In addition, AGU staff and faculty are working on developing new distance courses to apply for equivalency for DAU courses CON 216, “Legal Consideration in Contracting,” and CON 217, “Cost Analysis and Negotiation Techniques.”

Please watch for future announcements.

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