DAU Celebrates 40 Years of Developing Acquisition Professionals

Throughout the summer and culminating with the October annual conference, DAU is celebrating 40 years of developing acquisition professionals. The celebration acknowledges the path of quality acquisition training begun in 1971 with opening of the Defense Systems Management School, its transition to the Defense Systems Management College, and the institutional consolidation that formed Defense Acquisition University.   

The anniversary celebration is fully explored online in a DAU history website launched in August. The website [http://www.dau.mil/history/default.aspx] details the account of the evolution of DAU, a trivia page, and a look at DAU leadership through the years. It also will serve as the virtual home of the acquisition History Wall. The physical version of the wall will be unveiled at the October conference and housed in the Packard Center.

A contest held via the DAU Facebook page [http://www.facebook.com/Defense.Acquisition.University] asked users to vote on several submitted logo designs to commemorate the anniversary. The winning design was created by DAU contractor Nader Hadjebi, a Senior Web Developer at Advanced Technology Solutions, Inc. The logo was used to create commemorative t-shirts and sports bottles to be sold as fundraising memorabilia. All funds will benefit the Rock the Quad festivities at the annual conference.

To mark this milestone at headquarters, DAU has launched several fundraising events to heighten awareness of the anniversary including several Wear Jeans to Work Days, a bake sale and movie day featuring a documentary on D-Day, a leadership parking space auction, as well as event sponsorship and a fundraising sale booth at AT&L Sports Day held at Fort Belvoir.