By: Rachel Nelson
www.universitystar.com
When it comes to military friendliness, Texas State makes the grade.
G.I. Jobs magazine recently named the school among the nation’s top 15 percent of military friendly colleges.
“We’re very excited about it,” said assistant registrar Melissa Hyatt. The honor stems from a survey taken from more than 7,000 schools. G.I. Jobs considered the efforts of institutions to recruit and retain military and veteran students as well as academic accreditation.
“I’m not surprised by it because of the great things people around campus are doing, and I think it’s well-deserved by the university,” said Chris Schave, international business junior and veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
Texas State has taken several different initiatives to accommodate veterans, Hyatt said.
“We have the Veterans Affairs Office, whose primary focus is to assist veterans for getting benefits through the VA,” Hyatt said. “We assist them with applying for financial aid and that kind of stuff.”
Besides financial aid advising, the university offers personal counseling, provides job placement assistance and free tutoring to veterans. The university held a resource fair Sept. 9 at the LBJ Student Center that had several booths geared toward veterans, Hyatt said.
Schave said veterans were welcomed to campus this semester with approximately 3,000 feet of yellow ribbon, which was displayed by the Office of Student Affairs on behalf of the Veterans Advisory Board.
“The yellow ribbons were used to welcome (veterans) back and give awareness to students and veterans, and kind of a way to say thank you for your service and welcome to the school,” Schave said.
Schave is president of the Veteran’s Alliance at Texas State, an organization sparked last winter.
“Essentially we try to help incoming and current veterans adapt to the university life,” Schave said.
The group organizes social events so that veterans can find a place to fit in.
“Often they’ll be older coming back to school, so they may not feel like they fit in with a bunch of 18, 19 and 20 year olds,” Schave said.
Schave said the Veteran’s Advisory Board was developed last year and is comprised of faculty members from offices that deal with veteran outreach.
“They identify the needs of veterans and see if it’s reasonable to fulfill them as a university,” Schave said. “Not many universities have a group like this, and every body’s so pro-veteran and willing to do their share to help us out.”
Hyatt said Texas State will be offering a workshop for veterans Oct. 1 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in JCK1100. The workshop, “Transition from Combat to Classroom: Helping Student Veterans Succeed at Texas State,” will focus on helping veterans achieve a smooth transition from military to college life.
Physical geography alumnus David Rasmussen graduated from Texas State in May and is now on active duty in the Army as a gold bar recruiter for Texas State’s ROTC program. Rasmussen said he believes Texas State accommodates veterans “very well.”
“We have a lot of veterans who come to school here,” he said. “ I would say maybe 40 percent of the guys in ROTC are veterans. Texas State is a really good school, and they do a lot for the (ROTC) program. They help out the program by helping us use their facilities .”
Rasmussen said Texas State also honors veterans with an annual Veteran’s Day ceremony. This year the ceremony will be held at 10:45 a.m. Nov. 11 in The Quad and will include guests and speakers. Schave said recognition in G.I. Jobs is an honor to the university but acknowledged a desire to be better.
“We are not satisfied with the top 15 percent,” he said. “We want to be in the top 1 percent.”
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