Student Veterans receive campus aid and reinforcements in the Fall
John McKeown
Issue date: 6/23/09 Section: Student Life
University of Michigan-Flint students who have served in the military will be receiving help adjusting to college life this year.
Along with several other services for military veteran students, the campus has plans to implement a Veteran's Resource Center in the University Pavilion that will provide resources to war veteran students such as help finding tutors and financial aid. The center will even assist with off campus issues such as obtaining housing or business loans. The Resource Center started as a collaboration between the Veteran's Student Organization, Provost Jack Kay and faculty on campus as part of the SVPS (Student Veterans Support Program). Kay says that the Veteran's Resource Center will be a "one-stop shop" of sorts where veterans will be able to go for any of their needs, be it help or just somewhere to go.
Veteran's service organizations, such as the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the DAV (Disabled American Veterans), would be on hand in this resource center to provide aid and help veterans understand the benefits available to them. This room is approved to be constructed in the University Pavilion.
Jeremy Glasstetter, State Director of the SVA (Student Veterans of America) and UM-Flint junior organizational behavior major, started working on helping veteran students upon completing his service.
"In August 2008, I came back from Iraq and found that there was a deficiency here on campus with regards to veterans and their issues, and so, I established a student veteran organization."
Glasstetter says that one of the issues veteran students had to deal with was the lack of awareness on the campus's part in terms of what benefits they had access to, such as the Post 9/11 bill, which replaced the GI Bill. Another issue that the Veteran's Students Association had to address was that of counseling for incoming veterans.
"A lot of veterans return from combat, they may have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), they may have separation issues, they may have social issues dealing with general society, because they've been in a military environment for so long that it's more difficult for them to interact with the general population," Glasstetter said.
UM-Flint now offers revamped counseling services for those that need the help.
Along with this immediate help, Glasstetter says the College of Arts and Sciences has established a specific curriculum providing veterans with classes they can take to help them graduate this fall and winter.
The need for this counseling and help with re-acclimation is necessary because of the change veterans face coming from the military into college.
"College students have a freedom to come and go as they please, they can choose to not show up for a class if they want, they can choose to not study, they can come into a lecture hall and not pay attention to a professor, and that's tough for a veteran to swallow, because we're taught to be at a certain place, early, not at the time we're supposed to be there, ten minutes early," Glasstetter said.
"We're expected to come in, be prepared, focused and ready to go because in the military world, your life might depend upon what that professor's teaching you."
Provost Jack Kay, who, according to Glasstetter, was instrumental in many of the proceedings regarding veterans, feels it necessary for the campus to help its veteran students.
"Our veterans have served our country so well, and it really is time that the universities do everything that they can to serve our veterans, and so this is something we are very excited about," Kay said. "We think it's very important to do, and we're hoping that it's going to be a tremendous success and that we're going to see hundreds and hundreds of veterans on our campus."
Along with several other services for military veteran students, the campus has plans to implement a Veteran's Resource Center in the University Pavilion that will provide resources to war veteran students such as help finding tutors and financial aid. The center will even assist with off campus issues such as obtaining housing or business loans. The Resource Center started as a collaboration between the Veteran's Student Organization, Provost Jack Kay and faculty on campus as part of the SVPS (Student Veterans Support Program). Kay says that the Veteran's Resource Center will be a "one-stop shop" of sorts where veterans will be able to go for any of their needs, be it help or just somewhere to go.
Veteran's service organizations, such as the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the DAV (Disabled American Veterans), would be on hand in this resource center to provide aid and help veterans understand the benefits available to them. This room is approved to be constructed in the University Pavilion.
Jeremy Glasstetter, State Director of the SVA (Student Veterans of America) and UM-Flint junior organizational behavior major, started working on helping veteran students upon completing his service.
"In August 2008, I came back from Iraq and found that there was a deficiency here on campus with regards to veterans and their issues, and so, I established a student veteran organization."
Glasstetter says that one of the issues veteran students had to deal with was the lack of awareness on the campus's part in terms of what benefits they had access to, such as the Post 9/11 bill, which replaced the GI Bill. Another issue that the Veteran's Students Association had to address was that of counseling for incoming veterans.
"A lot of veterans return from combat, they may have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), they may have separation issues, they may have social issues dealing with general society, because they've been in a military environment for so long that it's more difficult for them to interact with the general population," Glasstetter said.
UM-Flint now offers revamped counseling services for those that need the help.
Along with this immediate help, Glasstetter says the College of Arts and Sciences has established a specific curriculum providing veterans with classes they can take to help them graduate this fall and winter.
The need for this counseling and help with re-acclimation is necessary because of the change veterans face coming from the military into college.
"College students have a freedom to come and go as they please, they can choose to not show up for a class if they want, they can choose to not study, they can come into a lecture hall and not pay attention to a professor, and that's tough for a veteran to swallow, because we're taught to be at a certain place, early, not at the time we're supposed to be there, ten minutes early," Glasstetter said.
"We're expected to come in, be prepared, focused and ready to go because in the military world, your life might depend upon what that professor's teaching you."
Provost Jack Kay, who, according to Glasstetter, was instrumental in many of the proceedings regarding veterans, feels it necessary for the campus to help its veteran students.
"Our veterans have served our country so well, and it really is time that the universities do everything that they can to serve our veterans, and so this is something we are very excited about," Kay said. "We think it's very important to do, and we're hoping that it's going to be a tremendous success and that we're going to see hundreds and hundreds of veterans on our campus."
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