Notes From The Edge - Military Times Edge

Support for service member and veteran students is at an all-time high on college and university campuses across the nation.

Last month, I reported that $6 million for student veterans centers was to be included in the 2010 Education Department budget. But not every school is sitting back to wait for the federal money. Many excellent veterans programs already are in existence, with more coming online seemingly every day. Some recent additions:

* The University of North Texas Veterans Center
* The University of Louisville Office of Military and Veteran Student Services
* The University of Michigan-Flint Student Veterans Support Center

The purpose of such centers is to assist veterans with the transition from service member to student, and to put access to all the tools, departments and programs that promote academic success under one roof.

As part of a story for an upcoming issue of EDGE, I recently spoke to Andrew Rendon, director of the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Center for America’s Veterans at Mississippi State University. Rendon made an excellent point about the importance of making schools veteran-friendly for the long term.

“We are at war right now,” he said. “There is a lot of emphasis on helping veterans. But someday when the war goes away, there won’t be as much emphasis on helping veterans. That’s why we need to right now work on making universities and departments become more veteran-friendly.”

If schools and their individual departments and programs become more attuned to the needs of veteran students, he said, the need for separate veterans centers may go away. “You need [veterans centers],” Rendon said. “But you need the departments on campus to continue to change their policies and become more veteran-friendly.”

Readers, what do you think? Do you see a future in which schools become so attuned to the needs and interests of student veterans that the need for veterans centers goes away?