CMU earns gold ranking for veteran services
After serving in the Navy for five years at bases in Hawaii and Virginia, Holly Mills is taking online classes this year at Central Michigan University.
She is one of thousands of student-veterans who can benefit from the variety of services at CMU. The university was recognized by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency for the 2015-16 academic year, ranking the highest level in their new Veteran-Friendly School program.
There are about 1,100 people total who utilize Government Issue benefits at CMU. On campus, the number of students who get benefits from the GI bill is about 350, according to the Veteran's Resource Center. People who use the GI bill is how the number of student-veterans are roughly measured, but it also includes family members of veterans and some other people who are not student-veterans.
Fifty-seven universities were ranked in bronze, silver or gold categories, based on their offering of seven services to student veterans and dependents. Of the seven services, CMU was lacking “monitoring and evaluation of student veteran job placement rates,” according to the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency website.
“We’ve had meetings with staff for career services on campus, and we’re working on getting a designated career services veteran,” said Associate Director for Compliance Strategies Ernie Bedford.
Bedford was part of the committee that created the Veterans Resource Center, and applied for CMU to be a part of the Veteran-Friendly School program in July.
“We were always a leader in being veteran-friendly,” said Nick Badgero, Peer Advisors for Veteran’s Education Director. “Being recognized by the MVAA makes it more recognizable nationwide.”
Badgero said the participation numbers for the Peer Advisors for Veteran’s Education have doubled this year compared to last. Attracting more on campus student-veterans was one of the goals Badgero highlighted on.
“We have a lot of new directors this year (at the Veterans’ Resource Center) and there are new things happening with this leadership and different avenues for success,” Badgero said.
One of those "avenues for success" is the ‘new orientation outreach program’ that took place before classes started this year. New student-veterans at CMU were introduced to the directors at the Veterans’ Resource Center and were educated about resources offered to them.
Student veterans like Mills might have never known about the Veterans’ Resource center if it were not for the orientation outreach program.
“Global campus has been involved in serving the military and veteran community for well over 40 years,” Bedford said. “We were one of the military schools that were on military bases as early as 1971.”
Veteran-Friendly School program criteria
Universities are awarded a bronze level if they offer three of the following services, silver level if they offer four and gold level if they offer six or more.
- On-campus veteran’s coordinator and/or staffed veterans center
- Active student-operated veteran club/association
- Established process for the identification of current student veterans
- Evaluation and awarding of credit for military training and experience
- Veteran-specific website/portal
- Monitoring and evaluation of student veteran academic retention, completion and graduation rates
- Monitoring and evaluation of student veteran job placement rates
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