Deaton seeks ideas to make MU campus 'veteran-friendly'
Published Aug. 28, 2007
The Chancellor's Task Force for a Veteran-Friendly Campus, which aims to relieve problems faced by veterans at MU, met for the first time Monday to discuss goals for the committee. The university has been criticized for placing extra burdens on veterans returning from active duty.
The newly conceived task force is meant to ease the transition for returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as students in the National Guard and Reserves that are being called up for active duty, said Roger Worthington, assistant to the deputy chancellor and committee co-chairman.
"The task force is important because we expect to have an increasing number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and need help to reintegrate them into MU," Worthington said. "We want to make sure it's a veteran-friendly campus."
He also said it was important to remember the focus is not only on students but faculty, as well.
Worthington said many of the committee's 21 members have prior or current military experience. Three student veterans, several faculty and staff veterans and two ROTC members are members of the task force. The committee also includes Syed Husain, an expert in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Worthington said.
Worthington said during the meeting that Chancellor Brady Deaton was very interested in seeing the task force move quickly. Its task, he said, would be to evaluate the every aspect of student life, from admissions to financial concerns, to alleviate difficulties encountered by service personnel.
Many members expressed a personal investment in the success of the task force.
"It bothers me very greatly that some people wonder if they are welcome at MU," said Donna Pavlick, School of Law dean of admissions.
Mizzou Student Veterans Association President Gerald Caetano said it was tough to "transition from going 100 mph dodging roadside bombs to dodging people at Speaker's Circle."
The group discussed basic goals members said they hope to accomplish and how the committee would function in the future. The possibility of dividing into subcommittees was discussed and widely accepted.
Committee co-chairpersons Carol Fleischer and Lee Henson said they had looked at Mississippi State University and Chapel Hill University as possible models for the future of the task force. Auburn University was also mentioned.
Henson also talked of working with the other schools in the UM system.
"We are the flagship," he said. "If we're going to use that metaphor, we should be talking to the other people in the fleet."
For many veterans applying to the university, MU offers very little in the way of assistance.
"There are no scholarships, no money for Purple Hearts," Fleisher said.
Fleisher also told stories of soldiers calling from overseas and wondering what MU can offer them, and the school not being able to offer them anything. She said that she hopes the task force will become the pilot program in Missouri. She said much reform in the way of scholarships available would require state legislation.
She also said she was concerned about MU's current transfer credit policy. She said MU accepts no military transfer credits, and that even medics have to restart in nursing programs.
"We categorically say no," she said, "We don't even look at the transcript."
She explained that this was due to an incompatibility with military and college courses. Marty Walker, director of administrative services at the College of Engineering, said some exceptions were made in individual circumstances.
MU has about 250 veterans of the Missouri National Guard and Reserves, ranging in age from 18 to 54 years of age, Fleisher said.
