Veterans look to receive transfer credit at MU

The university might accept credit for military experience.

By Evan Spaulding

Published March 30, 2009

As the U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan continues, many veterans are returning home to start their civilian lives and attend college, including at MU.

At some institutions, such as Penn State University and the University of Minnesota, veterans are allotted transfer credit for their professional military education. MU's policy is to not accept transfer credits, but the Missouri Students Association and the Mizzou Student Veteran's Association are working to change this policy and make MU a "veteran friendly campus."

"The basic thing is that a lot of people in the military join for one reason or another, but many people intend to return to a campus and go to school," MSVA President Daniel Sewell said. "A lot of things change during an enlistment and the academic world is foreign to many veterans. It's important to have a veteran friendly campus to ensure that the returning veteran gets the right first step in their academic career."

The MSVA is a student organization designed to promote camaraderie between veterans on campus and to help veterans assimilate into civilian life as seamlessly as possible.

"It's a place to call home," MSVA Vice President Billy Froeschner said. "It's the first time a lot of people feel at home at the University of Missouri, to include myself."

Last year, Chancellor Brady Deaton convened a yearlong task force to investigate veteran's affairs on campus and to determine in what ways MU could move toward becoming more veteran friendly.

The task force, which concluded at the beginning of this year, yielded a 60-page report that outlined several issues on campus, one of which was the acceptance of transfer credit from accredited military training and education.

Active and reserve duty personnel have access to programs such as the Sailor-Marine American Council on Education Registry Transcript, which is an academic transcript, designed to help veterans obtain college credit for military experience. MU does not universally accept this transcript, although some veterans have received credit, Sewell said.

Sewell said military specialists such as medical personnel or engineers end up retaking many courses for which they already have extensive, highly technical military training.

The refusal to grant transfer credit is one of many hurdles that veterans face when returning to school.

"The biggest barrier to being a successful student veteran is getting back into college," Froeschner said. "And the fact is that we're 22- to 25-year-old people with five or six years of life experience in class with 18- and 19-year-olds who are worried about moving out of mom and dad's house."

Froeschner said a veteran friendly campus would only help MU. With the economy in decline, many students are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for college, but veterans have access to the GI Bill and other funding and are able to attend school. Froeschner said if MU changes its policy toward military transfer credit, the recruitment of veterans to MU will increase.

On March 10, MSA passed a resolution to grant college transfer credit for military education and training and has resolved to work with the Veteran Friendly Campus Advisory Board to determine an appropriate process for the submission and review of military transcripts.

Senator Phyllis Williams said MSA hoped the bill would show the administration there is student support behind accepting military transfer credit.