Board hears first-hand about WVU’s commitment to veteran-friendly programs

Posted on November 12, 2010 by WVCTA

Board hears first-hand about WVU’s commitment to veteran-friendly programs
November 12, 2010

Excerpt from article:

1st Lt. Jared Jones was all set to attend law school at West Virginia University in the fall of 2008 when he learned that his Army National Guard unit was being deployed to Afghanistan. In fact, the news of his law school acceptance came from President Emeritus-turned-Law Professor David Hardesty.

(Media-Newswire.com) – 1st Lt. Jared Jones was all set to attend law school at West Virginia University in the fall of 2008 when he learned that his Army National Guard unit was being deployed to Afghanistan. In fact, the news of his law school acceptance came from President Emeritus-turned-Law Professor David Hardesty.

“I’m excited, but I’ve just learned I’ve been called to deploy,” Jones said he told him.

Without hesitation, Jones said Hardesty gave him his e-mail address and cell phone number and arranged to meet him and walk him through what he needed to do to compete in the following year’s applicant pool and retain his scholarship and financial aid.

That’s just one example of the “caring, supportive attitude” the University shows veterans, Jones told WVU’s Board of Governors on a day that followed the nation’s observance of Veterans Day.

Before addressing a full business agenda Friday, the Board devoted much of its meeting to learning about the University’s “Veteran Friendly” atmosphere.

The University also has an active Veterans Advocate whose office helps solve financial aid and VA education benefit issues, class absences due to military responsibilities, deployment issues and other matters, and WVU’s Human Resources division encourages talented veteran applicants to apply for employment opportunities and offers a summit each year to further make outreach to veterans a priority.

“There is no doubt WVU is a veteran-friendly school,” Jones said. To tell you the truth, I haven’t the foggiest idea what the University’s official policy is on students missing class to perform military duty – because I’ve never had a professor with whom it was an issue. They just work with you.”

Today, Jones, at age 25, is the commanding officer of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ unit out of Parkersburg and is in his second year of a working on a dual JD/MBA degree. He is also vice president of the Veterans Law Caucus.

Vice President Ken Gray, Employment Director Trisha Gyurke and Veterans Advocate Terry Miller also addressed the Board on other ways WVU reaches out to its nearly 1,000 veteran students and employees, including:

Attending veteran job fairs;

Training employment staff, recruiters, admissions counselors and financial aid representatives to interpret military resumes (classifications, certifications, skills, responsibilities, etc.);

Advertising employment opportunities through the Army Reserve and National Guard Employee Partnership Initiative;

Offering a military leave policy, scholarships and payment plans;

Offering job search assistance to veterans and disabled student veterans to help them find part-time or summer jobs

Welcoming home deployed University staff by presenting them with certificates of appreciation on their return;

Offering a special military transition employment website:

http://employment.hr.wvu.edu/wvu_and_gi_jobs

Offering a special student veterans office website and advocate: http://wvuveterans.wvu.edu/;

Offering special transition classes for veterans and a Veterans Adventure West Virginia program;

Sponsoring a military breakfast on Veterans Day and designating it a “Day of Concern;”

Designation as a Yellow Ribbon school.

These efforts led to WVU being designated a “Military Friendly School” the past two years by GI Jobs magazine, and prompted a select visit by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Morgantown and WVU in the spring for a “Conversation with the Country” tour to promote veteran integration, Gyurke told the Board.

“Veterans are highly suited to work in a university setting,” Gyurke said. “Almost 81 percent of the jobs performed in the military have an equivalent position at a university, including finance, information technology, security, engineering, facilities and medical specialties.”

Gyurke added that President James P. Clements has lifted up the importance of hiring of women and minorities. She noted that women make up from 15-25 percent of the membership of each branch of the service and more than 41 percent of military members are minorities.

“WVU takes its commitment to military personnel seriously,” she said, “and believes it is the right thing to do – for our state, our university and for the returning soldiers that put their lives on the front line for our freedom.”

Miller said veterans are motivated, eager to succeed, goal setters and leaders, but more importantly, they bring a different perspective to campus.

“They are not the typical 18-year-old student coming out of mom and dad’s house for the first time,” he said. “They have life experiences that most of us will not have. These discussions can change the conversation in classrooms, adding depth and real world understanding.”

Gray said other veteran-related projects at WVU include: the West Virginia Veterans History Project to collect state veterans’ stories for the Library of Congress; a documentary film on the untold stories of African-American veterans; participation in the Take a Veteran to School Day program; a new exhibit and interactive website, launched this week, that examines the story of African American soldiers who migrated to McDowell County; research on post-traumatic stress disorder; and Extension “care packages” for veterans and their families.

-WVU-