G.I. Jobs magazine salutes WCU
Western Carolina University has been named a top “military-friendly school” for the second consecutive year by G.I. Jobs magazine and will be listed in the publication’s Guide to Military Friendly Schools, to be issued in September.
The list, announced today (Monday, Aug. 16) honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s military members and veterans as students, said Rich McCormack, G.I. Jobs publisher.
The magazine polled more than 7,000 state schools nationwide in determining the results, examining criteria such as efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, results in recruiting military and veteran students, and academic accreditations.
“We’re proud to receive this national recognition of Western Carolina’s continuing efforts to provide high-quality educational opportunities to our students who are currently serving in the military and to our veteran student population,” said Regis Gilman, interim dean of WCU’s Division of Educational Outreach, which houses the Office of Military Education.
“We are committed to helping military students wherever they are located, whether stationed overseas, serving as reservists and guardsmen, or home with their loved ones after serving their country,” Gilman said.
Among WCU’s military-friendly practices are a centralized office dedicated to meeting the needs of military transfer students, flexible transfer policies, a variety of class schedules and delivery methods, clearly defined withdrawal and leave of absence policies for military students, and membership in the Servicemembers Opportunity College, said Charles Gross, WCU’s director of military education.
About 300 military students were enrolled at WCU during the spring semester, studying in 39 undergraduate and 17 graduate degree programs, Gross said. “Our specialized online degree programs in emergency and disaster management, emergency medical care, criminal justice and project management are especially popular among our students with military experience,” he said.
“With the enhanced benefits of the new GI Bill, which can now be transferred to spouses and college-aged children, we also are seeing a significant increase in the number of military students enrolled in on-campus programs, something we are very excited about,” Gross said.
Derek Blumke, president of Student Veterans of America and a member of the GI Jobs academic advisory board that helped develop the methodology, said the listing is a valuable tool to help military students make important decisions regarding higher education.
“The Military Friendly Schools list is the gold standard in letting veterans know which schools will offer them the greatest opportunity, flexibility and overall experience,” Blumke said. “It’s especially important now with so many schools competing for military students.”
The Military Friendly School List for 2011 can be found at www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/2011list.
For more information on attending WCU as a military student, contact Gross in the Division of Educational Outreach at 828-227-7397 or toll-free at 866-928-4723, or via e-mail at cgross@wcu.edu.
