Serving soldiers are offered help
Veterans await campus support group
By Kacie Peterson
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Focus
Returning from the war-torn battlefields of faraway lands, veterans of the War on Terror must find ways to transition to the collegiate landscape of the classroom. Their adjustment hasn't gone unnoticed.
The Veteran's Support Committee formed in order to help both veterans and their families and friends cope with the possible stresses of separation during wartime.
Last May, SRU hosted the PASSHE Student Affairs Conference where the idea of a veterans' program was initially brought up.
"I was at the same conference," said Carla Hradisky-Coffelt, director of retention services. "This is what we need. The Pennsylvania National Guard has [about] 1,100 troops and there are a lot of readmits [into colleges]. Now is the perfect time. Guys are coming back from Iraq from this past summer."
Members of the group include Hradisky-Coffelt; Cathie Sadler, assistant director of Residence Life, Residential Education and Retention; Jamie Russell, assistant director of Residence Life, Living Learning Community Development; Karla Fonner, coordinator of Bridge Project and Women's Center, and Leighann Datt, coordinator of Judicial Programs.
"We have so many students involved in military, but they don't have a support system," Russell said. "There is help through financial aid and the G.I. Bill. And being a state school, there is more access for students. We get more people than other schools."
SRU has two residence hall floors for the living-learning community of outdoor adventures, students now in the military or returning from it and graduate or non-traditional students who may also be in that group of people who are done with military service, Russell said.
Students coming back from the war can be of various ages because of different times of enlistment.
"Some students are incoming freshmen who come in two weeks late because of boot camp," Hradisky-Coffelt said. "Some come back after taking a semester off. It's virtually impossible to do a four-year degree because you can get called up whenever. Back in the day you could, but not with the current situation."
The Veteran's Support Committee formed in order to help both veterans and their families and friends cope with the possible stresses of separation during wartime.
Last May, SRU hosted the PASSHE Student Affairs Conference where the idea of a veterans' program was initially brought up.
"I was at the same conference," said Carla Hradisky-Coffelt, director of retention services. "This is what we need. The Pennsylvania National Guard has [about] 1,100 troops and there are a lot of readmits [into colleges]. Now is the perfect time. Guys are coming back from Iraq from this past summer."
Members of the group include Hradisky-Coffelt; Cathie Sadler, assistant director of Residence Life, Residential Education and Retention; Jamie Russell, assistant director of Residence Life, Living Learning Community Development; Karla Fonner, coordinator of Bridge Project and Women's Center, and Leighann Datt, coordinator of Judicial Programs.
"We have so many students involved in military, but they don't have a support system," Russell said. "There is help through financial aid and the G.I. Bill. And being a state school, there is more access for students. We get more people than other schools."
SRU has two residence hall floors for the living-learning community of outdoor adventures, students now in the military or returning from it and graduate or non-traditional students who may also be in that group of people who are done with military service, Russell said.
Students coming back from the war can be of various ages because of different times of enlistment.
"Some students are incoming freshmen who come in two weeks late because of boot camp," Hradisky-Coffelt said. "Some come back after taking a semester off. It's virtually impossible to do a four-year degree because you can get called up whenever. Back in the day you could, but not with the current situation."
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