Spectator editorial: Getting credit
Soldier's father raises veteran's concerns at UW-Eau Claire
Spectator staff
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Editorial/Opinion
Soldiers serve our country, and universities need to help veterans as much as they can to make their transition back to everyday life a lot easier.
According to an April 17 Menomonie News Bureau article, a father of a west central Wisconsin soldier has challenged UW-Eau Claire to give veterans more college credit and requested a veterans center be opened on campus.
Marc Goulet, Eau Claire's interim associate dean of students, said the university is working to get a veteran's center, according to the article.
The university should support its veterans by allowing them to complete their service learning hours as well as waiving some foreign cultural and health credits.
However, this should be done on a case-to-case basis.
Soldiers would have to justify the credits they want to obtain by looking at their service record and matching relevant experience with required courses.
It should depend on what they have done in the military, and the university needs to find some kind of regulation to form clear guidelines that would avoid any gray areas.
This is something Eau Claire needs to look into more as the number of veterans returning from duty continues to rise.
Their services at the military need to correlate with classes at the university; giving them credits arbitrarily would defeat the whole purpose of giving them the education they deserve.
According to the article, the father also requested the firing of Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich and Provost Marty Wood for not providing better service to veterans.
It was unnecessary for the father to go over the top on his requests because he had a valid argument without them.
It's good that the university is doing all
it can to address veterans' concerns, but more needs to be done in regards to these credits.
According to an April 17 Menomonie News Bureau article, a father of a west central Wisconsin soldier has challenged UW-Eau Claire to give veterans more college credit and requested a veterans center be opened on campus.
Marc Goulet, Eau Claire's interim associate dean of students, said the university is working to get a veteran's center, according to the article.
The university should support its veterans by allowing them to complete their service learning hours as well as waiving some foreign cultural and health credits.
However, this should be done on a case-to-case basis.
Soldiers would have to justify the credits they want to obtain by looking at their service record and matching relevant experience with required courses.
It should depend on what they have done in the military, and the university needs to find some kind of regulation to form clear guidelines that would avoid any gray areas.
This is something Eau Claire needs to look into more as the number of veterans returning from duty continues to rise.
Their services at the military need to correlate with classes at the university; giving them credits arbitrarily would defeat the whole purpose of giving them the education they deserve.
According to the article, the father also requested the firing of Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich and Provost Marty Wood for not providing better service to veterans.
It was unnecessary for the father to go over the top on his requests because he had a valid argument without them.
It's good that the university is doing all
it can to address veterans' concerns, but more needs to be done in regards to these credits.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Benita Wagner
posted 4/27/09 @ 8:50 AM CST
Based on current policy, military students should review the Center for Service-Learning's guidebook which states:
STUDENTS with PRIOR MILITARY SERVICE may petition the Dean's Office of the UW-Eau Claire School/College in which they are enrolled to accept that military service as either partially or completely fulfilling the UW-Eau Claire graduation requirement. (Continued…)
Jared Leable
posted 4/29/09 @ 7:43 AM CST
I think the point of the service learning changes is that Vets shouldn't have to go and petetion whoever the dean of the college is for waiver of the service learning project. (Continued…)
leablej
Jared Leable
posted 4/29/09 @ 7:49 AM CST
I believe that what they want to change with the service learning for vets is that they want to make it an automatic waiver when you sign up for your GI bill through the vets service office. (Continued…)
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