{"id":131306,"date":"2017-11-10T08:28:34","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T13:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=131306"},"modified":"2017-11-21T12:36:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T17:36:38","slug":"uconn-values-contributions-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/11\/uconn-values-contributions-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Ranks High Among the Ranks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Within the higher education community, the University of Connecticut has achieved a reputation as an institution that values military veterans and reflects that through its programming and services.<\/p>\n<p>Ranked 24th\u00a0in the nation by <em>U.S. News &amp; World Report<\/em> for veterans\u2019 services this year, the University currently enrolls\u00a0about 550 veterans or current military service members, 120 military dependents and 110 ROTC students.\u00a0In addition, 200 faculty and staff members are veterans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUConn is a place where diversity is super-important, and veterans are seen as another way that makes the school vibrant,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/06\/decorated-combat-veteran-lead-uconns-veterans-programs\/\">U.S. Army Maj. Alyssa\u00a0Kelleher\u00a0\u201904 (CLAS)<\/a>, director of the Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs. \u201cThere is a real concern and care on how campus-wide decisions affect our veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs oversees programming for veterans, as well as building a sense of community on and off the UConn campuses.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/08\/uconn-extends-in-state-tuition-to-all-qualified-veterans\/\">In 2015<\/a>, UConn made it possible for veterans who use their service-related tuition benefits to attend the University, or send their dependents, to no longer face a deadline to enroll and receive the in-state rate. The new policy removed a federally enacted\u00a0three-year requirement, so that any qualified veterans and dependents whose legal residency is outside of Connecticut and who use veterans\u2019 educational benefits can receive the in-state rate at any time after discharge \u2013 even many years later.<\/p>\n<p>UConn also offers fee-based programs for free to veterans, beyond those covered by tuition. While some veterans are traditional-aged students, many are older, have families, mortgages, and jobs, says Kelleher. \u201cFee-based programs, such as the night school or summer classes, sometimes fit better in to their schedules.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of things that colleges have to offer veterans, but UConn goes above and beyond in many ways,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"grey-sidebar full-sidebar\">\n  <\/p>\n<h3>Donations Welcome<\/h3>\n<p>The Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs is currently conducting its Fifth Annual Care Package Drive with an emphasis on veterans in need. The primary beneficiaries will be the Home For The Brave in Bridgeport and the South Park Inn in Hartford. The office is collecting food (canned goods, non-perishable) and new clothing for residents. Items may be dropped off in a collection box located in Arjona Building, Room 343, from Nov. 13 through Dec. 8.<br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Sam Surowitz &#8217;16 (CLAS) is currently a graduate student in public administration and history and also the veterans program coordinator. An Army veteran with four years of active duty including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, he teaches a First-Year Experience class for veterans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome veteran students really identify with that part of who they are, like to hang out with other veterans, and join those types of organizations on campus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>A place for veterans to feel at home at UConn comes in a number of forms, including a special lounge in the Student Union and veterans student organizations for both undergraduate and graduate students. In addition to the Storrs main campus, there is also a veterans\u2019 liaison on every regional campus. At the newly opened Hartford campus, there is also a veterans\u2019 lounge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVeterans have served our country and our state,&#8221; says Kelleher, &#8220;they need and deserve our best every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ranked 24th in the country for veterans\u2019 services by U.S. News &#038; World Report this year, the University enrolls about 800 veterans, military service members, military dependents, and ROTC students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":113102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,92,174,2225,90,2227,2234,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2113],"class_list":["post-131306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-avery-point","category-uconn-hartford","category-uconn-stamford","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-waterbury","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-life","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:55:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131306"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131454,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131306\/revisions\/131454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/113102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131306"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=131306"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=131306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}