NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The state Senate Education Committee heard testimony Wednesday (Jan.
17) on the innovative and leading efforts by Middle Tennessee State University
to retain and support the almost 1,000 veterans and military family members
enrolled at the Murfreesboro campus.
Mike Krause, executive director of the Tennessee
Higher Education Commission, and Keith Huber, a retired Army lieutenant general
who helped found MTSU’s Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family
Center, detailed to senators the university’s commitment to veterans during a
joint appearance before the Senate panel.
Krause, himself an Army veteran, told senators that
one of THEC’s jobs was to “make sure our institutions … are, bottom line, doing
the right thing for serving student veterans.”
To that point, Krause told senators that the number
of veterans using the GI Bill at Tennessee universities has increased by 116
percent over the last 10 years, from about 5,000 in Spring 2007 to 10,852 in
Spring 2017.
“We view the coming years as a great opportunity
(for Tennessee higher education) to become a leader in serving student
veterans,” Krause said.
He applauded the various public and private colleges
and universities, including MTSU, who have qualified for designation in the
Tennessee Veterans Transition Support Program, which rewards institutions that
develop and maintain a certain level of services for student veterans.
Krause also invited Huber, MTSU’s senior adviser for
veterans and leadership initiatives, to speak to the committee to show an
example of how “there are institutions in this state that have gone far beyond
the minimum.”
MTSU, he said, was one such institution. Krause said
Huber “has been leading what has become a nationally recognized effort to make
sure student veterans coming on campus are coached, mentored and get out the
door with a diploma.”
Further, he said, MTSU has added career placement options
for veterans that allow many students to “go out the door with a degree and go
directly into a job.”
Huber thanked MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee for
providing the resources needed for the university to take a leadership role in
serving student veterans.
The general credited McPhee for green-lighting his
recommendation for creating the largest dedicated center for veterans and
military families at a Tennessee university, which attracted the support of
country music legend Charlie Daniels and his wife, Hazel, for whom the center
is named.
“If President McPhee had not provided the space, or
funding, or support, it would not have happened,” Huber said.
The challenge, the retired general told the
senators, is creating an environment where a campus is not defined as
veteran-friendly by merely having space for recreational activities. At MTSU,
he said, the veterans center is devoted to services that help veterans succeed
on campus.
Veterans, Huber said, are on campus “for their next
mission, their next task. Education is the key to a better life and they want
to gain that education and continue to provide for their family. They want to
be a leader in their community and in the business world, as they were in
uniform.”
That’s why MTSU’s veterans center, led by its
director, Hilary Miller, also focuses on establishing relationships with area
employers and deploying resources to align veterans to job openings, Huber
added.
State Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, chair of
the Senate Education Committee and a retired U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel,
said she was delighted that Huber testified before the body. “We are honored that
you are serving MTSU and Tennessee veterans while you are down there,” she
said.
State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, allowed by
Gresham to sit in on Huber’s testimony, thanked Huber for his intervention in
the case of a veteran he championed who was seeking help in enrolling as an
MTSU student.
“I know when Dr. McPhee approached him, (Huber) said
he wasn’t going to be a token general,” Ketron said. “If he was going to do it,
he was going to do it right.”
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