Journal of Higher Learning for Today’s Servicemember
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Military Advanced Education
April 2011
Volume 6 • Issue 3
Features
Cover / Q&A
Minor Matters
6
Some universities believe that an academic minor can
make a student a valuable asset in the workplace, and
some maintain that having a minor reflects someone who
is versatile and well-rounded. Is it possible to be definitive
on the matter?
By Kelly Matlock
Awards for Excellence
9
Grants to enhance services for veteran students are
earning high marks on campuses. Last year, the
Department of Education awarded 15 grants, with an
average value of $396,000, to fund Centers of Excellence
for Veteran Student Success on college campuses.
By Melanie Scarborough
Carol A. Berry, Ed.D.
Smart Growth
12
How can campus expansion boost enrollments and
prestige while forging new partnerships and fueling
economic growth? NYU wants to expand its physical
plant by 40 percent, and GMU is in the final stages of
completing a multi-million dollar redevelopment project.
By Mark Fitzgerald
From A to B
22
17
Supply chain management involves overseeing virtually
the entire industrial progression, from raw materials to
finished and delivered merchandise. It might not be the
most glamorous position in the business world, but it very
well could be the most important.
By J.B. Bissell
Director
Defense Activity for Non-Traditional
Education Support
Departments
2 Editor’s Perspective
4 Program Notes
5 People
14 Class Notes
26 Money Talks
27 Calendar, Directory
Credentials for the Workplace
24
Competition among job seekers has spiked. It’s an
employer’s market, and those with hiring power are getting
more specific about the qualifications they seek. As a
result, students are enrolling in certificate programs to
give them a competitive edge.
By Celeste Altus
University Corner
28
S. David Vaillancourt
Online Director of Education
Ultimate Medical Academy
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Military Advanced
Education
Volume 6, Issue 3 April 2011
Journal of Higher Learning for Today’s
Servicemember
Editorial
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Mark Fitzgerald markf@kmimediagroup.com
Managing Editor
Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com
Senior Copy Editor
Laura Davis laurad@kmimediagroup.com
Copy Editor
Kat Saunders kats@kmimediagroup.com
Correspondents
Celeste Altus • J.B. Bissell • Kenya McCullum
Kelly Matlock • Melanie Scarborough
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We live in a world where short-term answers and quick fixes have
become the norm, where expedience and bottom lines take precedence over
profound thinking and sustainable choices. People don’t read enough, let
alone write. Attention spans are fleeting. Abbreviation has trumped clear and
effective communication.
Yet there is a good argument that employers need people who have the
ability and willingness to read diligently, write well and listen carefully. Even
reading for pleasure on a weekly basis can lead to higher levels of academic
achievement, cultural engagement, voting and voluntarism, according to a
report, “To Read or Not to Read,” by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mark Fitzgerald
“Cold statistics confirm something that most readers know but have mostly
Editor
been reluctant to declare as fact,” the report notes. “Books change lives for
the better.”
Essay scores on the Graduate Management Admission Test fell to 4.4 out of 6 in 2010, down from 4.7 in
2007, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council. Sharon Washington, executive director of the
National Writing Project, believes U.S. high schools and undergraduate programs have de-emphasized writing
instruction. “The good news about texting is that at least people are writing more,” she said.
Last month, the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences was charged with creating an
actionable plan for those in government, education and philanthropy to strengthen teaching and research in
the humanities and social sciences. The challenge will be to convey in concrete terms how pursuing studies
in literature, language, history, philosophy, religion and the arts can translate into employability, economic
advancement and, ultimately, demand. Only about 12 percent of bachelor’s degrees earned in 2009 were in the
humanities, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reported.
“We are advocating on behalf of a certain way of thinking,” Edward Hirsch, president of the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, remarked recently at the Symposium on the Future of the Humanities.
“Our job is not to sell something. It’s to advocate for something that can’t be sold.”
Yet at a time when executives and politicians are struggling to balance budgets and thinking seriously about
cutting programs in the humanities, wouldn’t it be
prudent to find some common ground and begin
speaking in a language they can understand?
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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
P RO G R AM NO T ES
GAO Encourages Improved
Support for Veterans
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs to improve
the outreach and support it provides to military veterans who receive
federal education benefits, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
said in a recent report. The report examined the agency’s process for
making veterans aware of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and other veterans’
education programs and for ensuring that schools and veterans meet
eligibility rules, among other things, and found room for improvement
in some areas.
“Although VA has resumed its audits, there are indications that it may
not be able to complete all required audits in fiscal year 2011,” the report
reads. “Moreover, VA does not compile and review findings from its own
or other entities’ audits of schools that would, going forward, allow it to
identify trends and better target its oversight of schools. GAO recommends
that VA establish outcome-oriented performance measures for outreach
and support activities; improve communication with school officials;
and undertake a systematic review of its oversight of SAAs and schools.
VA concurred with four recommendations and concurred in principle
with one recommendation aimed at strengthening oversight. VA noted
a number of actions already taken in this area. GAO encourages VA to
address all aspects of this recommendation moving forward.”
Tenure Legislation Introduced
in Florida
Lawmakers in Florida introduced legislation that would bar community
colleges in the state from awarding tenure to faculty members. The Legislature has
already approved a ban on multiyear contracts for elementary and secondary school
teachers, effectively ending tenure in the state’s K-12 system.
Dean Cannon, the speaker of the House, said he had heard interest from
community college presidents in applying the idea to their institutions, and believed
the idea had “merit.” Although many Florida community colleges now offer fouryear degrees (and some have stopped calling themselves community colleges), the
legislation would apply to all 28 institutions in the Florida College System, regardless
of whether they have four-year programs.
Ed Mitchell, executive director of the United Faculty of Florida, a statewide
faculty union affiliated with both the American Federation of Teachers and the
National Education Association, said that the organization was taking the legislation “very seriously” in light of the strong anti-tenure views expressed by legislators. He said that several Democratic legislators said they were opposed to the bill,
but that the Republicans have sufficient strength to pass the legislation without
Democratic support.
About 75 percent of full-time faculty members at Florida’s colleges currently
have tenure, and about 25 percent are on track to tenure. Mitchell pointed out that
tenure did not mean that faculty members do not have accountability. Tenure is
awarded after reviews, he said, and procedures are set by the various colleges. “It’s not
a job for life,” he recognized. “It just means that you have a continuing employment
contract that requires just cause for termination.”
Panel Proposes MCAT Overhaul
A panel of medical educators assembled by the Association of
American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has proposed an overhaul of
the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), including changes
that could encourage would-be doctors to take more social science
courses as undergraduates. Part of the rationale is that these
courses might allow minority and disadvantaged students to have
better tools to highlight their strengths.
The overhaul would include removing the writing section of the
test, which officials said has largely been ignored by medical school
admissions committees. But even with the writing test gone, the
changes would add up to a significantly longer MCAT, with the 5.5
hour exam expected to increase by 90 minutes.
A number of parts on the MCAT wouldn’t change, including the
centrality of sections on the biological and physical sciences.
The proposal will undergo months of review by the AAMC, which
runs the MCAT. At this point, the likely launch for a revamped MCAT
is 2015, 25 years after the last round of changes in the test.
The new MCAT would include the following four sections:
Molecular, cellular and organismal properties of living systems;
physical, chemical and biochemical properties of living systems;
behavioral and social sciences principles; and critical analysis and
reasoning skills.
The first two sections are largely adapted from the current
4 | MAE 6.3
MCAT, although some of the science would be updated, and the
proposal calls for more regular updates. A verbal section that has
been part of the test will be transformed into the critical analysis
section, and the behavioral and social sciences section will take the
place of a general writing section.
Steven G. Gabbe, chair of the committee that drafted the plan
and senior vice president for health affairs at Ohio State University,
said the proposed changes, especially the increased emphasis on the
social sciences, reflected the evolving nature of medicine.
“It’s very clear that in this country a large proportion of illness
is related to behavior and social and cultural problems,” he said.
“So we want to encourage the applicant to medical school to be
thinking about those and reading about those early.” Gabbe recalled
that, as an undergraduate, he took a course in “social disorganization,” and he said that the topics discussed—poverty, alcoholism
and drug abuse, among others—are subjects future doctors need
to understand.
The message for undergraduates and their advisers is “that
you do need a solid foundation in the sciences, but you need more
than that,” he added. “You need to think critically and reason, and
understand the differences in our society and the patients you see
as a physician. We need people who are critical thinkers and people
who have sensitivity and understanding of different cultures.”
www.MAE-kmi.com
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
p e op le
has been named provost, dean
of faculty, and professor of
engineering at Olin College of
Engineering, Massachusetts.
John Jackson
John Jackson, executive
director of Thriving Churches
International and executive
pastor at Bayside Church in
California, has been appointed
president of William Jessup
University, California.
Mark Braun
Mark Braun, senior vice
president for academic affairs
and dean of the college at
Augustana College, South
Dakota, has been appointed
provost and dean of the
college at Gustavus Adolphus
College, Minnesota.
Alecia A. DeCoudreaux,
vice president and general
counsel at Eli Lilly and Co.,
in Indiana, has been selected
as president of Mills College,
California.
Vincent P. Manno, associate provost and professor of
mechanical engineering at
Tufts University, Massachusetts,
www.MAE-kmi.com
of Garden City Community
College, Kansas.
sion at Rhode Island School of
Design, has been named president of Massachusetts College
of Art and Design.
Bill Greer, vice president for
institutional advancement at
Milligan College, Tennessee,
has been promoted to president there.
Patrick D. Reynolds, professor
of biology and interim dean of
faculty at Hamilton College, New
York, has been promoted to dean
of faculty on a permanent basis.
Barbara K. Mistick
Karan L. Watson, interim
provost and vice president for
academic affairs at Texas A&M
University’s main campus, has
been named to the job on a
permanent basis.
Peter K. Dorhout, vice
provost for graduate affairs
and assistant vice president
for research at Colorado State
University-Fort Collins, has
been chosen as provost and
vice president for academic
affairs at Colorado State
University-Pueblo.
J. Anthony (Tony)
Fernandez, interim president
of Lewis-Clark State College,
Idaho, has been appointed on
a permanent basis.
Linda Kristjanson, deputy
vice chancellor for research
and development at Curtin
University, Australia, has
been named vice chancellor
and president at Swinburne
University of Technology,
Australia.
Herbert Swender, president of
Frank Phillips College, Texas,
has been appointed president
Barbara K. Mistick, president of the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has
been selected as president of
Wilson College, Pennsylvania.
Christopher M. Duncan,
dean of the McAnulty College
and Graduate School of
Liberal Arts at Duquesne
University, Pennsylvania,
has been named provost at
Wittenberg University, Ohio.
Paul Ferguson, provost and
vice chancellor for academic
affairs and a professor of
pharmacology and toxicology
at Southern Illinois University,
Edwardsville, has been
appointed president of the
University of Maine at Orono.
Michael Fiorentino Jr.,
executive vice president and
provost of Fitchburg State
University, Massachusetts,
has been chosen as president
of Lock Haven University of
Pennsylvania.
Dawn Barrett, dean of the
architecture and design divi-
Ron Jones, dean of the College
of the Arts of the University
of South Florida, has been
appointed president of Memphis
College of Art, Tennessee.
Barbara Morris, dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences
at the University of Redlands,
California, has been selected as
provost and vice president of
academic affairs at Fort Lewis
College, Colorado.
Michael McDonough, dean
of liberal arts at Monroe
Community College, New York,
has been promoted to
provost there.
Dennis Trotter
Dennis Trotter, vice president
for college advancement at
Pitzer College, California, has
been chosen as president of
Hastings College, Nebraska.
MAE 6.3 | 5
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Obtaining a bachelor’s degree usually requires a student to declare
a major and complete additional coursework consisting of both general education requirements and elective courses. With a wide range
of electives to choose from, some students opt to pursue a secondary
field of study, completing a certain amount of coursework within an
additional discipline that amounts to a minor.
Some universities contend that an academic minor can make a
student a valuable asset in the workplace, and some maintain that
having a minor reflects someone who is versatile and well-rounded.
But is it possible to be definitive on the matter and know whether a
minor really adds to a graduate’s perceived value and range of interests
and competency?
Indeed, many professors and academic advisors would admit that
the value of a minor is difficult to quantify. Opposing views in the world
of academia and contrasting educational philosophies among thousands of universities invariably lead to confusion over the true worth
of the pursuit. However, one thing is clear: taking the time to plan and
craft an educational portfolio that is unique and persuasive will pay off.
Wide Scope
A vast majority of colleges and universities offer minors, but the
scope of these offerings varies and may depend on resources. Lewis
University, a private institution with around 4,000 undergraduates,
offers 10 minors, whereas the University of Washington, a public university with over 30,000 undergraduates, offers over 100. Minors are
offered both in traditional broad disciplines—business, economics,
history, etc.—and as specialized areas of focus, such as the Computer
Crime and Forensics minor at Norwich University, and the Information Technology and Social Responsibility minor at the City University of New York.
Purdue University offers students an education that is interdisciplinary in nature, combining two or more areas of study into one
degree program. The university’s interdisciplinary program includes
a minor in biotechnology, made possible through the participation of
its technology, science, agriculture and pharmacy schools.
Some institutions don’t offer minors at all, such as Yale University. Although the university’s committee on majors revisited the idea
of offering minors in 2010, it chose not to institute them, and even
considered several alternative systems of study, including certification programs. When minors are offered, students have a manageable
way to specialize in dual disciplines, as opposed to pursuing a double
major. A minor generally requires half the amount of coursework
required for a major, which still allows for a generous amount of
elective courses. For example, the University of Washington requires
60 credits for a history major and half of that for a minor. In some
cases, the workload required for a minor is even less, closer to onethird the amount for a major, as is the case for the paleobiology
minor, which requires 30 credits. Compare this to the biology major,
which requires 90. With 180 credit hours to fulfill at UW, a student
can easily minor in one or even two areas, and the university allows
a student to obtain up to three minors.
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Assessing Worth
Retired Colonel Marvin J. Harris, USAF, the director of public relations for the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), believes
the value of a minor depends on a student’s reason for obtaining one.
“In my opinion, it is probably valuable only if you have a purpose for
doing so,” he said. Harris earned a dual-discipline degree in undergrad, yet chose to double major in business economics and history. “I
could qualify for a double major with just one or two more courses,”
explained Harris. “They related to each other and it made sense [for
me] to do that.”
Susan Gass, associate director of the Newnan LSA Academic
Advising Center at the University of Michigan, agreed that the value
of a minor should be determined on a case-by-case basis. Gass said
she encourages students to critically assess whether a minor is right
for them, based on educational and career goals. “It depends what
the minor is, what the goals of the student are and what the major is,
whether a minor is really necessary or not,” she pointed out.
For instance, it’s often necessary for students who choose to
become secondary education teachers; they typically major in their
teaching subject area—perhaps history or chemistry or English—and
minor in education. Other times, the minor is not necessary but is
highly encouraged in order to add depth to a broadly applicable major,
such as business. In this case, a minor noted on a resume can serve to
define what the applicant’s specific interests are when it comes to business. On the other hand, a minor in business is suggested by a number
of academic departments at universities nationwide, as knowledge of
business is useful in most fields.
Gass also highlighted the ability of some minors to stand out
as skill sets, particularly to employers. “If a student has a minor in
applied statistics,” she explained, “any employer can look at that and
say ‘OK, this person has this skill set.’ The same thing goes for if they
have a language minor.”
Jim Holbrook, clinical professor of law at the University of Utah,
suggested that servicemembers who aim to stay in a military profession could find a minor in defense-related foreign languages beneficial,
such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Pashto, Persian, Russian and Turkish.
So some skill sets, such as those in foreign language, applied statistics,
mathematics and computer science, are generally impressive and have
direct real-world applications.
Keep Your Focus
Captain Paul Worley, an infantry company commander and 2004
graduate of Bowling Green State University, pursued a major in history and a minor in political science based on personal interest in
both areas. “Political science goes hand-in-hand with history,” he said.
Worley will join the civilian world in July and attend graduate school for
public policy. He believes his minor in political science will inform his
political aspirations and goal to “help civilian government function.”
For Worley, obtaining a minor was in line with what his peers did. “Just
about everybody in my history department had a minor,” he said.
Earning a minor may also be the result of an abandoned major, as
students often decide to pursue another core area of study. And what
if an institution decides to discontinue a major? “I already had a few
classes under my belt, and was working towards an international relations degree, when the school nixed the major,” explained Scott Dyer,
who earned his bachelor’s degree in 2006 from Old Dominion University. “The closest thing that it transferred to was the International
8 | MAE 6.3
Studies minor.” Despite the setback, Dyer found it easy to graduate in
four years with a major and a minor that he “was passionate about.”
The top priority of many veterans is to get a degree that will
help them secure a job in the civilian world. As a result, some
educators feel that a minor is unnecessary weight added to a heavy
load. According to General Paul Bollenbacher, assistant professor of
military science at Seton Hall University, the attainment of a degree
should be the sole focus of a servicemember. “Personally, I think servicemembers need to just focus on a degree, without all the bells and
whistles,” he said. “They still have responsibilities, whether to their
unit or families. The ones that are motivated and skilled enough
will get a minor if it serves them, and if the return on investment
is there.”
Bollenbacher’s assessment of the challenges that many servicemembers face while pursuing a degree applies to Dan Meyer, a
junior at North Dakota State University, who is pursuing a degree in
criminal justice while balancing a commitment to the Marine Corps
Reserve. In November, Meyer will be deployed for the third time this
year. “I won’t graduate next year because I’m going to Afghanistan,”
he said. “Every deployment takes me away from school. It’s frustrating, especially getting older.”
Colonel Harris also believes servicemembers should not overextend their focus and risk abandoning a degree. “One thing that you
want to be careful of is that you don’t try to do both at the detriment
to your main focus,” he cautioned.
Think for Yourself
An ever-popular minor for those undergraduates attending a liberal arts university is a minor in philosophy. The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill touts the pursuit of a philosophy minor as a
discipline that teaches students how to think, not what to think, stating on its website that it “cultivates students’ abilities to recognize
problems and grasp arguments; to read texts critically; to engage in
discussion; and to write papers involving interpretation, argument,
and library research.”
Eastern Oregon University’s philosophy, politics and economics
program explores social problems and policies while nurturing critical thinking in ethics and morality. “The strength of the program is
that it looks at policy analysis not just as the economist thinks of it
(efficiency) and not just as the political scientist thinks of it (political
efficacy), but that it also includes the normative (ought, or moral/
ethical) dimensions that can be more rigorously addressed through
philosophy,” the program’s website explains.
Just as the need for critical thinking applies to a future career,
it also applies to a servicemember’s pursuit of an undergraduate
degree. There is not one right way to complete an education; there
are various pathways, through various institutions, which all, to different extents, do things differently.
Fortunately, servicemembers are not alone. Academic advisers, veteran support services, counselors, professionals in desired
industries, military peers and superiors can all help them make
sense of the potential value of a minor. Having an end goal in mind
will also them determine how best to stack and leverage their educational portfolio. O
For more information, contact MAE Editor Mark Fitzgerald
at markf@kmimediagroup.com or search our online
archives for related stories at www.MAE-kmi.com.
www.MAE-kmi.com
By Melanie Scarborough
MAE Correspondent
scarboroughm@kmimediagroup.com
Grants funding programs to enhance services for
veteran students earn high marks on campuses.
Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill took effect in 2009, many colleges and universities have seen an increase in veteran enrollment. Veteran-friendly schools often have a wide range of
services to accommodate vets, yet may lack the means to make
such assistance easily accessible. Addressing that problem, the
Department of Education last year awarded 15 grants, with an
average value of $396,000, to fund Centers of Excellence (CoE)
for Veteran Student Success on as many college campuses.
“The common thread through all these programs is they
are designed to provide coordination that often does not
exist on the campuses,” explained Cassandra Courtney, program officer at the Department of Education. “One of the
requirements is that there be a single point of contact—an
individual designated to work with a student support team on
the campus,” including personnel from admissions, financial
aid, career advising and disability offices. “The legislators who
put this into place felt that a lot of campuses have all these
services, but veterans trying to access them are going from
pillar to post,” added Courtney. “So each campus that receives
funding will plan its own way to make sure that the lines of
communication are significantly enhanced over what the situation is now.”
In deciding which colleges would be awarded grants from
the 277 eligible applicants, reviewers gave substantial weight
to programs that could be self-sustaining after the three-year
grant period ends. Another criterion was that the schools
establish quantitative measures of success. “Applicants had
to show how they were going to keep track of student enrollment, retention, graduation rates,” Courtney said. Reviewers also looked for and evaluated specific target goals. “For
example, Citrus College intends [to see] a decrease in the
percentage of veteran students on probation or dismissal from
19 to 11 percent.”
Student Advisers
Among the ways Citrus College in Los Angeles plans to
achieve that goal is by offering refresher workshops—particularly in math—to help veteran students prepare for college
assessment exams. Dean of Students Martha McDonald uncovered the need while conducting focus groups before writing
the grant. “[Veteran students] spoke specifically about math
because it’s one of those subjects that, if you don’t use it and
are away from it, it takes some time to get up to par to place in
higher-level math classes,” she said. “We had our first ‘Power
www.MAE-kmi.com
Math’ workshop at winter intercession. It allowed us to determine their specific needs and what schedule works better for
them, so we’re going to have a bigger program this summer.”
A two-year community college, Citrus also wants to
expand relationships with nearby four-year colleges that
are veteran-friendly, such as California State University at Fullerton—coincidentally, another CoE grant
recipient. For veterans interested in transferring to
Fullerton to complete their degrees, Citrus is organizing a trip to that campus so veteran students can
meet personnel there.
Another need McDonald identified was for veteran-centered orientation. The first one, held before
the beginning of this year’s spring semester, garnered
a very positive response. Of the 25 eligible students,
22 attended and the three who could not contacted
McDonald to explain their absence.
“I’m a veteran myself, and it’s been so
rewarding to watch the progress of this
program,” she said. “Just five months
into the grant, everyone’s worked really
hard to implement these goals.” In
addition to appreciating the staff’s
diligence, McDonald is impressed
by the veterans’ caliber. “They are
focused; they are committed; they
are dedicated. They’re an amazing
group of students.”
Dealing with Disability
At Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) in
Gardner, Mass., Assistant Project Director Kristine Larkin
is similarly moved by the
veteran students, many of
whom suffered disabling
injuries in combat. A
parcel of campus land
belongs to the Northeast Veteran Training
and
Rehabilitation
Center, which treats
veterans suffering from
MAE 6.3 | 9
the loss of limbs, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) and disfiguring burns. The facility’s residential quarters are home to 20 veterans and their families who
are provided education at MWCC; part of the college’s CoE
grant addresses their special needs.
For example, the veterans center has an adaptive equipment loan program that supplies items such as ”smart pens”
and microcassette recorders to veteran students whose disabilities make it difficult to take notes. Those suffering from
PTSD—for whom silence can be more distracting than noise,
Larkin explained—may borrow MP3 players if music helps
alleviate their anxiety and depression.
MWCC also works with community agencies such as the
local VA, which sends speakers to campus to educate faculty
and staff about PTSD and traumatic brain injury and to keep
veteran students informed about their VA health benefits.
The emotional support provided by the campus veterans
center seems to have its own kind of curative powers. “We have
one student who was basically blown up [in combat],” Larkin
said. He can walk and talk and carry on a conversation, but a
bone fragment lodged in his brain rendered him blind in one
eye. An additional handicap, severe PTSD, caused him to fail
math last semester. Yet after drawing on the help provided by
the veterans center, this semester he’s an ‘A’ student. “He went
from struggling with concentration, frustration and anxiety to
now, when he’s a peer mentor,” Larkin said.
Another veteran student suffering from PSTD was in the
center recently, trying to study for a test after a week that had
strained his psychological endurance. Noticing that his hands
were shaking so badly he couldn’t write study notes, Larkin
eased in and helped by making flash cards that he use to prepare for the upcoming exam.
Realizing that veteran students may be low on funds, the
center serves coffee and breakfast snacks. Camaraderie is also
a staple. “We did outreach to find out what their needs were,”
Larkin said. “Probably the [largest] concern of veterans was
they didn’t feel like they had a safe place to go with like-
minded individuals, where they could network and use each
other for support. Without a veterans center, they felt like
a ghost.” Given their own gathering place, “they hang with
each other and help each other in every way, shape and form,”
she said.
Making Transitions
Shoreline Community College, in Shoreline, Wash., also
has discovered that camaraderie is crucial to veteran students.
Before writing her winning proposal for a CoE grant, Director
of the Office of Special Services Kim Thompson sat down with
veteran students and asked, “What are we not seeing?” The
answer: Many would feel more comfortable hearing information from a peer. “They said when you’re at a [military] unit,
you find someone with your MOS and ask them all about it,”
she explained. “They’re used to communicating with peers.
That’s natural for their culture.”
They also told her that transition is the hardest part of
adjusting from the military to academic life. “They said when
you are in the service, you know where you’re going to go,
when you’re going to go and what you’re going to do when you
get there,” Thompson said. Understandably, veterans reported
feeling a bit at sea in the open-ended world of higher education. She recalled one student comparing campus life to an
Easter egg hunt: You have to look for what you want.
So Shoreline built its program around easing transitions
from combat to campus, then from campus to community.
“What we focused on is that combat, campus and community are three separate pillars, and they all need support,”
Thompson said. “But most important is the need to be bridges
between those pillars because that’s where students drop out.”
Veteran students may become discouraged by the admissions
process and never make it to campus, she said, or they come to
school, can’t figure out how to navigate the system, and leave.
Sometimes they may make it through those hurdles but fail
to transition into a four-year school where they could complete
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their degree and move into a profession. “For that transitional
bridge from campus to community, we put in things like
resume assistance, college transfer information and hooking veterans up with community mentors,” Thompson said.
“One of the pieces we’re looking at is finding veterans in the
community who will give internships to veteran students. If
[students] could intern within the community, they could feel
connected to another veteran, get something on their resume,
and decide if that job is really what they want to do.”
Before winning the CoE grant, Shoreline already had some
community partnerships in place, including an alliance with
the Department of Veteran Affairs that puts a veteran on their
campus as part of the team. “We had some things in place and
were headed in the direction that the CoE was going,” Thompson said, “but we weren’t there yet because there just isn’t
enough funding in the system.”
Success Breeds Success
In applying for funds, grant recipients were required to
demonstrate how they would track measures of success. Mount
Wachusett has enlisted a consultant to compile quantitative
data, as well as to gather anecdotal information from veteran
students during roundtable discussions. “You’re only as good
as what you can measure,” Larkin said. Like the other CoE
recipients who spoke with MAE, she is very pleased with her
program’s progress to date and is confident it will succeed.
If the Centers of Excellence do prove successful—and
early indications are quite promising—much of the credit will
belong to the veteran students they serve. “By the time you get
veterans from the first cohort out into the community, they
become mentors for new veteran students,” Thompson said.
At MWCC, Larkin also is discovering the value of good
buzz. “Students are talking about the center to friends, families and coworkers,” she said. “That word-of-mouth helps the
center exist and continue to thrive.”
The goal of the programs becoming self-sustaining seems
on track as well, partly because grants were awarded only to
colleges who demonstrably could achieve that end. “Once the
government gave them grants, they didn’t want the program
to disappear,” Courtney said.
She, too, expects that CoEs will operate independently after
the grant period expires. Colleges have a vested interest in
ensuring that outcome: Veterans are an asset. “Assuming these
folks use the money to good advantage, they will find ways to
be self-sustaining,” predicted Courtney, “even in challenging
economic times—because attracting veterans to campus only
makes their situation better.”O
For more information, contact MAE Editor Mark Fitzgerald
at markf@kmimediagroup.com or search our online
archives for related stories at www.MAE-kmi.com.
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MAE 6.3 | 11
How
can campus
expansion
boost
enrollments
and prestige
while forging new
partnerships and
fueling economic
growth?
By Mark Fitzgerald
MAE Editor
markf@kmimediagroup.com
Given this sluggish economy, labor
and resources are as affordable as ever. At
many colleges and universities, especially
those with ample endowments and large
enrollments, proposals to expand facilities and add more space for students and
research are progressing into contracts
and works in progress.
New York University wants to expand
its physical plant by 40 percent over two
decades, an ambition that envisions a
new tower on Bleecker Street and the
addition of 3 million square feet of new
classrooms, dormitories and offices in the
Greenwich Village area.
“For New York to be a great city, we
need NYU to be a great university,” John
Sexton, the university’s president, told
The New York Times. “We need the space
to run our academic programs: to have
the faculty that teach in these programs,
to have the students who attend these
programs, to create not only carriers of
knowledge but ambassadors of New York
for the future.”
The demand for campus working and
living space at NYU has increased over the
last decade, heightening the need for new
facilities. By 2031, the university expects
to increase its enrollment by over 5,000,
growing its student body to 46,500.
The expansion plan would also create new theaters, costume shops and
rehearsal studios for the Tisch School of
the Arts in a building at Lafayette and
12 | MAE 6.3
GMU main campus. [Photos courtesy of Evan Cantwell]
East Fourth Street. NYU is also pursuing
plans to build 1 million square feet of new
space for a new engineering school downtown at the Metrotech complex located at
Polytechnic University.
“What does it mean in the 21st century to build a great city?” said Sexton.
“Let’s be the lab and thinking space for it,
the center in the world for thinking about
cities.” In the next three to five years, the
university will merge with Polytechnic to
start its own engineering school.
Global Presence
NYU recently announced plans to
launch a research university with a lib-
eral arts and science college in Shanghai, China. The campus will be the first
American university with full, independent authority in China, a legal status
approved by the Ministry of Education.
“In the 21st century, NYU is evolving
from being, in the words of its founder,
Albert Gallatin, ‘in and of the city’ to
being ‘in and of the world,’” said Sexton.
“New York and Shanghai enjoy a natural
affinity as world capitals; as vibrant, ambitious and forward-looking centers of commerce and culture; as magnets for people
of talent.”
The campus is being built by China in
the Pudong district of Shanghai, and NYU
plans to enroll the first students, about
150 undergraduates, in fall 2013. Half of
the students are expected to come from
China and half from the rest of the world.
In September, the university established
a degree-granting campus in Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates.
“We’re comfortable that we will be
able to offer an NYU education in Shanghai the way we offer it in Abu Dhabi or
New York City,” added Sexton. “The idea
is that in a century where more and
more people as well as ideas are operating beyond national boundaries, the
professoriate and the talent class will be
highly mobile.”
Multiple Projects
George Mason University is in the
final stages of completing a multimillion
dollar redevelopment project that has
www.MAE-kmi.com
already doubled the size of its physical education building and created
new arts and engineering buildings
on its 677-acre main campus in
Fairfax, Va.
The university has also expanded
a four-level parking deck that nearly
quadruples parking capacity from
700 to 2,500 spots in the northeast
corner of the campus, and built two
new residence halls.
GMU wants to eventually be able
to accommodate 9,000 students
on campus, about double the current capacity. The additional dorms
“have a lot of benefits because they
increase the ability to accommodate
students, reduce traffic congestion
and enhance campus life when more
people are on campus,” said GMU
Press Secretary Dan Walsch.
The university received a $10 million
private donation to help pay for its $67
million engineering facility and a $4
million gift towards its performing arts
building, which has a $12 million price
tag. It has also secured funding for a
$9.8 million renovation for its fine arts
building and a $56.6 million addition to
its Fenwick Library. The arts building is
slated to be completed next year and the
library in 2013. GMU also has plans to
expand its science and technology building, a project that will cost $53 million
and is expected to be completed in 2013.
“With so many projects going on at
once, it’s an exciting time here at Mason,”
said Tom Calhoun, the vice president of
facilities. “Our overall goal is to increase
our level of facilities excellence.”
Strong Support
During a dedication ceremony last year,
GMU celebrated the opening of its new biomedical research laboratory (BRL), a $50
million, 52,000-square-foot facility located
on Mason’s campus in Manassas, Va. The
building, which boasts more than 20,000
square feet of lab space, was the culmination of a five-year building project that
began in 2005 when GMU was awarded
a $27.7 million grant from the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The university provided approximately
$20.3 million in matching funds, and the
Commonwealth of Virginia committed $2.5
million for land acquisition under former
Virginia Governor Mark Warner.
www.MAE-kmi.com
“I was pleased to support this effort
when I was governor to construct this
nationally important laboratory here in
Virginia,” said Warner, who is now the
junior senator of Virginia. “The dedication of Mason’s BRL is another giant
step forward in growing our biotech
industry and revving-up Virginia’s economic engine.”
Charles Bailey, GMU’s executive
director of Mason’s National Center
for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, also recognized that this facility is quickly becoming an economic
driver for Mason and the Prince William region.
“The laboratory and campus have
already served as magnets for the
biotech industry and for out-of-state
biotechnology companies interested
in moving to Northern Virginia,” he
said. “By bringing new research jobs GMU main campus. [Photos courtesy of Evan Cantwell]
to Prince William County—such as
“The community support for the Hylinfectious disease scientists and technical
ton Center has been overwhelming and
support personnel—as well as attracting
illustrates how Mason can successfully
new grants and funding, we hope that the
partner with surrounding communities
facility will lead to significant economic
to plan and implement a project that bengrowth.”
efits everyone,” said GMU President Alan
Last year, the university also celebrated
Merten. “The center will place emphasis
the opening of its Hylton Center, a $46 milon the importance of arts in the commulion, 85,000-square-foot performing arts
nity and expand the visual and performvenue located on GMU’s Manassas campus.
ing arts programs at the university.” O
The center, which provides a unique setting
for local, national and international arts
groups and performers, was made possible
through GMU’s partnership with Prince
For more information, contact MAE Editor
Mark Fitzgerald at markf@kmimediagroup.com or
William County, the City of Manassas, the
search our online archives for related stories
Commonwealth of Virginia and individuals
at www.MAE-kmi.com.
and businesses in the private sector.
MAE 6.3 | 13
Virginia Tech Fined $55,000
The Department of Education fined Virginia Tech $55,000 for
failing to warn the Blacksburg, Va., campus quickly enough after
two students were shot in an April 16, 2007, rampage that left 32
people and the gunman dead. The failure warrants a fine “far in
excess” of that, a letter notifying the university said, but $27,500
per violation was the most allowed by law. The university also was
cited for failing to follow its own security policy, required by law,
on crime warnings.
The department cited the school for violations of the Clery
Act, which requires schools that receive federal aid to issue a
“timely warning” when a serious crime is committed on campus.
The law is named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University freshman
murdered in her dorm room in 1986.
Virginia Tech said in a written statement it will appeal.
“Neither the Department of Education nor the Clery Act defines
‘timely,’” the statement said. “The university’s actions on April
16 were well within the standards and practices in effect at that
time.”
The university said that its own guidelines at the time of the
shootings indicated 48 hours would be an acceptable time frame
to inform the campus of a serious crime. The school’s argument
is that it is being held accountable for a standard adopted after
its own tragedy.
Appeals Court Decision Favors
University of Chicago
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has overturned a lower
court’s ruling that could have forced the University of Chicago to turn over
invaluable Persian antiquities to a group of people suing Iran. Chicago has the
antiquities on a long-term loan and has pledged to return them to Iran, but was
temporarily blocked from doing so by a suit by American victims of a terrorist
attack in Israel, who sued to recover Iranian assets in the United States after
winning a finding that Iran was responsible for the attack.
The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs’ approach (and the lower court’s
ruling) failed to recognize the protections the United States grants to the property of foreign countries. The University of Chicago and museum groups have
worried that the lower court’s ruling, if upheld, would discourage countries
from allowing any objects of value to travel to the United States for any reason,
potentially limiting intellectually valuable scholarship or art exhibits.
“The district court’s approach to this case cannot be reconciled with the
text, structure, and history of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA),”
noted the ruling. “Section 1609 of the Act provides that ‘the property in the
United States of a foreign state shall be immune from attachment’ unless an
enumerated exception applies. This section codifies the longstanding commonlaw principle that a foreign state’s property in the United States is presumed
immune from attachment. This presumptive immunity, when read with other
provisions of the FSIA, requires the plaintiff to identify the specific property he
seeks to attach; the court cannot compel a foreign state to submit to general
discovery about all its assets in the United States.”
Texas Tech Eliminates Three Top Positions
Texas Tech University has eliminated
three top administrative positions in the
student affairs division, placing many departments under the provost and chief operating
officer. The university expects to save $500,000
a year without a senior vice president for
enrollment management and student affairs,
dean of students and associate vice president
for student affairs, and associate vice president for student affairs and external relations.
According to Doug Buchanan, assistant
vice president for human resources at Texas
Tech, the move wasn’t strictly for financial
reasons. President Guy Bailey wanted a more
seamless process for communication and
work between the president’s and provost’s
offices and the enrollment management and
student affairs division, recognized Buchanan.
“He had been looking at the idea of the
reorganization of student affairs somewhat
14 | MAE 6.3
independent of this,” he said. “There’s kind
of a confluence of things that made this the
right time, or the right decision, to integrate the academic and non-academic lives
of the students.”
The dismantling splits up the three-division structure in what was formerly called
the enrollment management and student
affairs department. In that model, auxiliary services, student affairs and enrollment
management were all overseen by Senior
Vice President Michael Shonrock. The other
two eliminated positions, which headed the
department’s student affairs division, fell
directly under Shonrock. There is no head of
auxiliary services; the enrollment management division head will now report directly
to the president.
Under the new structure, auxiliaries—
revenue-generating pieces like housing
and recreational sports—will be absorbed
by Chief Operating Officer Kyle Clark. Juan
Muñoz, vice provost for institutional diversity
and undergraduate education, will handle
the core student affairs functions such as
student life and student health and counseling services.
The separation makes for “a more
traditional view of what student affairs is,”
Buchanan said, adding that faculty and
others on the academic side are excited to
be more closely tied to the rest of student life.
Still, the budget was a catalyst to eliminate the administrative positions, admitted
Buchanan. “It is fairly rare that in times of
budget crisis and all that we go after administrative levels,” he said. “But I think it was
especially important to the president to show
that ... we take what we do seriously in terms
of all levels.”
www.MAE-kmi.com
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Antioch Prepares for
New Students
Antioch College continues its forward motion toward admitting
new students next fall, as leaders announced that the college’s first
three tenure-track faculty positions have been filled, and that the college
passed its first test on the road to gaining accreditation.
“This is very good news,” consultant Len Clark said, referring to
the Ohio Board of Regents peer review team’s recommendation that the
college be granted provisional approval as a degree-granting institution,
pending the OBR chancellor’s official authorization.
The review team’s approval followed a January visit to Antioch
during which team members interviewed college academic and
administrative leaders, along with student support staff, regarding
Antioch’s proposed curriculum and current financial status. While
the review team could have required substantial changes to the
curriculum that would have slowed the college’s momentum, they did
not do so, according to Clark, the former provost and academic dean
of Earlham College.
The college has announced that the first three out of the college’s
six tenure track positions (in the fields of cultural anthropology, philosophy and chemistry) have been filled. The new hires will begin July 18,
according to Antioch College Communications Director Gariot Louima.
The other remaining tenure-track positions, which are in Spanish,
literature and 3-D art, are expected to be filled by May.
Duquesne Launches
Online Bachelor’s and
Master’s Program
Duquesne University’s School of Leadership and Professional
Advancement is now offering an online accelerated bachelor’s
degree program that features majors in behavioral science,
computer systems technology, organizational leadership and
professional communication. The university is also offering
online masters’ degrees that include global leadership and
leadership and professional administration.
“We’re delighted that this new program provides additional
opportunities for transfer credits through expanded electives,” said Don Accamando, director of military education in
Duquesne’s School of Leadership.
A Yellow Ribbon Program participant, Duquesne is regionally accredited and offers special military tuition rates as
well as opportunities to earn credits through the College
Level Examination Program and the Defense Activity for
Non-Traditional Education Support.
www.MAE-kmi.com
Park University Advances Warrior
Center and Success for Veterans
Through a grant from the
American Council on Education
(ACE) and the Walmart Foundation,
Park University has been offering
its Success for Veterans program at
Warrior Transition Units (WTUs)
across the country. To date, more
than 50 veterans have successfully
completed the program’s orientation
course and many have gone on to
become degree-seeking students with
the university.
Park’s Fort Irwin, Calif., Campus
Center recently started the six-week
long orientation course and currently
has 11 veteran participants and two
spouses. In 2009, Park was one of 20
higher learning institutions in the
country that was awarded a portion
of a total of $2 million in grants from
ACE and the Walmart Foundation.
The $100,000 Success for
Veterans Award Grant recognizes
model programs advancing access
and success in higher education for
veterans and their families. WTUs are
comprised of both active servicemembers who are transitioning out of the
military and combat veterans. In addition, spouses and caregivers are also
able to participate in the program with
the servicemember thanks to funds
provided by the Park Warrior Center.
Administered and facilitated by
veterans, the Success for Veterans
program starts off with a veteran’s
non-credit orientation course which
is free for the veteran and spouse.
The program is currently offered
online and at three military installations, Fort Irwin, Fort Belvoir and
Fort Drum. At Fort Irwin and Fort
Drum WTUs, students can participate
in face-to-face classes as well as the
online component.
Once the orientation course is
completed, the veteran can continue
with Park University transition courses
or attend a different school, depending
on his or her goals. Park is committed
to working with the veteran to find the
best school for his or her needs.
“This is an exciting time for our
veterans at Park University,” said
Stephen Terry, program manager of
the Park Warrior Center and Success
for Veterans program. “Making the
transition from the military to college
can be a stressful and anxious time for
incoming veterans.”
Upon completion of the orientation course and enrollment into the
next transition course, the veteran
is also awarded a $550 book scholarship. Terry, a combat veteran and
former staff sergeant in the U.S. Army,
works individually with each veteran
on applying for admissions, veteran
benefits, tuition assistance and financial aid.
He also facilitates registration
into successive courses and assists
with getting transcripts from previous
schools and the military. “Park
University wants to make sure it is
doing its part to make the transition
from military to college as stress-free
as possible,” he said.
Funds from the Park Warrior
Center have provided Americans
with Disabilities Act-compliant
iPads for each of the Warrior
Transition Units. Each iPad contains
ADA-compliant software for veterans
who have been visually impaired,
including a voice reader/text reader,
support for playback of closedcaptioned content and other innovative universal access features.
These features make the iPad
easier to use for veterans who have
vision impairment, are deaf or hard
of hearing, or have other physical
or learning disabilities. The iPads
also allow Terry to conduct video
conferences with the veterans and
program coordinators via webcam
and Skype.
MAE 6.3 | 15
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Now, new students can try Kaplan University for a 5-week period with no tuition obligation.
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documents, you will continue on with us as a Kaplan University student.* If not, there’s
no other financial obligation beyond the nonrefundable $95 application fee, which is
waived for active-duty military and veteran students.†
Continue on toward your educational and career goals
with Kaplan University standing behind you. Learn more
at www.military.kaplan.edu or call 866.583.4412.
Kaplan University is regionally accredited and a member of the Servicemembers
Opportunity Colleges (SOC) consortium. Reduced tuition rates available for military
and veteran students and participants in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Military training
and experience may be accepted toward college credit. See University Transfer
Credit policy for complete details.
* The start of your sixth week as a Kaplan University student will also initiate your
tuition obligation to Kaplan University. Kaplan Commitment is available for all
undergraduate programs. Graduate students are not eligible.
† Application fee waived for active-duty military and veteran students
in undergraduate programs only.
Military Advanced Education magazine, Fourth Annual
Guide to Military-Friendly Colleges and Universities,
December 2010, volume 5, issue 10.
Team Builder
Q& A
Advancing Goods and Services for Educational Success
Carol A. Berry, Ed.D.
Director
Defense Activity for Non-Traditional
Education Support
Currently the director of the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional
Education Support [DANTES], Dr. Carol A. Berry received a baccalaureate degree in biological sciences from Hofstra University in 1978, a
Master of Science degree in education from Hofstra University in 1979,
and a doctor of education degree from Regent University in 2006.
From 1979-2003, she served as an education services specialist
with the Navy’s Voluntary Education Program, where she was in
charge of education programs in Keflavik, Iceland, and stateside in
Virginia, specifically Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Berry is responsible
for a number of process improvement projects that have become
standard throughout the Navy’s Voluntary Education Program. Of
significant note was the development of an Internet needs assessment
survey and analysis program that has become the standard for all
needs assessments in the Navy.
In September of 2003, she assumed the reins as the Southeast
Regional Director of Navy college programs. In this capacity, Berry
oversaw the management and execution operations in Navy college
offices throughout the southeast quadrant of the U.S., including those
in Va., Tenn., S.C., Ga., Fla., Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Miss., Md., District of Columbia and La.
Berry received the Department of the Navy Award for meritorious
civilian service in 1993 for her contributions to Navy Voluntary Education Services, while serving at NAS Norfolk. She also was awarded
the Kenn Smith Award for Navy Campus Excellence–Educator of the
Year, and has been recognized with numerous honors and letters of
commendation for outstanding performance and innovative projects.
She was recently awarded the President’s Award at the Virginia ACME
2010 and named the most notable alumna by Regent University’s
School of Education.
She is affiliated with the Virginia Advisory Council on Military
Education, where she was a former president, and is a member of
the Council of College and Military Educators; Hampton Roads Voluntary Education Advisory Group; the American Counseling Association; Military Educators and Counseling Association; National
Career Development Association; and National Employment Counselors Association.
Berry has also served on a number of task force projects at various levels of the DoD and Navy, including DoD Principles of Distance
Learning; DANTES Education Services Advisory Panel; MIVER Program Task Force; Navy Voluntary Education–Navy College Team
2000; Navy College Program Advisory Board; Hampton Roads Voluntary Education Advisory Group [where she served as chairperson
and was chair of the strategic planning and library and technology
sub-committees]; and the Electronics Curriculum Advisory Committee for Tidewater Community College.
www.MAE-kmi.com
A regular presenter at the DoD Worldwide Conferences, Berry has
written several articles in professional publications; her dissertation
is titled “The Assessment of Learner Autonomy and Persistence in
Adults Enrolled in Online Courses.” She has also authored numerous
articles for local and base newspapers concerning various education
related topics, programs and services provided through the voluntary
education programs.
Berry was interviewed by MAE Editor Mark Fitzgerald.
Q: To begin with, can you please highlight the primary activities of
DANTES, its history and current status?
A: DANTES was founded in 1974 and established as a third echelon
Navy command. The Navy is our executive agent, which means it provides funding and administrative support. Our program guidance and
policies come from the Office of Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel
& Readiness [OUSD, P&R] Military Community and Family Policy,
which gets input from all of the services, including the Coast Guard,
to help frame the programs we provide.
We manage all of the contracts and programs that enable the services
to provide education services and products to our servicemembers. When
the name DANTES is mentioned, most people think of testing programs.
MAE 6.3 | 17
Pe n n Stat e
O n l i n e
You’ve made a
commitment.
So have we.
Penn State World Campus
supports our active-duty
and veteran military and is
committed to
helping you
AAACE
meet your Exc
ellence in
education
Military
and career
Education
goals.
More than 70 online
degrees and certificates
Dedicated military
admissions and
advising teams
Military grant-in-aid
available
Yellow Ribbon
participant
www.worldcampus.psu.edu/
educatingmilitary
U.Ed.OUT 10-1086/10-WC-305edc/bjm
18 | MAE 6.3
While these programs are a large part of our
work, they are not all we do. We also manage the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges
contract, the Military Evaluation contract with
ACE and the third party assessment contract,
formerly known as the Military Installation
Voluntary Education Review. Troops-to-Teachers falls under DANTES, as does the DoD
Worldwide Education Symposium.
As part of the support we provide to OUSD,
P&R, we also manage the new Memorandum
of Understanding. We train new test control
officers, provide refresher training to individuals who need it and provide guidance to test
centers regarding the use of the various programs. We are also responsible for publishing
the monthly DANTES Information Bulletin
[DIB] and other publicity items to promote the
various programs and services. Our warehouse
crew ships thousands of education brochures,
flyers, booklets and other marketing materials to hundreds of military education centers
around the world every year.
We also have collected a significant number of electronic materials that users can
download directly from our website. We have
online catalogs with fully searchable features,
enabling students and counselors alike to
search for programs and courses, which
include our independent study catalog, external degree catalog and the catalog of nationally
accredited distance learning programs.
We offer counselor support programs and
computer assisted guidance programs. Our
webpage has links to scholarship programs
and services, sources of financial assistance,
and a directory of education centers. We
also provide the subscription to the Online
Academic Skills Course. The website boasts
links to all of the services’ home pages and
information, including tuition assistance programs. We are on Facebook [www.facebook.
com/dantes.dod] and at some point we will be
on Twitter as well.
In 2009, we celebrated our 35th anniversary, but we have only just begun to serve the
educational needs of the servicemembers.
So where do we go next? We are embarking
on new territory in many of our program
areas. Many of our contracted programs are
coming up for review and rework, and part
of that effort has been focused on bringing
the services provided by the contract into the
21st century, making them more relevant,
more responsive to the changing landscape
of higher education.
For example, the third party assessment
contract was recently posted for organizations
to provide proposals. In that contract, we have
included an assessment of not just the on-base
schools, but also the distance education providers and institutions in the local community
near the military installation. We hope this
360 review gives us a much deeper analysis
and assessment of the programs servicing
our military. With over 70 percent of military
tuition assistance being paid for distance learning courses, it was imperative that we include
them in the program assessment process.
We will soon launch our Distance Learning Readiness Self-Assessment [DLRSA] on
our distance learning page. The DANTESDLRSA was developed as a means to help
students self-assess their readiness for distance
learning. The instrument is not meant to deny
individuals enrollment in a distance learning courses, but rather to inform and help
students self-screen their current skills and
understanding so they may make choices that
lead to a successful educational experience.
There are several components: the
DANTES-DLRSA; related research; training
PowerPoint for education center staff, and the
DANTES-DLRSA counselor guide, which will
provide counselors with the information they
need to discuss the results with their clients.
The plan is to have the instrument and the
counselor information available by the end of
the summer.
Q: As director, what are your primary goals
and expectations in regard to the path ahead
for DANTES and its influence on the various services?
A: We are here to serve. That said, we have
a responsibility to ensure our programs are
well-used, relevant, current and meet the
needs of the services. To maintain our relevancy, we participate in regular meetings with
the service chiefs and OUSD P&R to report
out on our programs and discuss new requirements. For me, these meetings have been very
educational. Getting the various perspectives
from each of the services has really helped me
gain a deeper understanding of the programs
as they pertain to each of the service branches.
As I mentioned before, many of our programs are up for review. In this review process, we are incorporating the needs of the
services, while seeking ways to provide services that leverage economy of scale. Higher
education has evolved in the past five or six
years in so many ways—our programs have
to reflect that evolution.
We will also be establishing a committee
made up of military educators who will provide us with an inside look at what they need
www.MAE-kmi.com
and how DANTES can help them. This committee will be launched
later this year. Keep your eye on the DIB and Facebook for the latest
on this initiative.
Q: What kinds of civilian education programs have you been most
encouraged by over the years?
A: Over the years, some schools have emerged as premier providers of
programs that meet the needs of the military adult learner. Some have
been in the business for decades and others, just for a few years. The
institutions that provide high quality, student-centered services to the
military are important partners in the process of educating the greatest military force in the world. There are leaders in this business who
have gone to the mat for their military students to ensure they get the
best of the best that their institution can offer. Take the Yellow Ribbon program: The schools that participate in this program put their
resources into the program to attract the military population, making
their programs within reach of this very deserving population.
Adults returning to school is not headline news. Adults will return to
the classroom when they have a need, a desire to learn something new,
or perhaps because they have to acquire new skills to be competitive in
their work. Military students are a subset of that adult population and
have all the challenges faced by the general adult population, but they
also have to contend with operational tempo and long deployments. The
explosion of distance learning programs, with and without computer
mediated components, has really changed the landscape of higher eduRevision 1
Revision 3
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cation and
kicked open theRevision
door of2 opportunity
to all adults. The
military
student
is
no
longer
tied
to
the
brick
and
mortar
classroom;
they
have
Creative Proofer 1:
AS Proofer 1:
more
opportunity
to
get
out
there
and
get
the
education
they
desire.
Creative Proofer 2:
AS Proofer 2:
Q: How much do you think educational service officers depend on
DANTES for resources and guidance?
A: I know from my field experience that I used DANTES resources and
programs with my clients on a daily basis. I remember in my early days
being amazed at the variety of materials I had available to help my clients
pursue their educational goals. I remember being especially impressed
with the testing programs and the credit recommendations for military
training. With the college credit by exam programs, individuals were
able earn college credit by taking an exam, an exam that was free.
I wish I had that opportunity when I was in college. As a traditional
student, my counselor never offered CLEP or DSST exams as an option
to earn credit. If they had, I would have taken several rather than sit in
a classroom for 16 weeks. The ACE Guide was one of my favorite tools,
showing military personnel how much credit was recommended for their
service, schools and job and it made it easy to convince them to take that
first class or test. I would take the ACE guide to briefs and pick out a few
individuals from the audience and just read to them the list of recommended credits from their job. Usually the amount of credit was impressive and by adding in the testing programs and a few classes, I was able to
show those individuals just how close a degree really was. I have to admit
I enjoyed watching their faces light up. So, do the education professionals serving the military depend on DANTES for resources? Absolutely!
We are taking the availability of those resources one step further, by
offering information on how to best leverage the products to improve
their clients educational experience. One of the goals for the DIB has
been to include articles that show how to use the products and services
to their fullest. In the future, we hope to have on our webpage training
packets on each of our programs that military educators can use to gain
a Insertion
deeper understanding
of the programs and how to best use them to
Date: 4/1/11
give their clients
the
best
educational
experience possible.
– eCampus
Client: KEISER
Job Number: 231-1205-MAE-ded-mil-7x3
Advance
Education
Product/Pub:
Q: What
do you seeMilitary
as some
of the biggest
challenges and opportuni7.375
x 3.375
ties currentlySize:
facing
DANTES?
Production: MC
Work Date: 3/7
A: Maintaining our currency and offering the services and products
that the services want within the resources we are given is a big challenge. Funding is tight for everyone, so we at DANTES strive to ensure
we get the most value for the funding we are entrusted with. I think
the DANTES staff does a great job of managing their programs. They
are very dedicated to the mission and know their programs very well.
Q: Do you get the sense that servicemembers take advantage of their
educational benefits as much as they should?
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www.MAE-kmi.com
MAE 6.3 | 19
A: No, not enough of them maximize the opportunities offered. The biggest challenge is getting the attention of the individuals and making the
opportunity so attractive that they can’t refuse. As providing educational
services becomes more virtual, the challenge will be to leverage social
networking and other Internet tools to market the services and products. DANTES is on Facebook and we use that one medium to spread
the word about a variety of programs and good-to-know information.
We are looking at sponsoring webinars and offer other virtual
options to bring our products and services to the various stakeholders
who need to know: military educators, military personnel, their leadership, etc. I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t take a lot of convincing to get a servicemember to participate, but it often takes making
the effort to reach out and showing them what is available.
As we reach out and spread the word on the programs, we hope to
see more participation in the programs, which if properly leveraged,
can save the servicemember time, tuition assistance dollars and help
them realize their goals.
Q: Are you seeing any new trends in military education?
A: Yes, there is a trend to centralize services and go virtual. The reasons for this trend are many and it isn’t all bad. The key is to have
individuals in the virtual centers who are able to communicate virtually and still accomplish the counseling. Virtual counseling has many
skills sets that are common with face-to-face meetings, but there are
also additional skills that have to be developed. Those skills include
being able to write clearly, being able to sift through the information
and provide a concise response that answers the client’s real question.
I can remember sessions when individuals ask about programs
that they think they are interested in, but as the conversation proceeded, it would become clear that they really weren’t so sure. In those
instances, just answering the questions wouldn’t have been very helpful. Instead, more effort was needed to delve into the real issues and
identify the true goals.
When counseling virtually, the counselor and the individual have
to develop a partnership and level of trust that enables the real goals
and issues to surface. Online counseling isn’t as easy as ordering a pizza
using the Internet or a call center; knowing and understanding your
goals and developing strategies to meet them requires a level of trust,
which leads to an openness to allow those real goals to surface.
Q: What do you think are some of the biggest advantages of distance learning and online education? Are there any limitations or
drawbacks?
A: Personally, I like distance education. I enjoy the challenge of
puzzling through the content. I am a product of distance learning.
I earned my Ed.D. from a school that offered the program entirely
online. I loved the convenience of it. I could study when I wanted, work
on coursework when it was convenient to me and my hectic work and
home schedules. Of course that meant sacrifice and getting organized
very quickly because I didn’t have to “face” the professor in a classroom. The classes where the professor was really engaged were the
best. Those individuals knew how to teach in a virtual environment.
They knew how to communicate, encourage and facilitate discussions
on the class discussion boards.
Like a coin, there are two sides—it worked for me. For others, the
isolation of working on their own, even in a computer-mediated environment, can be lonely. Students have to have an understanding of their
20 | MAE 6.3
readiness for distance learning. They have to be able to cope with the
isolation, have good time management, computer and communication skills. Excellent reading skills are critical because of the volumes
of reading that might be required. Sometimes just having a place to
study can make or break the experience. These skills and experiences
can make or break a good distance learning experience.
With more schools getting into the virtual delivery modes, it
is really important the individuals know what is best for them. For
some, distance learning as the first class might not be the best choice;
for others, they will do quite well regardless of the delivery method.
Counseling and understanding the challenges of distance learning are
really important here.
Q: How much do you think education factors into preparing servicemembers for the workplace?
A: Often formal education provides the individual with another dimension to their resume. Most employers that seek out military personnel
to work for them do so because they know that the worker comes with
a level of discipline and experience that will serve them in their civilian position. For others, like individuals who want to get into specific
fields of work, like nursing or engineering, the formal education is an
entry requirement. So, yes, formal education certainly does factor into
preparing servicemembers for their transition to civilian life. That is
why it is so important for the word to be spread about all of the opportunities available by all and every means possible.
Q: Can you offer them any advice on transitioning from the military
into civilian and/or campus life?
A: I would encourage them to take full advantage of their educational
benefits while they are in the service. If nothing else, they should meet
with a counselor and lay out a plan. They shouldn’t wait until the last
minute; they need to get in to see that counselor early in their career
so there is ample time to get them through their programs. If they
find themselves at that departure point, then they should still seek out
counseling so that they can have a plan and strategies to pursue when
they have left the service. In the March 2011 DIB, the cover article is
on goals, programs and strategies. The article lays out the counseling
process and what the individual should have as a result of a session.
Q: How has your background and education informed your choices
and activities in your current position?
A: I have been blessed with having had great mentors and great colleagues over the years that have been very generous in sharing their
experiences and knowledge with me. During my career in the Navy
VOLED program, I was fortunate to have been able to move up in the
command structure, giving me the opportunity to develop leadership
and team-building skills that have served me well so far.
Over the years, I was fortunate to have great people who worked
for me and for whom I worked. I firmly believe that we are a product
of our experiences, the good and the bad. How we respond and the
lessons we learn over a lifetime define who we are and how we see
the world. DANTES is made up of very experienced, professional and
knowledgeable individuals, who are a joy to work with, and it has been
my pleasure to get to know them.
Q: What do you see as DANTES’s most pressing tasks moving forward?
www.MAE-kmi.com
A: We have a number of contracts to rework over the next couple of
years; these are huge projects, with huge implications. As we take on
each of these, we have to consider the needs of the services, the need to
leverage joint opportunities, the need to stay within available resources
and to help shape the programs to meet the needs for a long time.
Those are a lot of needs to address.
We are reworking our website and hope to launch it sometime
this summer. The rework will streamline the functionality and give us
a new look and feel that will better serve our customers. We are also
launching the Distance Learning Readiness Self-Assessment product
this summer. We will need to clearly communicate policy changes that
affect our customers, like the recent retesting policy change. There
seems to be some confusion about the policy change. So we are using
various methods to get the word out to ensure that our customers
understand the policy. As I mentioned before, we have a finite amount
of resources and we have to use those resources effectively. So when the
data on testing and retesting was reviewed, it was obvious that a change
in program execution and ultimately in student behavior was needed.
As of December 10, 2010, DANTES will only fund one attempt on
a test title in the CLEP, DSST or Excelsior College Exam batteries. This
means, that if a servicemember takes the U.S. History Part I exam and
does not pass it, DANTES will not fund another attempt. The servicemember may retake the exam but at his or her own expense.
There are two behaviors we want to see modified and carried out.
First, we want individuals to approach these exams much like they
would a final exam in a comparable college course; we expect them to
www.MAE-kmi.com
study and prepare for the exam so that their first attempt is successful
and they earn the college credit. Secondly, we want military education
counselors to provide their clients with information about the exams
and encourage them to prepare prior to taking the exam.
Q: Any closing thoughts?
A: This is a dream job. I have been here just under a year already, and
I have enjoyed every minute. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my
previous positions, it just means that I hope to make even more of a
difference to voluntary education across the services. Working with
the DANTES team has been wonderful. They are real professionals
with big hearts, lots of smarts and great ideas. For each project we
undertake, they come through with flying colors.
Just to brag a little, we were very active with the Combined Federal Campaign this past year and won the coveted Admiral’s Cup, a
trophy we are not going to relinquish easily. We divided the staff into
four teams. Each team devised their own fundraising events and even
planned a few with the other teams. The takeaway for everyone was
doing a lot of good, raising a lot of money and having a lot of fun doing
it. The bonus is they got to know each other on a different level. Our
challenge for the next campaign will be how to top what we did this
past year and, of course, keep that trophy.
DANTES is here to stay—we offer the goods and services that
the education centers and the servicemembers need to pursue their
educational goals. O
MAE 6.3 | 21
By J.B. Bissell
MAE Correspondent
bissellj@kmimediagroup.com
Supply chain management might not
be the most glamorous position in
the business world, but it very well
could be the most important.
What does it
take to get a good cup of
coffee these days? Ask William Verdini,
the chair of Arizona State University’s supply chain
management department, and he’ll tell you about purchasing and
logistics and how far the product has to travel. The enormity of the task
might be exactly what’s most attractive to future supply chain managers. “I think the students get fascinated with that,” he said.
Supply chain management is the act of overseeing virtually the
entire industrial progression, from raw materials to finished and delivered merchandise. “Talking like that sort of steps on the toes of schools
and colleges of business because it makes supply chain sound like it’s
the whole thing,” Verdini added. “And it is.”
Nevertheless, it’s still one of the last areas of study hopeful business
students consider when planning their educational tracks. “We admit
about 1,000 students into the undergraduate business Bachelor of Science degree program,” Verdini explained. “They’re asked to choose a
major as a freshman. Of those 1,000, about 20 of them choose supply
chain. Not many of them know much about it, or have even heard of it.”
Late Bloomers
Two years or so into the program, however, Verdini noted, there
is usually a dramatic shift in interest. “By the time they’re juniors and
actually taking courses in their major, we have 200.”
And the trend continues into graduate studies. “For the
traditional MBA program, they each get to pick a specialization,” Verdini said. “We bring in about 80 to 100 students and
about half of them pick supply chain. It’s very interesting. Once
folks have some business experience, they really understand the
22 | MAE 6.3
importance of, and are interested in, supply chain.”
This phenomenon of actual experience leading to further interest is
one of the primary reasons why this particular field might be appealing
to men and women with military backgrounds. Every branch of the
armed forces relies heavily on logistics—getting soldiers, equipment,
vehicles and supplies from one place to another. That’s managing a
supply chain in the real world.
When asked if there were notable similarities between military
logistics and those in the business realm, Kathleen Hedland, director
of education and research for the Council of Supply Chain Management
Professionals (CSCMP), said simply: “Oh, absolutely.”
In fact, “we get a lot of calls from people who are currently in the
military,” she said. “They’ve usually done some searching on the Web
or heard word-of-mouth about CSCMP, and they contact us about
the opportunities.”
Career Opportunities
What those men and women will find is that there are indeed a
number of solid prospects. In any given company, “it’s a very important
position,” said Verdini. “Throughout this recession, our students have
had 100 percent placement within three months or so of graduation.
That’s for both undergraduates and master’s level.”
There are numerous reasons for an increased focus on supply
chain. “Globalization is important,” said Hedland. “You really have to
be able to understand how things are sourced, how they’re produced
and how you can transport them. And there are so many regulations,
so many trade agreements. All of those things are common these days.”
Indeed, technology has made the world smaller, but it doesn’t
necessarily make it any easier to navigate all the potential pitfalls of
www.MAE-kmi.com
moving goods and services from one country to another and finally to
the consumer. That remains the task of the supply chain managers, as
does monitoring each step of that product’s progression along the way.
“Not too long ago we had bad paint in some of the toys coming
from China,” recalled Verdini. “Well, the companies delivering those
toys got hit hard for that. You can’t push it off on, ‘Well, it’s not our
fault, it was the supplier.’ The ability to see what those second and
third and further back suppliers are doing—supply chain visibility—is
very important.”
Perhaps the most exciting reason for the resurgence in supply
chain careers, though, is that many companies are recognizing the true
potential of the field and how much of a positive impact it can have on
the bottom line.
“The demand for those students is certainly increasing as many
organizations are viewing supply chain as a critical element of their
competitive strategy,” said David Closs, who heads the supply chain
management department at Michigan State University. “If you look
at Wal-Mart, their competitive advantage is basically an incredibly
efficient supply chain. And many other organizations are using that
as a considerable dimension of the way that they’re competing. Their
business model emphasizes their supply chain capabilities.”
Happily, occupational titles suitable to the significance of the work
also are beginning to surface. “We are seeing chief supply chain officers,
C-level kinds of people in those jobs,” Verdini said. “From an educator’s
point of view, however, our big challenge is that companies would like
our students to know about the supply chain and that broad concept,
but that’s not what they hire them to do right away. Those aren’t the
entry-level jobs; those are five, 10 years down the line. So we have to
give students that broad view, but also get them to understand that
they’re not going to manage the whole thing right away.”
Educational Chain
What students do have the opportunity to experience right away,
however, are programs of study that have evolved to focus on the specific challenges that come with supervising the logistical elements of a
business in the 21st century.
The “education has changed considerably in the last decade,” said
Susan Senger, chair of the business department at Saint Paul College.
“The curriculum now includes more general business classes needed
for students to be successful.” Saint Paul has plans to include a name
change for the school’s two-year associate of applied science in business logistics management. In August, the program will be known as
supply chain logistics. “The business department met with the advisory
committee that consists of industry professionals,” Senger explained,
and “the committee felt strongly that logistics is a component of the
supply chain.”
Of course, the more research one does, the more it really does seem
as though everything is a component of the supply chain. “Our program provides students with a multidisciplinary and cross-functional
approach to business that transcends the traditional functional boundaries and management disciplines that characterize many organizations,” said Senger.
She’s not alone. Verdini and Closs both stressed the importance of
learning across the curriculum and having both a solid and broad base
of business knowledge. “I think the increasing challenge that people
are going to see in supply chain,” said Closs, “is the fact that they’re
pulled into decisions that are more cross-functional than within just
the traditional supply chain arena.
www.MAE-kmi.com
“For example, we had a presentation to our MBA students from
Proctor & Gamble about introducing Tide 2X. When P&G laid out
the problem, it was a packaging problem, it was a sourcing problem,
it was an educating-the-consumer problem, it was a production
problem, it was a satisfying-the-customers problem. It had so many
dimensions, and understanding how to solve them in an integrated
manner is the key.
“We’ve done a good job of getting integration within traditional
supply chain functions, but I think we’re going to get called on for
broader considerations than that.”
One of those more far-reaching and strategic issues is what Verdini referred to as the value chain. “What you focus on is the value,”
he said. “Anything that you do to a product or service that doesn’t
maintain or increase the value to the customer is waste and you don’t
need to be doing it. It’s a way of streamlining supply chains. It’s also
very challenging.”
The Managers
As Hedland noted, this “is not a career you get into and find that
it isn’t challenging.” This probably helps explain why so many people
move in the supply chain direction once they’re exposed to it.
“We typically get accountants who decide they don’t want to be
accountants,” Closs said. “They come to school for that, but they decide
that they don’t want to spend their time doing just the numbers. Or we
will get engineers who decide they don’t want to be just engineers. They
want to interface with people.”
The beauty of a career in supply chain management is that you get
to work with all of those things—numbers, machines and people—but
you’re not stuck with just one.
“It’s a blend between analytical and hands-on projects,” Closs continued. “It’s not for people who want to spend their time in a cubicle
doing analysis or recording. Many supply chain activities are based on
interfacing with suppliers or customers or service providers or operations people at the plants and warehouses.”
And believe it or not, that’s just the beginning. “Our CEO periodically listens in on the conversations you can stream online from Wall
Street, when information is being presented about publicly traded companies,” added Hedland. “He’s said that there are an increasing number
of references about supply chain.
“It’s different types of businesses now, too. The investment world is
looking to hire people who are coming out of university and graduate
supply chain programs because they want men and women who can
look at the financial reports from the various companies and decide
if the supply chain is efficient, or where the little potential problems
might be.”
In other words, there is a tremendous range of opportunities in
supply chain management. Most importantly, though, according to
Hedland, “In addition to the fact that the compensation is usually quite
favorable, the people who I know in the field love their job.
“They like what they do, and there are always opportunities for
creativity, suggesting new ways of doing things, and being very engaged
in a significant part of the company and in the success of it.” Like, for
example, how to most efficiently transport coffee from the fields of
South America to a store in Phoenix, Ariz. O
For more information, contact MAE Editor Mark Fitzgerald
at markf@kmimediagroup.com or search our online
archives for related stories at www.MAE-kmi.com.
MAE 6.3 | 23
It’s an employer’s market, and
those with hiring power are getting
more and more specific about the
qualifications they seek.
By Celeste Altus
MAE Correspondent
altusc@kmimediagroup.com
Jobs are as scarce as they are volatile—
layoffs, furloughs and attrition have made
even employed workers nervous about their
standing. The unemployment rate for veterans who served in the military at any time
since September 2001—those referred to
as “Gulf War-era II” veterans—reached 11.5
percent last year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics recently reported.
In response to this bad economic climate,
competition among job seekers has spiked. It
is an employer’s market, and those with hiring power are getting more and more specific
about the qualifications they seek. They can
call the terms.
As a result, students are looking beyond
the associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree,
and enrolling in certificate programs to give
them a competitive edge. Many professions,
such as law and health care, have always
required licensing or credentialing as a
barrier to entry. Now, more industries are
increasing their professional qualifications.
Information technology, finance and human
resources are some examples of industries
that are building more requirements in to
even the most basic, entry-level jobs.
Standing Out
There are about as many certificate and
credential programs as there are industries,
so when transitioning from military to
civilian work, students have many choices.
They range from traditional certified public
24 | MAE 6.3
accountant licensure programs to highly specialized information technology programs to
more general project management programs.
Justin Orgeron is a veteran who took the
certification route and said he is happy he
did. Orgeron, who served in the Marine Corps
from 1996 to 2004, is an IT professional who
looked into certification and decided it would
be a smart investment.
He currently works overseas as a program
manager in information technology, and has
earned several certifications in addition to his
college degree. He is a MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician), Comptia
A+Comptia Security+ ITIL, Intermediate
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and PMP (Project Management Professional).
He said each of the programs varied in
length. With prior knowledge and a bit of
study to brush up on things forgotten, he said
some certifications could be taken in as little
as one afternoon, such as A+ and Security+.
Others require coursework to be completed
prior to sitting for the exam, and still others
require months of preparation. “The CISSP
and PMP both take serious study and also
have requirements for real-world experience
that must be met before you can sit the
exams,” he said.
Some of Orgeron’s certifications cost
$250, and others ranged from $500-$600.
He also enrolled in refresher, “boot camp”
programs that cost him $2,000. “They were
worth the time and money,” he said. “Some
[programs] are better than others.”
The boot camp classes helped students
take a year of preparation and crystallize
materials learned before the actual exam, he
noted. “You can do without it, but I would
suggest a refresh course for anyone attempting the PMP or CISSP. Living and breathing
the material for a week with nothing else on
your plate can make a world of difference. I
attribute that to my passing the CISSP on
the first try . . . many others have not been
so lucky.”
Higher Wages
After he earned his CISSP and PMP
certifications, he found that they translated
almost instantly into a higher wage bracket.
“They’re in demand with employers, and that
equals a higher starting salary than would
otherwise be offered,” he said. “If you’re looking for a job, certifications are an extremely
effective way to separate your resume from
the others.”
In addition, many recruiters have trouble understanding and translating the more
technical aspects of IT positions. Sometimes
resume searches are run based on keywords,
and hiring managers do more vetting of
the candidates. On-the-job experience is still
“the gold standard” when actually sitting an
interview, Orgeron said, but certifications
make extremely convenient keywords when
running those searches.
www.MAE-kmi.com
“If you are already in a job, hard work
will get you promoted in IT, but certifications are an easy way to get noticed by upper
management and help them justify a promotion,” he added. “If you already have the
knowledge and experience … why wouldn’t
you get the certification?”
Credentials are a wise investment, said
Jennifer Dunleavy, president of Accuro, an
executive staffing and recruitment firm in
Raleigh, North Carolina. Accuro regularly
works with Fortune 500 companies and
places workers in high-profile technical and
financial positions.
“Any additional credentials one could
secure in order to confirm their expertise
is really important,” Dunleavy said. “Any
credential that can be paired with a college
degree is really going to set an individual
apart from the pack.”
Dunleavy frequently works with job seekers on strategies to improve their profiles and
visibility with recruiters. She stressed that the
certification itself has value beyond what is
printed on the page.
“It really does not only show the level
of dedication and ethics that the individual
has to their career and their own potential,
but also demonstrates to an employer what
dedication and work ethic they can bring to
a job,” she said.
doesn’t tend to hire people who have only
studied concepts. It moves too fast for
“armchair strategists,” he said. “We want it
to be real-world. If there is no market for it,
it may be a great topic, it may be a fun topic,
but we don’t want to spend time on it. You
want to make every minute count. We have
adult learners here.”
IT has been a hot industry for many
years, but the September 11 attacks sent
it into high gear, especially in the area of
security. Benjamin said the huge increase
in cybercrime has created a demand for
trained professionals in information security and assurance, and digital forensics.
These are two areas of concentration
AMUS offers in its IT studies department.
“Cyber-terrorism has become a big issue,
so protecting our assets has become a top
priority,” he recognized.
Beyond Numbers
The financial world is another area of
rapid growth that it virtually limitless when
it comes to professional designations. At
The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.,
Professor Kevin Lynch has taken his experience in the financial services industry, along
with multiple certifications, and used them
to boost his career in the education sector.
A Vietnam veteran, Lynch grew up in
the military; his father was a Command
Growing Together
Sergeant Major for Army Special Forces.
He served in the Army from 1968 to 1970
“Companies right now are looking for
as a Sergeant E-5 and went on to earn
individuals who can help them grow or help
four degrees. Lynch is now
their company become more
pursuing his doctorate in
efficient,” Dunleavy added.
business and has earned
“So, in our efforts, what we
15 professional credentials,
are seeing is companies are
some of which include a
really investing in talent that
CFP (certified financial
can help grow a top line, or
planner), ChFC (chartered
grow a bottom line of the busifinancial consultant) and
ness. These are going to be a
CLU (certified life underlot of people with strong anawriter).
lytical capacities, analysts, for
His certifications also
example, who can help evaluKevin Lynch
served him in his career
ate opportunities as well as
before he was in academics.
efficiencies and processes.”
Before joining The American College, Lynch
Information technology is arguably one
worked in the financial services industry. The
of the fastest-growing and fastest-moving
CFP curriculum is a good example of the
sectors of the labor market. Daniel Benaverage amount of work it takes students to
jamin, the interim dean of the School of
earn a certification. CFP designation consists
Science and Technology at American Public
of six different classes: Financial Planning:
University System, said certifications are in
Process and Environment; Fundamentals of
high demand in his field. “One of the chalInsurance Planning; Income Taxation; Planlenges in the world of IT is if you are out for
ning for Retirement Needs; Investments; and
a month, you are obsolete,” he said.
Fundamentals of Estate Planning.
According to Benjamin, the IT field
www.MAE-kmi.com
Students also get a review for the CFP
examination.
People Too
Human resources opportunities are
growing fast and have a strong employment outlook, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics. Experience and graduate
degrees are often favored in HR candidates,
but the field is using more certifications to
screen employees.
The HR Certification Institute in Alexandria, Va., has been awarding credentials for
33 years. They offer a professional in human
resources, a senior professional in human
resources, and a global professional in human
resources, as well as the California certifications of two of those.
“These are extremely popular certifications,” said Margaret Brown, spokeswoman
for the HR Certification Institute. Currently,
there are more than 108,000 certificants, in
70 countries, who have passed rigorous exams
to demonstrate their mastery and application
of HR practices, policies and procedures, she
noted.
Students of the school report back that
the certifications give them credibility and
help them find new work more easily than
their peers. Ed Lizotte, Post University’s director of military programs and veterans affairs,
said Post keeps in mind its military students’
larger career and academic goals when advising which professional certificates to pursue.
Post offers a range of certificates, including
HR and paralegal credentials.
“With our military program, we have
found that servicemembers like to feel a
sense of accomplishment rather than just
taking classes,” Lizotte said, “especially if
they are deployed.”
The veterans affairs department at Post
has created an analysis of the school’s credential programs to determine what military
students can pursue while not losing time
and credits. It makes sure the credential programs are credit-bearing and not a dead end
academically.
“The student never loses anything when
they complete a certificate with us,” Lizotte
added. “Just as an associates leads to a bachelor’s degree, a certificate can be a very good
stepping stone.” O
For more information, contact MAE Editor
Mark Fitzgerald at markf@kmimediagroup.com or
search our online archives for related stories
at www.MAE-kmi.com.
MAE 6.3 | 25
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Nevada Regents Reject Campus Closures to Erase Deficit
The board that governs Nevada’s higher
education system has rejected the possibility
of shutting campuses to close the enormous
budget gap the system faces over the next
two years. Governor Brian Sandoval has
proposed a nearly 30 percent cut in the
budget for the Nevada System of Higher
Education by 2013, and presidents of the
system’s campuses have laid out plans
that would eliminate scores of academic
programs and many hundreds of jobs, cut
salaries and sharply increase student tuition
and fees.
But by an 8-5 vote, regents dismissed the
alternative of closing campuses, amid opposition to the idea from students, college officials
and local business leaders. Regents debated
a proposal that would merge Nevada State
College into the College of Southern Nevada,
Desert Research Institute into the Universities
of Nevada, Las Vegas and Reno, and the three
northern community colleges into one entity.
The proposal came after regents asked the
chancellor’s office to analyze how much
money could be saved by mergers. The total
savings was estimated at $15 million per year.
“I don’t know why we’re reversing course
today when the budget numbers haven’t
changed,” Board Chairman James Dean Leavitt
said, noting that he did not want to remove any
options from the table when the size of the cut
is still unknown.
Governor Brian Sandoval has proposed
cutting state support to higher education by 16
percent next year and by 29 percent in 2013. State
support would go from $558 million this year to
$466 million next year to $395 million in 2013.
Sandoval has proposed salary cuts and tuition
and fee increases as ways to make up the losses.
NECB, NIWH Look Out for Military Spouses
The New England College of Business (NECB)
will offer reductions in tuition on associate degrees
in business administration for all spouses of active
duty servicemembers. The discount will bring the
entire tuition cost of the degree to $4,000. Under the
new military spouse scholarship guidelines, Military
Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA)
benefits can cover 100 percent of the tuition cost.
The original MyCAA program, which provides
education funding for spouses of active duty DoD
servicemembers, started in 2009 with 136,000 applications and over 98,000 spouses receiving funding.
On October 25, 2010, the new MyCAA program began
accepting applicants under guidelines that are more
26 | MAE 6.3
restrictive, limiting the program to associate degrees
and certificates. The amount of the funding has
also been reduced from $6,000 down to $4,000 and
limited to spouses of military members who are
E1-E5, W1-W2 and O1-O2.
NECB responded to the new restrictions by
offering a program to all spouses that would open
the opportunity to earn an associate degree with
no out-of-pocket tuition expense. The program was
targeted to end in January, but due to the positive
response and New England College of Business’
commitment to the military community, it has been
extended until May 26 to allow spouses more time for
MyCAA funding approval.
In related news, the National Institute
of Whole Health (NIWH) is opening its military
scholarship program to all spouses of active duty
military personnel. The scholarship can be used
towards any one of NIWH’s educational programs.
Originally intended only for MyCAA eligible spouses,
the program has been expanded to accommodate
increased need for educational opportunities.
“Since announcing the scholarship a few
months ago, we have been inundated with calls
by military spouses who want to participate,
but do not qualify for MyCAA benefits,”
said Dr. Georgianna Donadio, program
director for NIWH. “The original intention behind the scholarship program
was to assist in providing demystified whole health information for
the people who need it most. Given
the response we’ve had over the past
months, it is clear to us that this need exists for a
much wider military spouse audience.”
Millions of U.S. military spouses can now
partake in NIWH’s $1,250 scholarship. This automatic scholarship can be applied to NIWH certification programs—the Whole Health Educator, Whole
Health for Nurses, Whole Health Nutrition Educator
and Whole Health Coaching certifications.
For health, allied health and education professionals, the programs enable military spouses to
enrich their existing education with knowledge of
“the whole picture of health” for career advancement. Spouses are able to train to care for the whole
person, addressing not just the physical aspect of
health, but also the emotional, nutritional, environmental and spiritual.
Participants can also elect to enroll in NIWH’s
whole health certificate of study programs and receive
a scholarship equal to 25 percent off the standard
tuition. The NIWH Family Health Advocate Certificate
of Study, Whole Health and Wellness Certificate
of Study and the Health and Wellness Coaching
Certificate of Study are open to all non-credentialed
students for personal health enrichment.
These programs were designed to assist military families in supporting their own members’
personal health needs, addressing many of the health
concerns affecting active military soldiers today,
including post-traumatic stress conditions and brain
injuries. All courses are video-based and can be
streamed online from anywhere in the world, an
option that is particularly useful for military families
that frequently move.
www.MAE-kmi.com
Mae CALEND A R & DI REC TO RY
The advertisers index is provided as a service to our readers. KMI cannot be held responsible for discrepancies due to last-minute changes or alterations.
Advertisers Index
Ashford University............................................................................. 7
www.military.ashford.edu/mae
Blackboard........................................................................................ 3
www.blackboard.com/gov
Everest University Online................................................................ C4
www.everestmilitary-online.com
Kaplan University ........................................................................ 16
www.military.kaplan.edu
Keiser University. . ............................................................................ 19
www.keisersuccess.com/military
Northeastern University.................................................................. 11
www.northeastern.edu/militarycps
Penn State University Outreach...................................................... 18
www.worldcampus.psu.edu/educatingmilitary
Thomas Edison State College........................................................... 10
http://military.tesc.edu
Ultimate Medical Academy. . ....................................................... 21, 27
www.ultimatemedical.edu/mae
University of Maryland University College . . .................................... C2
http://military.umuc.edu/cybergoal
University of Phoenix...................................................................... C3
www.phoenix.edu/military
Calendar
May 1-4, 2011
USDLA 5th Annual
Conference
St. Louis, Mo.
www.usdla.org/2011_
national_conference/
July 24-28, 2011
2011 AACC Annual Meeting
Atlanta, Ga.
www.aacc.org/
events/2011am/pages
/default.aspx
May 22-25, 2011
ASTD 2011 International
Conference & Exposition
Orlando, Fla.
www.astdconference.org
August 3-5 2011
Distance Learning
Conference
Madison, Wis.
www.uwex.edu/disted/
conference/index.cfm
Next Issue
May 2011
Volume 6, Issue 4
Cover and In-Depth
Interview with:
Monty Mathis
ESO
Coast Guard
Features
• PTSD Support
The number of veterans
seeking help for post-traumatic
stress disorder has risen
dramatically in recent years.
What resources and systems
of support are available at
colleges and universities for
students with PTSD? What
kinds of therapies have seen
success?
• Communications
MAE looks at several schools
offering programs in
communications and considers
the trajectory of this discipline
for military students as well
as the job outlook for related
professions.
• Internships
Amid this slow economy,
companies are increasingly
offering internships as a way
to save money and bolster
efficiencies. MAE considers
the appeal of a variety of
opportunities and how
students can leverage them
to land permanent jobs and
launch careers.
Special Section
Tuition Assistance
Are servicemembers taking advantage of tuition assistance as
much as they can? MAE looks
at nuances of implementation,
incentives, patterns of success
and big picture impacts as well
as opportunities for improvement and challenges moving
forward.
Ad Deadline: May 10, 2011
www.MAE-kmi.com
MAE 6.3 | 27
University Corner
Military Advanced Education
S. David Vaillancourt
Online Director of Education
Ultimate Medical Academy
instructional tools to meet the needs of
each student.
Q: Can you please provide a snapshot
of the college’s history, curriculum and
mission statement?
A: Over the last 15 years, Ultimate Medical Academy has trained thousands of
students for careers in the allied health
field. Our operation was founded in
Florida where we have three campuses,
including a growing online school. We
are a community committed to the belief
that higher education has the power to
transform lives. Health care training is
all we do, and we measure our success by
how well our students are prepared for
and obtain jobs in this growing industry.
Ultimate Medical Academy serves its
students by providing a quality education in a friendly, encouraging and professional environment. Every day, UMA
faculty and staff strive to build this atmosphere by providing the fundamentals,
support and materials necessary for our
students to achieve success both within
and beyond our doors.
It is a sincere pleasure to be a part
of this dedicated and highly-skilled team
at Ultimate Medical Academy. Since my
honorable discharge from the U.S. Army
in 1986, I have devoted my life to advancing all levels of education. From teaching the sciences in the K-12 public
school arena to completing the doctor
of education in instructional technology and distance education, my career
in education continues to build on the
foundational life knowledge and skills
taught in the regular Army. My tour with
the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield
Barracks provided me with insights I
continue to use today in the development
of educational offerings designed to meet
the growing needs of today’s military
personnel.
Q: What sets UMA apart from other
schools?
28 | MAE 6.3
Q: What have been some of the biggest
lessons you’ve learned since assuming
your post?
A: We have a special focus in health care
training. It is our special assignment.
Health care continues to be a growing
industry in today’s climate. UMA has
enjoyed strong growth and popularity
based on our commitment to education,
job placement and, most of all, the efforts
of our dedicated students and faculty.
We take a personal interest in student
success and encourage students to work
closely with our instructors and staff,
along with their fellow students, to form
a strong network that will enrich the student’s school experience and support you
along the way.
Q: What are some of UMA’s most popular programs that are offered to military
spouses?
A: Our associate degree programs in
health sciences [pharmacy technician and
medical administrative assistant tracks]
and medical billing and coding.
A: In the military, you always drive yourself for continuous improvement in the
effectiveness of your team. Relating to my
experience at Schofield, I’ve found that
UMA is no different in its core value for
students, instructors or staff. Continually refining educational efficiency and
achievement is critical for anyone who is
serious about adult education in today’s
world. Ultimate Medical Academy is serious about delivering a high quality education to the dedicated student we serve.
Q: Looking ahead, how will the college
realize its core objectives and aspirations?
A: We will continue to focus on career
placement and outcomes of our students.
This is and always has been extremely
important to the success of our school.
We understand health care and will continue to ensure we provide a quality
online experience to our students.
Q: What is UMA doing to keep up with
growing technologies and opportunities
related to distance learning?
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to
add?
A: We are very active in investing in
emerging technologies. I am personally
leading an effort to implement engagement metrics and academic analytics to
ensure we offer a robust online experience to our military students. Other
enhancements include interactive, scenario-based simulations, individualized
student desktops available online for 24/7
access from any computer with Internet access, high-tech laboratory simulations over the Internet and personalized
A: When professionals are giving advice to
the people they serve, the customer who
is in critical need of a solid and straightforward answer may ask, “If it were your
family member, what would you do?” I am
very pleased to say that my oldest daughter recently completed a diploma program
at UMA as a patient care technician. She
is eagerly looking forward to pursuing her
associate’s degree online next fall. UMA’s
dedication to its students is something I
know I can depend on. O
www.MAE-kmi.com
Questions About Financing College?
At Ease.
The new Everest Military Scholarship can cut tuition
by up to 50% for all active duty personnel and their spouses!
If you’re thinking about starting college but have questions about the
costs, call Everest University Online. Our student finance planners are
experts on the education benefits available to you.
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