New department caters to veterans and families

Military and veteran students, rejoice. A new department is now available to provide services and resources solely for students who are veterans or employed by the military.\nThe Office of Veterans Support Services is directed by Margaret Baechtold, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel of 20 years, and assistant-directed by Georgann Wilson, who has worked at IU for decades.\nServices provided for military and veteran students include assistance with registration procedures, aid for students with short-notice military absences, departures and arrivals, and a central authority to refer to resources available to veterans and disabled persons.\n“We have a wide range of areas to aid students,” Baechtold said. “There is a continuation of processing paperwork to get educational benefits from Veteran Affairs, assistance for disabled students, as well as trying to determine who our veteran population is and its academic needs.\n“We are willing to work with spouses of military students who have been deployed, to connect them with other spouses, as well as parents of students after short-notice deployment,” Baechtold said.\nThe department, established by Dean of Students Dick McKaig, was developed from alumnus Jeff Memmer’s IU Military Veteran Student Society club. With the aid of Les Coyne, a former IU administrator, Memmer’s club took off.\n“There was a similar office until about the late 1990s,” Baechtold said. “But it was small and eventually was split and reorganized.”\nThe previous office, Disabled Student Services and Veterans Affairs operated with only a certification official, whose purpose was to process the documentation required by Veterans Affairs to award education benefits. Baechtold said the old office was split into two new departments: the Office of Veterans Support Services and the Disability Services for Students.\n“Several people and students were interested in pointing out the lack of services available to military students and veterans,” Baechtold said. “Now we work with the administration and organizations to talk about policies about deployment and what follows afterwards.”\nThe Office of Veterans Support Services collaborates with the other organizations to recover and refund fees and bills of students who have been deployed early in the semester, Baechtold said.\nFaculty and staff who are involved with the military can currently seek aid from IU’s Human Resources Department in Franklin Hall. For more information, e-mail the \ndepartment.