BGSU named ‘veteran-friendly campus’ Transitioning from life on a military base to life on a college campus can be a mission in and of itself. Take, for example, student-veteran Ashley Kindle. When she first applied to BGSU, Kindle was unsure of the enrollment process. “I had a lot of questions and didn’t know who to talk to,” recalled the junior social work major. “BGSU really helped out,” and Kindle received the input and direction she needed to get accepted into her program. It’s a high level of support she’s been able to count on ever since. “I had training last semester around the last week of school and I wasn’t sure how going away would affect my grades,” said Kindle. “My professors helped work around my schedule and I was able to set up alternate times to take exams.” Master Sgt. Robert Cook has also found BGSU’s faculty to be particularly helpful. Arriving in August of 2008 to serve as a senior military instructor with BGSU’s Army ROTC program, Cook was coming off the rigors of a 15-month deployment in Iraq. Even this toughened Army veteran with more than 22 years of military service found being a nontraditional student a little intimidating at first.
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“It was a new experience to attend class with others who are the same age as my own kids,” Cook recalled. “But my professors went out of their way to make me feel like I fit in and to provide the support I needed.” These kinds of efforts to ease the way for those who have served the country have earned BGSU recognition as a military-friendly school by G.I. Jobs magazine. The honor places the University in the top 15 percent of schools nationwide. BGSU has also been recognized by Military Times EDGE, ranking it 77th from more than 4,000 accredited institutions of higher learning. These designations are the result of strong campuswide involvement in helping student-veterans, said Duane Whitmire, a retired administrator who headed a special Student-Veteran Task Force. Task Force co-chair Dr. Brett Holden from the Theatre and Film department pointed to the many “hidden concerns” facing student-veterans: “With the chance they may be deployed during any given semester, active-duty military personnel–as well as members of the National Guard and Reserve–often find it difficult to plan life around