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News Release

Last modified: Friday, January 30, 2009

IU President McRobbie establishes new committee to serve the needs of veterans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 30, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie today (Jan. 30) announced that he is establishing a university-wide wide Veterans Services Coordinating Committee.

Last June, President George W. Bush signed the Post-9/11 Veterans Assistance Act into law. The law greatly expands benefits beyond the GI Bill and has the potential to provide generous financial assistance to 1.6 million active-duty and reserve post-9/11 veterans.

The Veterans Administration is working to implement the regulations, expected by the fall of this year, and IU needs to be ready and accessible for this additional group of important potential students, McRobbie said.

"We expect that this new GI Bill will be very popular with the large number of veterans returning from overseas and from military service, especially in these difficult economic times," McRobbie said. "IU has the potential to serve many additional veterans on all IU campuses, and I want this committee to ensure that we are doing all we can to assist these potential students in their transition to higher education."

Kirk White, director of community relations at IU Bloomington and a lieutenant colonel in the Indiana National Guard, will chair the eight-member committee.

"This is another way that IU is working to help returning vets under the GI Bill, particularly those who are returning to the Hoosier state in these times of economic difficulty, who will help Indiana come out of the recession more strongly," White said.

"Our goal is to make Indiana University campuses even more user-friendly providers of choice for military personnel," he added. "From distance learning courses while deployed to traditional residential academic study, IU is the perfect fit for military and civilian professional development."

Also serving on the committee will be:

• Levonda Moseley, the veterans affairs coordinator in the Office of the Registrar at IU Northwest
• Jeff Johnston, director of admissions at IU South Bend
• Becky Porter, director for enrollment services at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
• John Delaney, a financial aid counselor at IU Kokomo
• Margaret Baechtold, director of veterans support services at IU Bloomington
• Dennis Hicks, registrar at IU East
• Jack Howell, the Veterans Affairs certifying official in the Office of the Registrar at IU Southeast

Each committee member already is active on their campus and familiar with the benefit programs, forms, regulations and unique veteran's issues.

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