FEBRUARY 25, 2020 — UTSA has been named a Gold Military Friendly School for 2020–2021 by Viqtory Inc. Published by Military Friendly, the Military Friendly Schools survey is the nation’s longest-running review of college and university investments in serving military and veteran students, and UTSA’s gold designation reflects the university’s comprehensive support of its military-affiliated population.
UTSA exceeded all six of the standards set forth by the Military Friendly Schools survey but scored especially high marks in three categories: culture and commitment, admissions and orientation, and academic policies and compliance. UTSA was one of only three four-year research institutions in Texas to earn the gold designation.
“The Military Friendly recognition is important to us as we are working hard to become more veteran-inclusive at UTSA, and that is why we continue to implement new policies and initiatives to help our military-affiliated students in their educational pursuits,” said retired Air Force Col. Lisa Carrington Firmin, associate vice president for veteran and military affairs at UTSA.
“That is why we continue to implement new policies and initiatives to help our military-affiliated students in their educational pursuits.”
—LISA CARRINGTON FIRMIN, Associate Vice President for Veteran and Military Affairs
In its selection Military Friendly suggested veterans and other military-affiliated students should attend UTSA for two key reasons. The first is UTSA’s relationships with several military bases in the region, making the university part of a larger community supporting service members and veterans. The second is the university’s Office for Veteran and Military Affairs, which operates out of the new Center for Military Affiliated Students and provides consolidated services to military-affiliated students on campus. The office’s efforts to advocate, innovate and collaborate to facilitate the inclusion and success of those students are highlighted.
“VMA houses two VA VetSuccess on Campus counselors, provides federal and state certification, and provides programming, which includes priority registration, tailored orientation, mentoring, workshops, emergency funding, scholarships and community partnerships to ease education and career transitions,” Military Friendly wrote.
Several of these items were recent successes implemented by the VMA office. UTSA now offers priority registration and an exclusive orientation tailored to veterans in addition to separate breakout sessions for all military-affiliated family members. Starting this spring, institutional scholarships are being awarded to veteran, guard/reserve, ROTC, active-duty and military-related students for their educational pursuits at UTSA.
Targeted programming such as veteran resource fairs, professional development, and wellness workshops have also been carefully honed and well-received. Firmin added that VMA is working hard to streamline federal and state educational benefit processing and putting more of it online to make the procedure easier for UTSA’s military-affiliated students.
VMA is also engaging in original research into a veteran’s sense of belonging that is informing its work on veteran culture and educating others about the student-veteran population. This research will be instrumental to many initiatives, including cross-cultural considerations training that teaches both veterans and UTSA faculty and staff members about the uniqueness of each culture.
According to the City of San Antonio’s Office of Military and Veteran Affairs, approximately 250,000 veterans live in San Antonio. About 16% of UTSA’s total student population—or 5,220 students—are active-duty military members, veterans, reserves/guard, ROTC and their family members.
Military Times selected UTSA as a 2020 Best for Vets university in November for the university’s accomplishments in serving its military-affiliated population.
