The transition from combat to campus is not an easy one.  Military deployments often interrupt college plans, and as a result, student-veterans are faced with the challenge of transferring credits, accumulating too many credits without obtaining a degree, and duplicating course work to meet the requirements of different colleges and universities.  To respond to the needs of student-veterans, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has established many veteran-friendly initiatives.     

For their efforts to support student-veterans, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey was recently named a Service Members Opportunity College (SOC).  Patrick Shields, Coordinator of Veteran Affairs, said, “Stockton’s President, Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr., had the vision to see the need to provide direct services to veterans as they make the difficult transition from military duty to college life.”

SOC is a consortium of approximately 1,800 accredited colleges and universities nationwide that provide degrees to veterans and their adult, dependent family members.  The consortium was founded in 1972 to provide educational opportunities to student-veterans who, because they frequently move from place to place, have trouble completing college degrees.  Key features of the SOC consortium include the following:

 

·         Reasonable transfer of credit

·         Reduced academic residency

·         Credit for nationally-recognized testing programs

 

Patrick Shields said, “With SOC membership, we can officially designate Stockton as a ‘military friendly’ college.  We anticipate an increasingly higher number of military students with a high reputation of leadership, character, and scholarly aptitude who will be attracted to Stockton.”

 

Stockton’s Office of Veteran Affairs worked closely with the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Office of the Dean of Students, and Stockton’s Veterans Advisory Board.  Also, the Office of Distance Learning worked with faculty members to make distance education courses friendlier to military students.   

 

Stockton College takes pride in providing comprehensive services to student-veterans by ensuring that their financial, academic, residential, career and psychological needs are met through the Office of Veteran Affairs.  Stockton is one of the first colleges in New Jersey to hire a full-time staff person to follow-up with student’s needs after they have completed the admission and financial aid process.  To provide further support, a student-veteran group meets on a bi-weekly basis.  Ongoing program initiatives such as state-wide conferences, veteran job fairs, and a veteran’s portal and website are also offered.