UA Ranked As Top Ten Military Friendly School
- March 9th, 2022
- in Student Stories
The University of Alabama has been ranked among the top ten Military Friendly® Schools for 2022-2023. Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation are evaluated using public data as well as surveys from participating institutions and input from student veterans. Over 1,800 institutions participate in this process, so earning a top ten spot is quite an accomplishment.
“We’re very proud of this distinction for UA,and I’m proud to serve alongside a team that cares so deeply about our student veterans,” said David Blair, director of the Veteran and Military Affairs (VMA) office on campus. “We’re here to serve the unique needs of our students who are veterans and help ease their transition into college life and help them reach their educational goals. It’s a personal mission of mine to always go above and beyond in providing exceptional customer service to veterans, and this status as a top ten school from the Military Friendly Schools list is a sign that we’re doing that.”
One of the ways the VMA has gone above and beyond in the last year is in their initiative to pilot an on campus satellite office for the VA clinic, which opened in the fall. No other school in the nation offers this convenience exclusively for the veterans in their student, faculty and staff communities. UA is leading the way, providing an innovative solution to long wait times and difficulty getting to the off-campus VA location for certain appointments. The satellite office is a partnership between the Division of Student Life and the Tuscaloosa Veteran Affairs Medical Center, with funding provided by the Alabama Marines Foundation, the Campus Veterans Association and David and Linda Ford.
The VMA is a department within the Division of Student Life. Their award-winning staff includes men and women who have served in the armed forces, so they are able to help student veterans from a more personally informed perspective. Their commitment to excellence in serving campus veterans has earned the Capstone a Military Friendly® distinction for many years.