MPPOC dinner at Multi-Cultural Center is final event for fall 2008 semester
MPPOC’s final event of the fall 2008 semester was held December 5 in the Multi-Cultural Center with about 15 members attending the dinner. Items on the agenda included: discussion of recent media attention MPPOC has received, the University of Arkansas’ creation of 20 $3,000 scholarships for veteran/military students, the progress of the university’s Veterans Task Force (VTF), and election of new officers.
MPPOC has received media attention recently with articles in USA Today, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, on the University of Arkansas’ online Daily Headlines and a recent National Public Radio interview with MPPOC President Emile Phaneuf. Links to most of the articles can be found under the In The News tab.
The University of Arkansas’ Veterans Task Force had previously asked MPPOC to make recommendations for the criteria that would be applied to the newly created scholarships. Several ideas were offered up by the MPPOC members attending and then agreed upon. The recommended criteria will be submitted to the VTF. A link will be placed on the MPPOC website once the criteria is finalized. The scholarships will be available for the fall 2009 semester.
MPPOC Veteran/Military Health Issues Officer Chris Perry discussed his meeting with the university’s Student Health Advisory Committee. Perry had recommended to the SHAC that they be proactive in their outreach to veteran/military students. Issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and subsatnce abuse were discussed. He said that the SHAC was very interested in the health needs of veteran students. “They (SHAC) were very supportive and offered any assistance they could,” Perry said.
Emile Phaneuf, who has served as MPPOC’s President since summer 2008, announced he would be stepping down at the end of the semester. He then nominated MPPOC Vice President Hosa Rentsendorj to replace him. The motion was seconded and put to a vote which was passed. Rentsendorj then nominated MPPOC Webmaster/Public Relations Officer Jebediah Williams for the position of Vice President. This motion was also seconded, voted on and passed. Newly elected officers will take over their positions beginning in the spring semester 2009.
Organization Develops Quickly
Military Past and Present On Campus was a quick development. The idea came from a luncheon held early in March of 2008. After the spring break week, there were only five days left to complete applications to form a new RSO and to meet the 2008-2009 fiscal deadline. Luckily, strong minds prevailed and the paperwork was filed and the organization became OFFICIALLY established.
The founding members must be recognized as it was with everyones support to this paramount idea that it was able to unravel and develop into what it has become within a months time.
The founding cabinet members and the primary advisor is as follows:
Bill Oliver (first Advisor), Derek Gordon (first President), Khosbayar Rentsendorj (first Treasurer)
The founding members are as follows:
Andrew Suchanek, Arthur Leal, Bernard Sulliban, Carrie McCabe, Daniel Lindsay, Derek Gordon, Emile Phaneuf, Jeffrey Walker, John Carter, Kalesha McGraw, Kelly Walters, Khosbayar Rentsendorj, Lance Lawrence, Manuel Medina, Peter Hilton, Teresa Garcia, Timothy Farley, Wallace Bryant, Wendy Western, William Fink, and Zachary Asbury
The founding advising team consisted of the following:
Bill Oliver, Jeffrey Martindale, and Josette Cline
In an effort to get the website up and running as quickly as possible, we found it best to copy an article about the organizations development into the History section. Hats off to Larry Burge for writing this!
New RSO targets veterans
By: Larry Burge Posted: 3/14/08
One of the oldest segments of the American society is also one of the least represented on the UA campus, but a group met Wednesday to discuss the need of representation for the country’s armed forces veterans.
Mental health clinicians Josette Cline and Jeff Martindale, both from Pat Walker Health services, led the discussion Wednesday before a representative group of six veterans in the Multicultural Center library. Those attending this inaugural meeting were interested in forming a new veteran Registered Student Organization.
The best estimate Cline gave for the number of veterans registered in UA classes was somewhere between 350-700 students.
“No one can provide us with the numbers of vets in school, and that’s nuts,” said retired Sgt. Maj. Birch Farley, who counsels veterans at the Fayetteville office of Workforce Arkansas and is a UA senior.
Farley said he spent 21 years as an army paratrooper and came to the meeting to lend his support to the veteran’s effort.
Potential members of the new RSO hope to assist all armed forces veterans to adjust from the military life into civilian life, as well as explore what a veteran needs to succeed on campus as a UA student.
“Vets need to realize how to go about getting benefits and getting everything taken care of,” said Andrew Suchanek, a junior math student and veteran. “I mean, I just came to Arkansas. I didn’t know anybody. It made it so much easier when I found the right people. When I came in the spring of ‘07, I had no clue of what was going on.”
Suchanek said it took a while for him to locate people to help him. He had to find out where to go, how to fill out the paperwork, how to set up classes and how to get everything prepared to start back in school, all with the added pressures placed on him in his transition from military to civilian life.
“I mean, you all will agree, it’s crazy. It’s not the same,” Suchanek told the group. “You’re dependent upon yourself. You’ve got to know when to wake yourself up, take care of your business. There’s nobody out there to tell you what to do anymore.”
He, along with the other veterans who attended the meeting, said they wanted to help form a pathway to guide other military veterans, to show them the right things to do and where to go. The group’s consensus expressed the need to make the student transition process a lot smoother for future military veterans.
The process started when Derek Gordon, active duty Air Force and current UA student, met Cline in the health center in October.
“We just started talking about vets not knowing where to go around [the UA campus] to get help,” Gordon said.
Gordon volunteered to be the president of the new RSO, and Hosa Rentsendorj, finance major, said he would be treasurer, the two necessary positions to apply for RSO status.
Gordon called a second meeting for 4 p.m. today in the Multicultural Center to establish the organization’s name, complete necessary paperwork and write a veteran’s RSO Constitution.