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New advocates for transfer students and veteransMay 29, 2007 KALAMAZOO--A new office is being established to smooth the transfer of students into Western Michigan University from community colleges and other four-year colleges and universities as well as deal with exit and re-entry problems that military personnel sometimes experience. The Advocacy Office for Transfer Students and Military Affairs will open on the upper floor of the Bernhard Center in June. Contact information and additional details will be reported in WMU News as they become available. Two seasoned academic advisors, Steven Miller and Geraldine "Gerry" Schma, will serve as the office's advocates. Miller is an advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences while Schma is the General University Studies advisor in Extended University Programs. Creation of the office was announced May 15 in an e-mail letter to faculty and staff from interim President Diether H. Haenicke. Initially, the new unit will report directly to the president. "We have met with staff from various University offices who are engaged in transfer activities and are pleased to know that we shall have broad cooperation for this attempt to increase the numbers of transfers to our campus and to ease their transition," Haenicke said in his letter. "The advocates will regularly and frequently visit Michigan community colleges to inform our colleagues and their students on these campuses of the many transfer options available at WMU." Miller and Schma will study the articulation agreements the University has with its sister institutions in terms of how they impact transfers, make sure students on other campuses have early information about transfer requirements, work with academic units across campus to improve the ease of transferring to WMU, and advocate for all WMU transfer students, with the goal of making transfer to the University smooth and seamless. In addition, the two will facilitate the exit and re-entry of all students who are called into military service by providing relevant information to these students and advocating for them should individual problems arise. Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu WMU News |
