August 11, 2023
Oakland University has once again earned the highest possible ranking for veteran-friendliness among the state’s higher education institutions. The Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency (MVAA) awarded Oakland gold-level status for its strong commitment to serving the educational needs of military-connected students.
Created in 2013, the Veteran Friendly Schools program recognizes schools with gold, silver and bronze rankings based on seven criteria:
• Established process for identifying student veterans
• Veteran-specific website
• Active student-operated veterans club or association;
• Veteran-specific career services, resources, advising and/or outcome monitoring;
• On-campus veterans’ coordinator and/or designated staff point of contact;
• System to evaluate and award credit based on military training and experience;
• Monitoring and evaluation system for student veteran academic retention, transfer and graduation rates.
Gold-level certification requires six or more of the criteria, while Silver schools must complete four and Bronze schools, three. Oakland met all seven criteria and has earned a gold ranking for seven consecutive years.
“Earning gold-level status for the seventh consecutive year signifies Oakland University’s commitment to our veterans and military-connected population,” said Lisa Rhoades, coordinator for Veterans Support Services at Oakland University. “The mission of the VSS office is to provide gold-level service for our military-connected students every day.”
To learn more about veteran support services at Oakland, visit www.oakland.edu/veterans, call (248) 370-2010 or email [email protected].