Hawks express concerns over state of UHCL’s VSO at town hall

Steven Berberich, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, Daniel Maxwell, interim vice president for student affairs, Yvette Bendeck, assistant vice president for enrollment management, and Brad McGonagle, executive director of human resources, held a town hall meeting Nov. 5 at the Bayou Theater to discuss the current state and future of the Captain Wendell Wilson Veteran’s Services Office (VSO).

In 2008, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act expanded government assistance for veterans pursuing upper-level education. As a result, an influx of veterans began enrolling in college.

The University of Houston-Clear Lake’s (UHCL) VSO emerged from an initiative led by a group of veteran students in 2013, who spent months planning with then President William Staples to create an office that could service veteran students. Such services varied from counseling services to certification. Since its creation, UHCL has seen an increase in enrolled veteran students – 66 percent in five years, from 662 in fall 2013 to 1,105 fall 2018.

The Nov. 5 town hall meeting served as a platform for UHCL’s veteran and veteran dependent students to express their concerns in the wake of the departure of the Director of VSO Trisha Ruiz in July and subsequent departure of Coordinator Jay Hernandez, who was promoted to interim director after Ruiz left. Hernandez’ last day was Oct. 19. Currently, the program assistant, Natasia Pilling, a graduate student, is the only full-time employee running the VSO.

Students at the meeting expressed concerns over veteran-specific counseling services and military financial aid support. They also spoke highly of the previous staff and inquired about the timeline for replacement and solutions for temporary support.

Among the issues students raised were effective timelines for restructuring the VSO, the speed and efficacy of hiring someone to work with students in the office, and ensuring qualified counselors are hired who can meet student veteran needs. Most crucial was the necessity for the VSO not to close entirely during this process.

“It’s imperative that those services remain intact, and I’m 100 percent certain right now we don’t have that,” said one concerned veteran student.

Berberich opened Monday’s meeting by stating he was aware of the students’ concerns.

“This event is one of our ways that we’re going to be able to listen to those concerns, but also we’re going to stay focused on moving forward,” Berberich said. “During this period without the director, we are getting additional support from UH central.”

Bendeck clarified the roles for the VSO to the audience, stating, “There’s three positions that are fully funded by the institution: the director position, the coordinator position, and program assistant position that Natasia was hired to do.”

Jay Hills, assistant registrar at the University of Houston, was identified to be the temporary outside resource for veteran student needs at UHCL.

“We will be coming by hopefully once a week to actually come over to the VSO office so that way you can actually see us, physically see us,” Hills said. “On top of that, we will be certifying at U of H as well.”

Erica Solis, a veteran dependent, who attended the meeting, expressed concerns for qualified counseling services for veterans and veteran dependents.

“I’m a spouse of a veteran, and recently my son just enlisted in the Navy, and it’s been very emotional for me,” Solis said at the meeting, “I have not had the resources here on campus to be able to support me in emotionally coping with this. They don’t have a social worker working with vets. If we don’t have any counselors or therapists that specialize in this population, I don’t really feel like we’re helping our veterans or veteran dependents. Even if there are counselors that have worked with some veterans a couple of times throughout their career here, that is still not specialization.”

Several students vocally agreed with Solis.

The administrative staff explained there are ongoing efforts to staff the VSO and take action to alleviate the concerns of veteran students. Regarding timelines for hiring, Berberich assured students that a position could be filled in the coming months, as late as the early part of the spring 2019 semester.

“What I want to share with you is that the VSO continues to be open for business,” Berberich said. “We’re going to be continuing to support our veteran students and veteran dependent students.”

The administrative staff invited the audience to attend a number of focus groups in order to further refine UHCL’s understanding of what its students require from the VSO and to work with students to find and refine candidates to meet their needs. The first focus group occurred Mon. Nov. 12.

“Based on the conversation at the first focus group, we are drafting a revised position description for the director of VSO,” Maxwell said. “When the draft is complete, we will pull another focus group together to get the veteran student’s feedback and suggestions. We are committed to meeting the needs of our veteran students both in and outside of the classroom along with supporting their success as they persist to graduation at UHCL.”

A date for a second focus group has not yet been announced.