ASSESSING COLLEGE VETERANS SERVICES PROGRAMS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Contact:
Susan R. Komives
CAS President
Komives@umd.edu
Phone: 301.405.2870
Web: www.CAS.edu

NEW STANDARDS PROVIDE A FRAMEWORK FOR ESTABLISHING AND
ASSESSING COLLEGE VETERANS SERVICES PROGRAMS

Washington, D.C. New standards responding to real-time student needs for military
service members, veterans, and their families transitioning from military service in higher
education have been released today by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in
Higher Education (CAS). CAS, composed of 39 collaborating professional associations
representing over 100,000 professionals in higher education, has developed Veterans
and Military Programs and Services (VMPS) Standards and Guidelines grounded in
scholarship through the work conducted by experts within the field of veterans and
military services. “The CAS standards and guidelines for Veterans and Military
Programs and Services are a culmination of the work of several experts and scholars in
the emerging study of and service to veterans in higher education,” stated Douglas
Franklin, Assistant Dean of Students at Ohio University and College Educators for
Veterans Higher Education (CEVHE) Board Member.

After many years of military conflict higher education has faced a wave of military service
members requiring more consistent approaches to meet their unique educational
needs. “Since the end of the Second World War, many colleges and universities have
provided services to military veterans, but not in ways that fully recognized the
educational aims of those students,” said Bob Ackerman, Professor of Educational
Leadership at UNLV and Student Veterans of America (SVA) Board Member.
“Consistent with the premise of the CAS Standards effort, these guidelines are intended
to provide direction to campus leaders as they implement programs and services
designed to support students, who are also military, veterans, and their families.”

“The CAS standards are a set of guidelines to assist schools in helping their student
veterans help themselves. They are not a “one-size-fits-all” standardization but rather
seek not to recreate the wheel on every campus as we can learn from the best practices
of each other” said John Mikelson, President College Educators for Veterans Higher
Education, Co-founder of the Student Veterans Association and the Director of Veterans
Affairs at Association of Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education

CAS was established in 1979 to develop standards that promote college student
learning and promote self-assessment for institutional effectiveness. There are now 42
CAS standards in diverse areas of the college student experiences.

“ I fully support the CAS standards and guidelines of the VMPS. The standards are
greatly needed and a tremendous achievement that will ensure many veterans, service
members, and their families receive the outstanding higher education that they deserve.”
Doug Herrmann, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Indiana State University and Past
President and Co-founder of the College Educators for Veterans Higher Education
(CEVHE)

The new Veterans and Military Programs and Services (VMPS) Standards and
Guidelines is available at www.cas.edu.