Joshua Hays wants to make sure none of his fellow servicemen are left behind.
UB military veterans are teaming up with the UB Office of Veteran Affairs to help guide those after returning from service.
The UB Veterans Association (UBVA), a new club on campus, is a branch of Veteran Affairs. The temporary Student Association club helps identify veterans on campus to provide a sense of community for those returning from deployment.
"A lot of the people that come to campus, they did four or eight years of active duty, and they are 20 to 24 years old and are coming back to school in a freshman classroom going, 'This is stupid. What am I doing with my life?'" said Hays, the new club's vice president and a senior political science major.
UBVA President Warren Griffin is optimistic for what the club can provide to students. He said that, in the past, veteran services have not been hands on enough to reach and assist student veterans.
"The club exploded out of a passionate meeting amongst student and staff about the opportunity to create better veteran services at UB," said Griffin, a senior political science major and five-year Army veteran. "Veteran services have not been very physical at UB. And that's one of our big focuses now, is creating a community, creating an infrastructure for advocacy and for support."
The club board came together to inform students about what Veterans Affairs can offer. The office provides things for former militants that are essential to helping them post-service, such as academic support and financial advisement.
Although these benefits have always been available, senior academic advisor Tommie Babbs, who deals with military credit evaluation, feels the new club will help students become more aware.
"It can only help the students get better," Babbs said. "With academic affairs working with students and students working with academic affairs and finding information that we can all share together, that's the kind of goal the university wanted to do anyway."
Through Veteran Affairs, students are granted college credit based upon a set list of criteria Babbs helps them sort through.
The new club will make it easier for advisors at UB to identify student veterans, according to Brandon Gilliland, a financial advisor at UB and UBVA.
In the spring, the UB Military Members Association was derecognized for inactivity. Afterwards, Veterans Affairs reached out to veteran students to create the new club, according to Hays, who has served in the Marine Corps Reserve for the past three years.
Hays, along with other group members, found the previous constitution from the last group had not been revised since May 1989. The old constitution did not meet the goals of the current group and Hays is rewriting it.
The group also prides itself in reaching out to international veterans because Americans have served alongside other nations, too.
Justin Lee, a former member of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps and reserve member and a junior business major, feels the new club is essential to helping servicemen adjust.
"For me, it provides a place for international veterans to connect and to let you know you're not alone; you're not the only one who feels like a hermit," Lee said. "And you don't have to be that hermit. There are plenty of opportunities."
UBVA meets every Thursday at 3 p.m. at Allen Hall on South Campus. New members are welcome.
email: news@ubspectrum.com
