Moraine Valley Institutes Changes to Veterans Education Program

Mandatory Veterans Advising

About 500 veterans attend classes at . To ensure they receive their full stipends from the federal government, the college has made it mandatory for student-veterans to sit down with academic advisors before enrolling in classes.

Assistant dean of new student retention Jo Ann Jenkins told the board the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs gives student-veterans rigid guidelines for college courses and withholds the stipends of those who deviate from the rules. Some veterans use those stipends not just for books and fees, but “to live on and feed their families,” said Jenkins, who also services as the campus veterans coordinator.

As of fall 2010, she noted, 52 percent of the college’s veterans were registered in what were considered by the VA to be wrong or repeat courses. Before enrolling in school, veterans must file their intended major with the government.

Mandatory group sessions were scheduled last fall, and by the first day of semester every student-veteran had been certified in the appropriate courses, Jenkins said.

A member of the Army Reserve, student trustee Gennaro Paolella spoke favorably of Jenkin’s mandatory group advising sessions from experience.

State Senator Viverito Honored

The board presented recently retired state senator Louis Viverito (D-11) with a not-so-modestly size memento for his work with the college.

“I never dreamed you would do anything like this for me,” he told the board, holding his framed plaque. “Obviously, I have always had a very strong belief in this community college, and the hard work that all of you do…I was paid as a senator. You are volunteers, so you are all very special.”

Chairman Joseph Murphy said the community college was “blessed” to have had Viverito’s help on a number of important issues, including the approval of a 2006 bond issue.

Degree Partnership with Governors State

Starting next fall, the college will offer a dual degree program with Governor’s State.

Vice president for student development Normah Salleh-Barone told the board that students who successfully complete an associate degree at Moraine Valley after this semester will be guaranteed admission to Governors State University (GSU) in University Park.

What’s more, Moraine Valley freshman students who commit to GSU will be locked into a tuition rate at that time, she said. Both institutions will share advising resources and data to help students with a smooth transition.

Student Trustee Exits

Gennaro Paolella completed his interim term as Moraine Valley Community College board student trustee on Tuesday night, shortly after delivering his last presentation.

Paolella, 20, was seated in until the student body prepared an official election. The Moraine student and Orland Park resident was asked to return to next month’s board meeting to receive a plaque and to greet a newly seated student trustee.

“My experience has been…invaluable,” he said before Tuesday’s meeting, noting that he’s learned how to balance perception with reality. “You come to realize that something that may seem like a quick fix (to student) really involves each individual in the context of the organization.”

In only three months, Paolella said he’s proud of having helped revive the school’s newsletter and having proposed a veterans’ work-study program. During last month’s discussion of textbook rentals, the student trustee told board members the college could help students save money by encouraging its own teachers and departments to write textbooks, thereby removing book suppliers from the commercial chain.

In Tuesday’s report, Paolella highlighted the recent accomplishments of Phi Theta Kappa scholars and played a video of the college's St. Baldrick’s Day Event, which raised $4,500 for cancer research by buzzing and donating hair.

Paolella doesn’t plan on running in the student trustee election and instead looks forward to studying biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in preparation for post-graduate study in pharmacy.