COLUMBIA — Columbia College is holding its second Military Recognition Day at 11 a.m. Thursday on Bass Commons.
The event includes a flag-raising, and music and will feature a ribbon-cutting for Columbia College’s new Veterans Service Center.
The center will assist students who are veterans or currently enlisted in the armed services by helping them fill out paperwork to qualify for GI Bill benefits, providing information and serving as a VA work-study site.
The veterans center has been operating since mid-March, the center’s VA certifying official Keila Ferree said. But the ribbon cutting will be its official recognition as a campus resource, and it will continue to find more ways to assist student veterans, she said.
Ferree said veterans centers are becoming more common at college campuses after the GI bill was updated in October. The new version provides veterans who served after Sept. 11 more assistance with education costs, a living allowance and a stipend for books. MU created its veterans center in November.
Colleges have really stepped up efforts to assist students in the military, Ferree said. For Columbia College’s home campus, there are 95 students using VA benefits now, she said, and estimated about 2,200 students are or were in the armed forces across the system.