USD Magazine Spring 2013

Retired Navy Capt. Tim McCandless’ job is to advocate for veterans and help each navigate life as a student.

AROUND  THE PARK

[ a d v o c a t e ]

life keeps on keeping on Founding coordinator of veteran student servi ces comes to USD

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by Krystn Shrieve

filled by retired Navy Capt. Tim McCandless, the founding coordi- nator of veteran student services. His job is to advocate for veterans and help each navigate life as a student. “I liked the thought of helping my fellow veterans achieve success through education,” McCandless says. “The university has great people on staff who are helping veterans in the registrar’s office, in financial aid or in the

known as the post-9/11 GI Bill. It was enacted in 2008. The purpose? To help the nearly 2 million service members who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts attend colleges, universities and training programs. In large part because of these benefits, there’s been a flood of veteran students on college cam- puses that hasn’t been seen in half a century.

According to Marvin Veneracion, the VA school certifying official in USD’s Office of the Registrar, there are currently about 375 students using their GI Bill bene- fits — up about 87 percent from the average number of veteran students that typically enrolled at USD before the new bill went into effect. To help meet the needs of these students, USD created a position that in July 2012 was

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ocated in the heart of a military town, the University of San Diego has always

been dedicated to its military students. But in recent years, USD has stepped up its support of veteran students in a big way. The timing is spot on. The newest version of the GI Bill — which was first signed into law in 1944 to assist veterans return- ing from World War II — is

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USD MAGAZINE