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UWO to honor veterans at football game, hopes to make alumni vet connections

by | Nov 8, 2023 | Alumni News, Headlines

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is honoring soldiers throughout the week and during the Titans  football matchup with UW-River Falls on Veterans Day—Saturday, Nov. 11.

Aaron Kloss, veteran benefit coordinator at UWO Veterans Resource Center (VRC), said traditional activities are taking place throughout the week, including a penny war between the military branches, along with a movie screening, ice cream social, documentary, dedication messages, a lunch event at the VRC and more. Any veteran who shows their ID will get in free to the 1 p.m. football game.

UWO alumni veterans

Members of the UWO Alumni Association will be on hand Saturday at the stadium to welcome UWO veteran alumni.

Tim Ward ’70, of Milwaukee, who served 11 years with the Navy Reserve as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and who is retired from a civilian career with the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, is among those who would welcome an alumni veteran group.

“We feel that veterans share a unique experience,” Ward said. “The Alumni Association can provide an opportunity to meet other UW Oshkosh veteran graduates.”

UWO Veteran Resource Center

With easy access on the first floor of Dempsey Hall, the center in Room 130 provides support for military veterans, spouses and their dependents.

The VRC is closely aligned to the Oshkosh Student Veteran Association—a chapter of the larger national Student Veterans of America.

Kloss, the VRC coordinator, said the center is a gathering place with a pot of coffee brewing and a knowledgeable staff present to answer questions and even provide students help with homework. It’s a place where veterans can meet other veterans and discuss common interests.

Each year, he said, about 270 veterans have been enrolled across the three UW Oshkosh campuses, with an additional 50 enrolled in graduate programs. Numbers, he said, have remained steady over the years.

For veterans and active military students, UW Oshkosh is among the best public universities in Wisconsin and one of the best in the country, according to Military Times, in its 2023 Best for Vets: Colleges list.
UWO ranked among six of the Universities of Wisconsin schools that made the list and among 325 in the country, the news source announced Monday
Student success metrics (completion, retention, persistence, grade-point average, graduation) are the most important factors in determining the relative ranking of schools on this year’s list, followed closely by the range of military-specific resources and the level of financial assistance they offer. Admissions and registration policies, human resources and assorted miscellaneous considerations also factor into the scoring rubric.
Schools were scored not by the sheer number of points but the percentage of points they earned out of the potential number of points achievable by the school.

Kloss, a graduate of UWO and a retired veteran with 17 years of service, including three deployments to Iraq, is proud of the ranking and the support offered in the resource center.

“The VRC office’s greatest service is providing ‘community’,” Kloss said. “I think this is more important now than it ever has been before.”

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