Military life is defined by disruption. Between sudden PCS moves, training rotations, and deployments, a military-connected student’s schedule can change overnight.
“Flexibility is your new currency,” notes Kayla Lopez, VP of Memberships at Military Friendly®. If your academic policies are rigid, the military student breaks. If your policies are agile, the student stays.
In our recent webinar, Thomas Cruise from the University of Tennessee (UT) outlined the specific operational safety nets they use to protect students during periods of military disruption. When a student receives short-term orders to deploy mid-semester, UT initiates an immediate communication loop between the Veterans Success Center, the Bursar’s office, Admissions, and the student’s faculty.
By watching the replay, higher-ed administrators will discover how to implement a Military Absence Policy that ensures:
- Students pulled for mid-semester deployments receive no failing grades.
- There are zero financial penalties or tuition debts incurred for answering the call to duty.
- Students do not have to pay a re-application fee when they return; their enrollment is simply held securely in place.
However, policy is only as effective as the people enforcing it. Cruise emphasizes that educating faculty on military culture cannot be a one-time checked box. UT conducts consistent “Green Zone” training across the university to help professors and advisors distinguish between a student who is struggling academically and one who is managing a sudden operational tempo. This culture of flexibility empowers academic coaches to work directly with professors to quickly reschedule exams when military students need to briefly step away.
Don’t let a temporary deployment become a permanent withdrawal because your policy wasn’t adaptable.
