Today is Veterans Day, a day designed to celebrate our nation’s armed forces, their commitment, and their ultimate sacrifices.  Though this day comes only once each year, the special individuals to whom it is dedicated deserve our thanks every day.  The last year has been a tumultuous one for the entire world and the men and women of the American military have been engaged in various theaters of operations beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.  At home and abroad, US military forces continue to provide proof of General Douglas MacArthur’s statement that, “Americans never quit.” 

Our military responded to a series of natural disasters this year.  In March, through Operation Tomodachi (Japanese for “friendship”) the Marines, Navy, and Air Force offered humanitarian and disaster relief assistance to the Japanese people affected by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 15,000 and left millions more homeless.  Marine helicopter units delivered thousands of pounds of rice, bread, and other food items to the hardest hit areas.  In addition, a significant number of American naval ships responded including the USS McCampbell, the USS Curtis, the USS Mustin, and the USS Ronald Reagan. 

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) moved into action when a series of severe storms this past Spring plagued the nation’s mid-section.  Tornadoes, floods, and other significant weather events left thousands in a desperate state.  The USACE worked diligently to ensure the safety of structures following those storms and to assist in meeting the basic needs of those impacted by the devastation. 

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The end of August, first of September represents the start of the traditional fall semester at most colleges and universities.  Freshmen arrive with the excitement of attending a new school and meeting lots of new friends.  Returning students arrive with tales of summer’s experiences and a spirit of renewal for their academic quest.  The campus has been spruced up with summer maintenance projects, some of which have been completed just days, or even hours, before the first freshmen arrived.

As you know, we have no physical classrooms at AMU and APU.  Our campus consists of 15 administrative buildings for our leadership and staff in Charles Town, West Virginia and Manassas, Virginia.  Over 90 percent of our students are not first time freshmen transitioning from high school to college.  Yet, for some reason, many of our adult students choose to come back to college in the fall.  Even though we accommodate the schedules of many working adults with 12 monthly semester starts, the fall is usually a busy time of the year for us.

Hosting a back-to-school picnic or cocktail party is more than a little difficult for a university with students in all 50 states and 100+ countries.  Virtually, I welcome you to our university and hope that you will find our continuing efforts at academic and social integration helpful.  As technology changes and improves, effectively shortening the distance between people, we hope that our abilities to integrate students academically and socially improve as well.

Welcome back and thanks for making us your choice for college.

One rarely has the chance to meet a bona fide visionary.  While Bill Gates and Steve Jobs maybe better known, I would put our founder, James P. Etter (Major, USMC, Ret.) in their illustrious company.  Almost 20 years ago, he had the vision to start a university  to serve thousands of U.S. Military members with relevance, convenience, and affordability at the forefront of his vision.  From a thought at a picnic table driven by Jim Etter’s passion and experience, AMU has grown to a multi-faceted university system serving more than 70,000 students – affordably expanding access to quality, higher education for tens of thousands of Americans.  The curriculum has advanced from a single Master’s degree in Military Studies to 79 degrees ranging from 19 Associates’ to 34 Bachelor’s to 26 Master’s. I would like your help in telling this story.

Over the next year, I would like to interview a few alumni who are willing to share their stories about either the experience of learning at AMU/APU or the opportunities through which they were able to apply the knowledge that they acquired to their career.  If you are an alum and interested in sharing a story or two, please e-mail me at presblog@apus.edu.  Thanks.

From Thanksgiving to New Years Day and the following weekend, the college football schedule is filled with bowl games.  After the New Year begins, college sports fans can turn their attention to the height of the college basketball season that culminates in the annual March Madness NCAA Division I tournament.  College athletics is big business although perhaps only ten to twenty Division I programs make money each year.

While many books have been written about sports including college sports, there are a few that I found interesting for their background about the origins of the modern college sports “game” and its current state of commercialization.   John Thelin’s  A History of American Higher Education is a fairly comprehensive book about the origins and development of America’s colleges and universities.  In a chapter entitled “Alma Mater,” Thelin outlines major developments during the 1890’s to 1920, a time period that he calls the “age of university building” and the “golden age of the college.”  During this period, going to college became “fashionable and prestigious” and the national media covered the daily life of a college student in the same manner that the lives of the rich and famous are covered today.  During that period, university colors and mascots were conceived and adopted and the role of alumni associations and fundraising became very important.

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The founder of American Military University, Major James P. Etter, was passionate about the need to provide an affordable college education to service members. We matched our tuition to the semester hour rate maximum reimbursed by the Department of Defense (DOD) which is currently $250 per semester hour. We do not charge an application or admissions fee. We do not charge a technology fee or student activities fee. We provide book grants to all undergraduate students who maintain the minimum satisfactory academic standing of a 2.0 GPA. We have not increased our undergraduate tuition since 2000, nearly eight years.

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