MSU Joins Veterans Support Effort

STARKVILLE, Miss.–Mississippi State is a new member of a national campaign working to support student veterans by enhancing university resources, programs and policies to support that population.

Campus officials recently signed a pledge to join Got Your 6, a consortium of major film and television studios, broadcast and cable television networks, talent agencies, and guilds. The program’s name is derived from military jargon meaning “got your back.”

MSU is among dozens of higher education institutions throughout the country now committed to heightening their support for current and future students who previously served in the military.

Formally named Got Your 6 Education Pillar: Transitioning through Education, the national effort is let by the Pat Tillman Foundation, Student Veterans of America and Operation College Promise. The goal is to collect 500 institutional pledges by June 2014. For more, visit www.gotyour6.org.

“Working together, the Pat Tillman Foundation, Student Volunteers of America and Operation College Promise have selected a leading group of institutions, including Mississippi State University, that will make the commitment to the Got Your 6 Education Pillar,” said Chris Marvin, the program’s managing director.

At MSU, the veteran support effort is led by the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Center for America’s Veterans. Since being established in 2006, it has become a national leader in providing campus-based resources in support of student veterans, service members, dependents, and survivors.

The center is named for the Mississippi State alumnus from Meridian whose long career in the U.S. House of Representatives included tireless work on behalf of veterans. Ongoing efforts by the staff have brought MSU national recognition by various organizations, publications, and federal and state agencies as being among the top 10 percent of “military-veteran friendly” institutions of higher learning.

For more on the Montgomery Center, visit www.veterans.msstate.edu. For additional information, contact director Ken McRae or associate director Ronnie White at 662-325-6791 or, respectively, kmcrae@saffairs.msstate.edu or rwhite@saffairs.msstate.edu.