University of Alabama Among Top 10 Military Friendly Schools 

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As a leader in educating and supporting students who are current or former members of the armed services, The University of Alabama has been ranked among the top 10 Military Friendly® Schools for 2022-2023. 

Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation are evaluated using public data as well as surveys from more than 1,800 participating institutions and input from student veterans.  

“I’m extremely proud of our ranking by Military Friendly® Schools,” said David Blair, director of UA’s Office for Veteran and Military Affairs. “This speaks volumes about the resources and services we provide to our military-affiliated students and how the support relates to student success. The extensive metrics used by Military Friendly® Schools and the results of being ranked No. 10 in the nation shows how committed The University of Alabama is to this special population of students.” 

One of the ways the VMA has gone above and beyond the past year is its pilot of an on-campus VA clinic satellite office, which opened in the fall. No other school in the nation offers this convenience exclusively for the veterans in their student, faculty and staff communities.  

The VMA is leading the way, providing an innovative solution to long wait times and difficulty getting to the off-campus VA location for certain appointments. The satellite office is a partnership between the Division of Student Life and the Tuscaloosa Veteran Affairs Medical Center, with funding provided by the Alabama Marines Foundation, the Campus Veterans Association and David and Linda Ford. 

“I am extremely proud to lead such a great team of dedicated staff members supporting these students,” Blair said. “I would also like to say that we could not accomplish such an important mission without the support of The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, the Alabama Marines Foundation, University administrators and our partners across the Division of Student Life as well as our other campus and community partners. This status as a top 10 school from the Military Friendly Schools list is a sign that we’re doing that.” 

The VMA is an office within the Division of Student Life. Its award-winning staff includes veterans who have served in the armed forces, so they are able to help student veterans from a personally informed perspective. Their commitment to excellence in serving campus veterans has earned the Capstone a Military Friendly® distinction for many years.