UB Students Called to Serve in Active Duty

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Any day now, University at Buffalo student and National Guard reservist Mark Costa expects to be called to duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He doesn't know where he'll be assigned -- maybe in Kuwait or perhaps in Kosovo or Bosnia, where he'll relieve members of the U.S. peacekeeping forces reassigned to Kuwait -- but he knows he'll go very soon.

When Costa departs, postponing the final semester of his graduate studies in library and information sciences, he'll join approximately 25 UB students already called to duty by all branches of the U.S. military.

"The toughest part is knowing that leaving will erase all the work I've done this semester and I'll have to start all over when I return," says Costa, a combat engineer trained in the deployment and removal of land mines and the construction and demolition of bridges.

"As a student, I've enjoyed having the intellectual leeway to consider all sides of the war argument," he adds. "But when I'm called up, I'll accept my responsibility and make the transition to full-time soldier in support of the war."

UB officials have no way of anticipating exactly how many students will be called to serve, but they say dozens more could be called up in the weeks and months ahead, depending on the war's duration. Nationally, more than 40,000 reservists have been called to service since February, many of them students, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

To ease the transition for students called to duty, administrators from UB's Student Response Center are busy granting leave-of-absence requests, as well as withdrawing these students from courses and processing tuition refunds and prorated reimbursements for room-and board. Additionally, UB is working to ensure that students who have borrowed federal loans will not enter repayment status as a result of their departure from campus.

"We're doing our best for each and every student on a case-by-case basis," says Joanne Plunkett, associate vice provost and director of the Student Response Center. "If a student is called up and has to leave the next day, filling out forms at the university is usually not their first order of business. It may be a week later or much more when we hear from them, so we've modified our procedures to help them after the fact."

According to Plunkett, university policy requires students called to duty to submit personally a copy of their orders to the university. But because some students are departing so swiftly, the Response Center is accepting notification from parents and significant others, or in the form of email or other correspondence from the student reservists.

Plunkett anticipates that some students won't submit leave-of-absence requests until after they've returned from duty. She will work to accommodate those requests, as well.

Sixteen of the UB students called to serve to date, including Costa, are military veterans or reservists enrolled at the university through the Montgomery GI Bill, according to Ronald K. Dollmann, director of UB's Office of Veterans Affairs.

"They expected to be called in many cases," Dollmann says. "They were anxious, but looking forward to service."

In some cases, UB reservists are working with their professors to finish up course work before they get called to duty or to complete assignments while serving, Dollmann adds.

The Marine unit of UB sophomore Daniel Batt, a history major, has been placed on a high state of alert for active duty. An infantryman "Saw gunner" (the nickname for Marines who carry the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon), Batt could be called upon to guard a military base or prisoners of war. "But in the infantry you can never say for sure what can happen," Batt says.

"It's a sacrifice, but you know the possibilities when you sign the piece of paper (enlisting in the reserves)," he adds. "If I don't go, someone else would have to."