One of my employees came up to me today and told me a story that literally knocked the words right out of me. Some of you may remember that two years ago I was trying to raise money for some troops going back to Iraq. Which, we did do a great job and they appreciated all of it. The story she told me regarded her son Troy (the solder pictured in the original post), who is now discharged from the military. He is trying to get into college and one of the universities he attempted to get into is Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

He received a rejection letter from the university, but it didn’t tell him why. Being curious he called the admissions office and when asked why he wasn’t accepted they told him, “Because you served in the Military.”

(Waits for readers to pick their jaws up off the ground or to stop swearing)

Yea, I had the same reaction. Now I thoughtÂ… maybe, maybe she was reading more into it. So I questioned her.

Did the letter say he was denied due to being in the military: No.

The lady he spoke with actually said, “You were denied because you were in the military”: Almost.

What did she say? Troy asked why didn’t I get accepted, the admissions officer said, “Because you were in the military, you won’t fit in here.”

Even though I was at work in front of all my direct reports I dropped the F-bomb.

I asked her for the phone number and the name of the lady Troy spoke with. I would like to call them and find out exactly what is going on there. Do they really deny ex-military personal from attending their private university? (Being a private university IÂ’m pretty sure they legally can do this.) And if they do is it really because they donÂ’t feel they would fit in?

This would piss me off if it happened to any soldier. But when itÂ’s not only the son of one of my wifeÂ’s friends but an employee of mine AND someone that I went out of the way to help previously. Yea, IÂ’m more then a little pissed off. Troy spent two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. One of his tours was 30 months, to state the obvious that is two and a half years! He worked hard, fought for us and comes back to the states to have some uppity higher education admin twit tell him no because he was in the militaryÂ… yea not while I take breath.

Once I get the information IÂ’m contacting the university and seeing what I can find out. And if I need, IÂ’m going to drive down there and let them know face to face how I feel.

Not today, not ever!

UPDATE: I couldn't wait for the number so I e-mailed their admissions office inquiring about their policy. It will be at least a couple of days before I get a response... if they respond.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:43 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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