Capt. Steven Borden, an ASU professor and founder of the University’s Navy ROTC, was named the first director of the Pat Tillman Veterans Center on the Tempe campus in late December.
Borden will act as an intermediary between veterans and ASU and will present the University’s needs to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“They were looking for someone with experience and knowledge of veteran education issues and a large university setting,” he said.
Borden applied for the job last semester and will start at the Center full-time in July.
He has taught military science at ASU since fall 2010 when he founded ASU’s Navy ROTC.
While Borden will no longer teach naval science courses, he said he will still likely teach a class about success for veterans.
Before coming to ASU Borden taught military science at the University of Rochester. In his 28 years in the Navy, Borden held positions as a helicopter pilot, commanding officer of a helicopter squadron and a naval attaché in Ecuador and Chile.
University Registrar Lou Ann Denny said Borden has strong leadership skills and experience that he can use to help veterans and their dependents.
“The addition of Capt. Borden to our staff is an important step in the growth and continued success of the services offered to our veterans and dependents at ASU,” Denny said. Borden will be working with other Center staff, such as military advocate Jason Smith, to ensure veteran students receive the resources they need.
“This has been a successful year,” Smith said. “We’ve been brainstorming on how to make next year as successful.”
Smith said the main goal of the Center and his advocacy work is to make sure the University understands the needs of veteran students.
The Pat Tillman Veterans Center opened in the lower level of the Memorial Union in August. It was named for former ASU linebacker Pat Tillman, who died while serving in Afghanistan. Borden said the center had led to ASU being named one of the top veteran-friendly schools in the country, but there is still more work to be done.
He plans to focus heavily on career services for student veterans. Borden said finding jobs at local businesses for the nearly 2,000 ASU student veterans would give back to the community and make Arizona friendlier for veterans. Borden said Arizona is already considered a veteran-friendly state, and ASU is uniquely placed to give veterans both on- and off-campus support.
“We want to be the premier institution for veterans,” Borden said.
Reach the reporter at julia.shumway@asu.edu or follow @JMShumway on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
