Students at the University of Wisconsin who are reserve members of the armed services will receive considerations in withdrawing and enrolling if called into service.

“We want students to check in with the Student Veteran Services office within the registrar’s office, so if there’s any problems, we can address them,” said Catherine Sheskey of the UW registrar’s office.

According to UW’s military service policy, a student called into active duty may withdraw at any point in the semester by filing a withdrawal form with the Dean of Students office. The student will receive a full refund of tuition and, depending on the situation, can withdraw, selectively drop his or her courses and receive incompletes in others, or if the majority of the course is completed, receive his or her final grade.

“We will be sending out an e-mail to every student registered with Student Veteran Services, applying to what they have to do to withdraw and what they have to do when they come back,” Sheskey said.

Sheskey was a guest at last night’s meeting of Vets for Vets, a student organization dealing with veterans’ affairs. The meeting’s main concern was instructing students on how to withdraw in case they were called to active duty.

“We’re trying to be very systematic and proactive about this. One thing we’ll include in the e-mail is a line to get students to forward the e-mail to anyone else who might benefit from the information, to take the information and share it with their units,” Sheskey said.

Sheskey is herself a reservist with the Air National Guard.

“Our main concern is that you let us know about your situation, so you don’t get lost in the shuffle,” Sheskey said.

Several students at UW have been called into active duty.

“If you have to go, you have to go,” said Mike Wiktor, a UW senior in computer engineering and a Marine Corps reservist. “But I’d rather not be called up before I graduate in May.”

Last week, 110 members of the 107th Maintenance Company, a Wisconsin Army National Guard unit headquartered in Sparta, were ordered into active duty for up to one year.

The call was typical of a trend in the last few weeks of military units being called into service or being placed on standby.

“It’s been happening a lot in the last 16 months,” Lt. Col. Tim Donovan said. Donovan is a member of the Army and Air National Guard’s press office in Madison. “But it has happened three times in the last week,” he added.

The 107th Maintenance Company activation was part of the partial mobilization of the Army ordered by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. With the 107th’s activation, Wisconsin will have about 535 members of the Army on active duty. Since Sept. 11, more than 1,350 Wisconsin National Guard members have served on active duty.