Supporting Veterans In Higher Education

The shift from active-duty military personnel back to civilian life can be severely challenging. Editors Jose E. Coll and Eugenia L. Weiss have assembled a group of dedicated experts to discuss the various concerns associated with student veterans pursuing higher education. Supporting Veterans in Higher Education is an essential text that draws attention to the unique needs of student veterans and how they can be enabled to achieve a successful transition from military to civilian life. This book explores effective ways of advising student veterans, learning the behavioral health factors that affect academic success, building supportive communities, and much more. The contributing authors understand the intersection between military culture and academic settings and devote themselves to empowering student veterans as they continue their mission to serve beyond the military.

It's estimated that, in the coming decade, as many as 2 million students with military experience will take advantage of their education benefits and attend institutions in all sectors of higher education. This monograph provides useful information about students with military experience who attending college by blending the theoretical, practical and empirical. The authors assemble some of the best-known theories and research in the literature of the field to provide starting points from which to investigate the phenomenon of today's veteran attending college. Other frameworks and theories, particularly from the literature on college student development, from recognizable names such as Baxter Magolda, Braxton, Chickering, Schlossberg, and Tinto, are used--sometimes directly in their own words. New issues to our generation, such as the unique subpopulation of women veterans and the challenges they face, are explored. This volume equips higher education professional with a fundamental understanding of the issues faced by the student veteran population and aims to enable them in their roles of providing sorely needed assistance in the transition to college, persistence at the institution, and degree attainment. This is the third issue in the 37th volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph in the series is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education problem, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

Student Veterans and Service Members in Higher Education bridges theory to practice in order to better prepare practitioners in their efforts to increase the success of veteran and military service members in higher education. Bringing together perspectives from a researcher, practitioner, and student veteran, this unique author team provides a comprehensive but manageable text reviewing relevant research literature and presenting accessible strategies for working with students. This book explores the facilitators and barriers of student veteran learning and engagement, how culture informs the current student veteran experience, and best practices for creating and maintaining a campus that allows for the success of these students. The latest to publish in the Key Issues on Diverse College Students series, this volume is a valuable resource for student affairs and higher education professionals to better serve veteran and military service members in higher education.

Called to Serve Over the past several years, veteran enrollment in universities, community colleges, and vocational programs has increased dramatically. Called to Serve offers academics and administrators a handbook highlighting the most current research, program initiatives, and recommendations for creating policies and services that can help student veterans and service members succeed, including: Strategies for organizing and staffing services for veterans and service members Suggestions for creating institutional infrastructures and policies related to enrollment, transfer, and degree completion Frameworks for working with service members with physical, emotional, and learning disabilities Praise for Called to Serve "An excellent resource tool for key university leadership who desire to support the success of incoming and current student veterans." —Renee T. Finnegan, colonel (retired), executive director, Military Initiatives and Partnerships, Office of the President, University of Louisville "One of the more compelling issues of our time is the integration of returning veterans and service members into our society following their service to our country. This handbook will be a critical tool in guiding higher education professionals in developing strategies to ensure their success in college." —Kevin Kruger, president, NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education "This timely book explains and presents a new meaning of 'called to service.' The issues and vignettes bring to life real situations that will be facing all campuses. I highly recommend this valuable resource to those looking forward and not back." —Gregory Roberts, executive director, ACPA–College Student Educators International "I have waited over forty years for such a comprehensive handbook to be written about the challenges, opportunities, and rewards that are associated with providing higher education to America's veterans—our future leaders. Well done." —Robert E. Wallace, Vietnam veteran and executive director, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., Washington Office

With the passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill in 2008, more than 1.4 million service members and their families became eligible for higher education benefits, and veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan enrolled in colleges and universities in record numbers. The first wave of research about these new student veterans focused primarily on describing their characteristics and the transition from military service to civilian life and the college campus. This new edited collection presents findings from the second wave of research about student veterans, with a focus on data-driven evidence of academic success factors, including persistence, retention, degree completion, and employment after college. An invaluable resource for educators poised to enter the next phase of supporting military-connected college students.

As the United States? wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, increasing numbers of students who experienced combat will enroll in colleges and universities. There is mounting evidence that these veterans will require support unique to their needs beyond the processing of financial aid paperwork from the Veterans Administration. Obviously, combat frequently inflicts injuries, both physical and mental, that will require attention, but veterans are a unique population in other ways as well. Soldiers experience extraordinary bonding in wartime, and colleges can provide opportunities for that fellowship to be a source of support and connection. Female veterans will bring a new, nontraditional perspective to campus, and student service organizations should pay careful attention. There is also a significant group of students who leave for service and return?under the best of circumstances, they need accommodation to succeed. Institutions of higher education traditionally have responded to the needs of special student populations by developing programs and offering services. This volume contains information about programmatic initiatives that can help create a welcoming environment for veterans, one that encourages serious, creative involvement. The authors bring broad experience and deliberate consideration to bear on questions that are only becoming more important to the entire spectrum of American colleges and universities. This is the 126th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Student Services, an indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals. Each issue of New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.

Despite high enrollment rates of Post-9/11 U.S. Military Student Veterans in higher education, identification of effective institutional practices that promote successful outcomes is an understudied topic. Although some studies have addressed the transition from military into postsecondary education, more research is needed to improve our knowledge about the experiences of student veterans and how non-profit higher educational institutions, especially student support services, can better help student veterans succeed. Through the lens of university student support staff, as well as student veterans, this qualitative study examines which factors student veterans and support staff perceive in contributing to successful attainment of a baccalaureate degree. For this study, in-depth semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with a diverse group of 12 student support staff and 6 junior and senior undergraduate student veterans at a four-year public university in California. This study applied the Schlossberg Transition Conceptual Model by extending the support factor to include the critical role of four types of student support services: academic, mental health, disability, and career services. Several major overlapping and non-overlapping themes emerged from both student and staff interviews. The most salient theme was the critical role of the Veterans Center. The Center assists student veterans in their transition and adjustment to the university. It plays a central role in providing a physical space, a hub that facilitates connectedness and student engagement on campus and assist with access to vital services and resources on campus, as well as off campus. The assistance of the Veterans Center is critical in ensuring that students receive their financial benefits, as well as verifying their coursework, so they get the courses needed for graduation and meet all GI Bill requirements. Additionally, many of the on-campus services have liaisons between the Veterans Center and their corresponding service department, where identified liaisons help ensure student veterans receive the necessary support when needed. These findings can help inform higher educational institutions, its staff, faculty, and administrators about the best practices in serving the needs of veterans toward successful transition to college, retention, and undergraduate degree attainment, as the number of student veterans in higher education is growing nationally.

VA provided nearly $10 billion in education benefits to almost 1 million veterans and beneficiaries in fiscal year 2011. The majority of these benefits were provided through the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which in 2008 established what has since grown into VA's largest education program. This report examines: (1) what challenges, if any, veterans face pursuing higher education; (2) how VA supports student veterans on campus; and (3) to what extent veterans are achieving successful academic outcomes and how VA uses data on student outcomes to improve its education benefit programs. To address these topics, GAO reviewed existing government studies and scholarly research on veterans' educational challenges, services, and outcomes; reviewed VA's strategic planning documents; interviewed officials from VA, Education, higher education associations, and veteran service organizations; and conducted focus groups with student veterans and interviewed school officials at 11 postsecondary institutions. Student veterans face many challenges pursuing higher education, and problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) administration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill create financial challenges that also affect veterans' academic success. Veterans already cope with challenges transitioning into college as nontraditional students (older or with family obligations) while they are readjusting to civilian life and potentially managing disabilities. However, veterans and school officials told GAO that delays in VA benefit payments create financial challenges for veterans that threaten their ability to pursue higher education. These delays led many veterans GAO spoke with to take on personal debt to cover their housing expenses or consider dropping out of school. VA has taken steps to reduce processing delays, and GAO previously made recommendations to address these issues. However, VA provides limited information about benefit processing timelines and payment policies to student veterans prior to enrollment, which can leave them unprepared to deal with these payment delays. In some cases, these delays also made it difficult for veterans to access other sources of federal grants and loans since some schools are reluctant to distribute this aid to students until after tuition and fee payments are received from VA. VA provides limited direct support to veterans on campus, and schools are generally building their own veteran support services without any assistance from VA. VA has initiated the VetSuccess on Campus pilot, which provides veterans on 32 campuses with direct access to VA counselors who help them connect to services. VA also offers counseling and funding for academic tutoring to eligible student veterans. The Post-9/11 GI Bill has also sparked rapid growth in student veteran enrollments, and schools have reported concerns about the challenges of supporting this emerging population. VA recognizes the need to leverage partnerships with stakeholders to better support veterans, but has not sought opportunities to disseminate information about best practices for supporting veterans that would help schools more effectively build their own on campus services. It is unclear the extent to which veterans are achieving successful academic outcomes, and VA lacks a plan for using student outcomes data from its new data collection efforts to improve its education programs. Current data on student veteran outcomes are outdated or incomplete. VA is coordinating with Education and the Department of Defense to develop additional outcome measures and has multiple efforts to collect new data on student veterans, including a study that will track Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries over the next 20 years. However, VA does not yet have a plan to use these data to improve program management. These data could provide VA with a tool for assessing the effectiveness of its education benefit programs in facilitating student veterans' academic success. GAO-13-338

Student Veterans and Service Members in Higher Education bridges theory to practice in order to better prepare practitioners in their efforts to increase the success of veteran and military service members in higher education. Bringing together perspectives from a researcher, practitioner, and student veteran, this unique author team provides a comprehensive but manageable text reviewing relevant research literature and presenting accessible strategies for working with students. This book explores the facilitators and barriers of student veteran learning and engagement, how culture informs the current student veteran experience, and best practices for creating and maintaining a campus that allows for the success of these students. The latest to publish in the Key Issues on Diverse College Students series, this volume is a valuable resource for student affairs and higher education professionals to better serve veteran and military service members in higher education.