Intro to My Student Veterans Research Project

I’m not a veteran, but I am married to one. I know a good number of them. When I was studying for my Bachelor’s degree, my husband was (honorably) discharged from the Navy. He was offered a job before his separation date, he moved home, and started working immediately. Between work and the Montgomery GI Bill he attended school for free, taking a class a term. My husband does not have PTSD, injuries from his service, or use VA Health Care or services.

 Sometime after I decided I wanted to become a student affairs professional my husband encountered a nightmare at school. It made me so angry. We wrote a letter to the appropriate people, and from some insider information, that letter made it to the Provost. More on this in another post.
In grad school I became interested in a lot of different areas, including adult education and underrepresented populations. When it came time to decide on research for my Master’s Thesis in the Spring of 2010, I had a few options, but I realized how little research there was on veterans in higher ed. So, I utilized what little research was out there to create a set of guidelines for institutions that wanted to implement a veterans services office. These guidelines included basic developmental stages, what students need at each stage, and how to address those needs.
In the coming posts I’m going to review some topics relating to veterans and military personnel (and families) on campus. But before moving to those, I want to point out some amazing stuff out there:
  • If you want a great introduction to the topic, and how you can help, read Considering Student Veterans on the Twenty-First-Century College Campus by David Vacchi. If you’re on a college campus you should be able to find an electronic copy through a database. I can’t write anything better than that.
  • If you want an overview of the population, this paper published by American Council on Education has a pretty good explanation of who/what the population looks like: http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/Military-Service-Members-and-Veterans-in-Higher-Education.pdf
  • Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America did a non-government survey in 2014: “The IAVA 2014 Member Survey is the largest non-governmental survey of confirmed Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in existence. This year there were over 2,000 respondents. It asks our members about their experiences with reintegration, mental health care, employment, education and asks how the government is doing to support them and their fellow vets.” http://iava.org/survey/
  • A white paper on the Student Veterans of America Million Records Report: http://www.naspa.org/constituent-groups/posts/vkc-white-papers


Posts will be written academic-style in terms of citations but I want them accessible to anyone, so I’ll try to write as clearly as possible. Citations will be available at the bottom of each post and there will be a post with all citations listed. Each post will have a separate topic, for example: horror stories, programs on campus, and student groups. There may be times where one topic is split into several posts. Sometimes topics and posts will be short because there isn’t a lot out there yet, but I’m going to try to give an inclusive overview. 

Project Posts:
Works Cited Page
PTSD, TBI, and Other Disabilities
National Programs that Support Student Veterans
Tuition Assistance Programs for Student Veterans
Training Programs for Faculty and Staff
Who are "Student Veterans"?

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