With Boom of Student Veterans, Colleges Race to Provide Services
American-Statesman Staff
Audrey White
September 11, 2011
Matt King brushed sand off the pages of his Princeton Review ACT book while the chaos of the Iraq War roared around him as he studied for college entrance exams during a 2005-2006 tour of duty.
King left the Navy as a petty officer second class in 2007, after four years of service, to attend Lamar University in Beaumont. He learned that despite what an admissions official told him when he called before his second deployment, veterans don't need to take the ACT or SAT to apply.
Today, King works for the University of Texas Office of the Dean of Students, helping with the November launch of a Student Veterans Services Center that he hopes will consolidate information and resources and help ease the way for veterans at UT.
Like other schools across the country, UT is struggling to accommodate the needs of a growing and diverse student veteran population. As soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan and tap into GI Bill benefits, the number claiming education aid for themselves or their dependents grew by 57 percent, from 523,344 in 2007 to 819,281 in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Texas, with 67,016, has the second-highest total after California.
The numbers grew even as fragmented services available to help with registration, financial aid, mental health counseling and academic advising challenged veterans struggling to reacquaint themselves with civilian life.
"I met with the administrators on the veterans advisory council in March because I wanted things to change," King said. "My first sentence was, 'I'm probably going to say some unpopular things, but I'm the only veteran in this room, and everything I'm going to tell you is absolutely the truth.'"
King, 29, who transferred from Lamar to Austin Community College and later to UT, from which he graduated in May, said the dean's office was receptive to his ideas for doing more to connect veterans with one another and with campus officials. The ideas included a banquet for student veterans at the start of the fall semester, an event that took place Wednesday night.
Although the university doesn't track how many students are veterans, the Office of the Registrar reports that 510 veterans or their dependents have claimed education benefits this semester. King said the actual number of veterans on campus is closer to 700, based on information from admissions and other offices.
The new center is an important step toward making UT more inclusive to veterans, Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly said. A staff member to lead the center will earn $38,000 to $45,000 a year. The office has been realigning funding to pay for veterans services for several years, Reagins-Lilly said.
Texas A&M University has more than 1,200 veterans and dependents using military educational funding, according to the school's Veteran Services website.
ACC officials said the school enrolls about 2,250 veterans, and Texas State University officials estimated an enrollment of 1,300 veterans. Both schools have advisory councils that try to determine the best ways to serve student veterans.
"We meet monthly to discuss gaps in services and determine how to meet those needs," said Katherine Selber, who founded the Veterans Advisory Council at Texas State.
The group started in 2008, the same year Congress passed the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which drastically increased financial resources available to veterans seeking to attend college.
"Veterans deserve our very best, because they have sacrificed up front for their degrees," Selber said. "If you're going to have veterans on campus, you need to have the support services on campus to help them be successful. It's a challenge for universities, but it's not optional."
Texas State hosts monthly luncheons for veterans featuring speakers from groups such as the Austin Vet Center and the Texas Workforce Commission. The school also has training programs that allow faculty and staff members to make their offices welcoming spaces for veterans.
Blake McIntyre, who spent four years as an Army signals analyst, is studying international business at Texas State. He is a leader of the campus Veterans Alliance, which he wants to do more to help fellow veterans with the transition.
"The academic part of it wasn't tough for me, but we're in such different positions in life than a lot of the students are that it can be difficult to make friends," McIntyre said. "I came to San Marcos, where I didn't know anyone, and it's not easy to make friends like it was in the Army or even in high school. Most of my friends are in the alliance. We just have more to talk about."
UT's Student Veterans Association held a happy hour at the Cactus Cafe before Wednesday's banquet. Four students at a table asked one another, "Where were you stationed?" before they exchanged majors.
They talked about the GI Bill and Texas' Hazlewood Act, which allows veterans to transfer education benefits to their dependents. They all said they have buddies who struggle with nightmares, depression and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. They agreed that it's easier to talk about others' mental health struggles than their own.
A 2011 study by the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah and the national Student Veterans Association found that 46 percent of student veterans contemplated suicide; 7.7 percent made an attempt. Severe depression and severe anxiety affected 35 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
Mark Rudd, the Utah psychology professor who led the study, said universities need to do more to reach out to veterans, who might suffer increased anxiety in a high-pressure academic environment.
The new center at UT will have a psychologist available for veterans, thanks to grant funding awarded to the local VA. But King said the stigma of PTSD and other mental health challenges veterans face makes it hard for those who need help to reach out for it - even when services are easily available.
"My whole unit had all the symptoms, but the older guys don't acknowledge PTSD," said Chuck Hall, a former corporal in the Army 1st Calvary Division and an Iraq combat veteran. "None of us got recommendations to get help. I just drank a lot, and it kind of went away. When we come back, it's like we're expected to let our guard down and fit in."
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Hall said he has since cut back on his drinking.
The Office for Students with Disabilities at ACC offers student veterans who say they have stress and anxiety challenges options including early registration, quiet testing facilities and counseling. But with thousands of veterans spread across eight campuses, it's difficult to make them aware of available services, said Mervin Jones, an ACC counselor who retired from the Army in 2007 after serving 22 years.
ACC is starting a peer program at different campuses to match newly enrolled veteran students with mentors who went through similar challenges. That mentor can also watch out for mental health warning signals.
"If at a peer-to-peer meeting someone notices that someone has suicide ideation - we'll then refer them to free community resources like the Austin Vet Center," Jones said.
ACC officials said they will continue to work to integrate veterans into student life and help them find one another. The annual "From Humvee to ACC" event, held each fall since 2009, is helpful. But it's not enough, Jones said, adding that he hopes the advisory council will find innovative ways to reach out to and support veterans.
Selber said the Texas State advisory council wants to further expand its veteran services, and McIntyre said the alliance plans to consolidate resources so every campus office where a veteran might seek services has information about all resources available.
At UT, the Research Institute at the Office of the Dean of Students is preparing a needs assessment survey for shortly after the planned Nov. 11 opening of the Student Veterans Services Center. Audrey Sorrells, associate dean for research, said UT hopes to create a model for supported veteran education.
"Because colleges may play a critical role in student veterans' successful post-military adjustment, it's important for us to increase our understanding of the needs of that population," Sorrells said.
Source: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/with-boom-of-student-veterans-colleges-race-to-184