Creating a Veteran-Friendly Campus: Strategies for Transition and Success: New Directions for Student Services, No. 126 (J-B SS Single Issue Student Services)

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.

Robert Ackerman is associate professor of higher education leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he served as vice president for student services from 1986 to 2000. He edited The Mid-Level Manager in Student Affairs and was co-editor of Student Freedom Revisited, both publications of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. He is a founder of and faculty advisor to the UNLV Student Veterans Organization.

David DiRamio is assistant professor of higher education administration at Auburn University. He has coauthored five research articles, including "From Combat to Campus: Voices of Student-Veterans" in the NASPA Journal. He serves as NASPA's liaison for an American Council on Education initiative to help several injured veterans attend college.