1 / 12

Operation Integration: The culture of student veterans

Operation Integration: The culture of student veterans. Amanda Kraus, Ph. D . Nick Rattray Dan Standage UA Veterans in Higher Ed Conference September 17, 2010. General trends. Influx of student veterans to higher education

robyn
Download Presentation

Operation Integration: The culture of student veterans

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Operation Integration:The culture of student veterans Amanda Kraus, Ph. D. Nick Rattray Dan Standage UA Veterans in Higher Ed Conference September 17, 2010

  2. General trends • Influx of student veterans to higher education • Enrollment in Community Colleges or Vocational Institutions on the rise • Post-9/11 G.I. Bill expanded benefits • Complex transitions to civilian life and life with disability

  3. Higher Education trends • Students with military experience make up about 4% of undergraduate students. • Compared to traditional undergraduate students, veterans tend to be older and are more likely to be non-white. • Although only seven percent of the armed forced were women in 2006, 27% of all student veterans in 2007-08 were women. • Around half of undergraduates with military experience received veterans educational benefits at public four-year universities. In 2007-2008, 12 percent of military undergraduates attended for-profit institutions, which is a rate three times higher than traditional undergraduates.

  4. Disability trends • As of September 2009, the number of American troops who have been injured is 35,390, 46% of whom could return to duty within 72 hours. • The rate for mental health and cognitive issues following return from deployment was 14% for major depression, 14% from PTSD, and 19% for a probable Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). RAND estimates that the cost from PTSD-related and depression costs could range from $4.0 to $6.2 billion over two years.

  5. UA V.E.T.S. • Philosophy on program development • Disabled Veterans Reintegration and Education Project • Veterans Education and Transition Services (V.E.T.S.) Initiative

  6. UA V.E.T.S. • VETS Office • Student Veterans of America at the University of Arizona • SERV Classes • GI Bill counseling • Network of point people on and off campus • PTSD support group and on-site VA counseling • Veterans in Higher Education Conference • Veterans in Higher Education National Clearinghouse

  7. Student veterans as acultural group • Identity • Norms • Rites of passage • Language • Shared experiences • Access issues related to higher education • Cohort mentality

  8. Discuss • Consider student veterans as a cultural group. • How does your campus support this identity? • What are the challenges associated with supporting this identity?

  9. Disability within the student veteran community • Department of Defense disability statistics • VA disability rating and benefits • Physical versus “other” disabilities • Self-imposed “hierarchy” • Combat-related injury • Service-related injury • Non-service-related injury • “Wounded warrior” and “battalion”– language in rehabilitation • Potential of adaptive athletics

  10. Infusing disability into the campus culture • Universal design of office • Physical access • Assistive technology on all computers • Partner with DRC events • Athletics • Philanthropy • DRC/Mental Health marketing in VETS Office • First-hand referrals • DRC contacts • Strong relationship with local VA

  11. Discuss • The social model of disability promotes disability as a sociopolitical construct, not an individual impairment. • What challenges do the DOD disability statistics and the VA disability rating system pose to operationalizing the social model of disability? Disability identity? • Reflect on the “hierarchy” • students veterans • use to make • meaning of disability? What • implications might this have • for service provision?

  12. Resources • UA V.E.T.S. studentaffairs.arizona.edu/vets • Radford, A. W. (2009). Military service members and veterans in higher education: What the new GI bill may mean for postsecondary institutions. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education. • US Department of Defense (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf). • Tanielian, T., & Jaycox, L. H. (2008). Invisible wounds of war : Psychological and cognitive injuries, their consequences, and services to assist recovery. Santa Monica: Center for Military Health Policy Research, RAND. • U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2007 American Community Survey.

More Related