Chris Day, above, center, returns from
Afghanistan with fellow platoon members
last May. At Maryland, he says he often
feels alone in the classroom.
CHRIS DAY QUIETLY SEETHED AS HIS UNIVERSITY 101
CLASSMATES, ONE FRESHMAN AFTER ANOTHER, GAVE
PRESENTATIONS ON THEMSELVES: THEIR OCEAN CITY
VACATIONS, FAVORITE SOCCER MEMORIES AND BEDROOMS
AT HOME. LIKE THEM, HE ALSO BROUGHT PHOTOGRAPHS
TO SHARE.
Day, left, and Terp
Vets President
Laurissa Flowers
join other members
of the organization
for a tailgate.
One was a shot of his Army unit's primitive
operating base plopped in the middle of the
Afghan desert. Another showed a caravan of
Humvees and tanks. The third vehicle ahead
of his, he explained, was blown up a few hours
later, killing the soldiers inside. Another showed Day in his
armored truck, which one day later another soldier was
driving when it struck an IED and killed that soldier and
an officer. Day's sweat was probably still on the seat, he
later thought.
"When I talked, you could hear a pin drop. That was my
goal, to give them perspective," Day, 23, says. "They complain
about dorm rooms, and I was living in a tent with 10
other guys. I'm a lot more grateful for stuff these guys have
no concept of."
After 27 months in the war zone, the sergeant returned
to the U.S. in May, got out of the Army in July, and started
his freshman year at Maryland in August. He describes
himself as "isolated and overwhelmed." Or: "the tall, redheaded
guy who looks like he doesn't fit in."
Reaching out to veterans like Day is one of the primary
goals of a series of veterans' initiatives launched at the university
this academic
year to support
members of the military
who are employed
or enrolled here.
The estimated 1,000 student
veterans at Maryland can take
advantage of a new Veterans Programs
Office that advocates for them in dealing
with admissions, the offices of the registrar,
bursar, financial aid and residential life, and
steer them to any counseling services they
might need. A new Web site www.veterans.
umd.edu is a one-stop shop for veterans,
with information on university services, a
calendar of events and discussion forums.
The university has also established a campus
veterans group, TerpVets, to connect veterans
and nonveterans in a social atmosphere.
Other services include a new policy
allowing deployed students continued use of
their university e-mail accounts and a series
of Veterans Day events to recognize and
applaud service members' contributions.
"We're taking action to make them feel
more supported and included," says Warren
Kelley, assistant vice president for student
affairs, who is leading the new initiatives
with Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, director of
activities. Both hope the initiatives address
what he called "the hassle factor" of making
the transition to a university, such as getting
credit for academic training and paying
tuition before GI Bill benefits kick in. They
would like to see the initiatives become a
national standard.
"Without question, this is one of the more
comprehensive models we've seen," says Jim
Selbe of the American Council of Education.
He says that since the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001, the nonprofit council
has seen "an incredible acceleration" in the
number of universities seeking to address
veterans' issues. More than 500,000 veterans nationwide have received GI Bill benefits
each of the last two years, and more than
2 million will be eligible for them once a
new GI Bill goes into effect in August.
Also known as the Post-9/11 Veterans
Assistance Act of 2008, it will
cover the cost of tuition of
any public institution's undergraduate
program or will
match the cost of attending a
postsecondary private school.
The act will also supply a
monthly allowance for housing
and a book stipend.
Army Sgt. Nathan Steelman, who was deployed to Iraq in 2006, talks in this video about how his friends, family and teachers supported him at the university. Despite a year overseas, the criminal justice and criminology major and baseball player graduated on time in May.
CHALLENGES
AND CHANGES
Experts nationwide
stress that veterans
offer unique perspectives
and diversity
that enrich the
academic and social aspects
of universities, but they also
present distinct challenges.
They tend to be older, be
married, have children and
live off-campus. They may
have sustained serious combat
injuries or be suffering from emotional problems, such as post-traumatic
stress disorder, or PTSD.
Such aggressive efforts to meet the
financial and emotional needs of veterans are
relatively new, even if having military members
on campus isn't. Back in the 1860s, the
university's earliest students, then called cadets,
were trained as Army officers, wearing uniforms
and practicing drills. Following World
War II, the Air Force formed an ROTC unit
at Maryland—replacing the Army ROTC
unit here for 50 years-and the first GI Bill
prompted enrollment and building booms.
The Vietnam era, however, divided the
university amid protests, violent confrontations
between police and students and blockages of Route 1. Returning veterans
struggled, recalls David R. Segal, distinguished
scholar-teacher, professor of sociology and
director of the Center for Research on
Military Organization.
"It took me a couple of years to realize
veterans were showing up in my classes not
only for academic reasons, but for therapeutic
ones. There is no doubt that some
of my students were suffering from PTSD,"
Segal says. "Today, veterans still feel that they
have had an experience that others don't
understand."
Recognition of this population's needs,
particularly as the country remains at war
on two fronts, prompted the creation of a
task force in spring 2007 to seek better ways
to accommodate veterans in the university
community. Member Sally Koblinsky, a
family science professor who has since
become assistant president of the university,
organized several focus groups with veterans
of Iraq and Afghanistan, and found that
no one even knew how many veterans
were on campus.
Koblinsky and her colleagues surveyed
30 service members about their needs and
campus experiences and issued a series of
recommendations, most of which have been
adopted, or will be. For one, the university
will resume asking prospective students
on the admissions form whether they are veterans. Other recommendations included
re-evaluating residency and transfer credit
policies, and identifying a place on campus
where veteran students can meet, socialize and
get support and mentoring from other vets.
Clockwise from top
left: a guard tower Day
and members of his
unit built; Day presenting
American-made scarves
to local Afghans; his
military base; a cuff
honoring two of Day's
company members killed
in action; and Kirby
Bowling working with
children in Iraq.
VALUING VETS
One of the biggest tasks for the
Veterans Program Office is helping
veterans get acclimated to
college life.
"That's proven difficult," says
Kirby Bowling, a doctoral student in sociology
who served six months in Iraq as an
Air Force major. He and MBA graduate
student Steve Olivera, a former naval flight
officer, do much of the advocacy work in the
office, including testifying last fall before state
legislators about such challenges as helping
military students who have been deployed
overseas re-establish their Maryland residency
and become eligible for in-state tuition.
A military sociologist who has long
pushed for increased programs and support
for veterans, Bowling is pleased that the
university's Counseling Center, Center for
Healthy Families, Health Center and other
offices are working together to create a
support network for veterans to specifically
treat their individual or family needs-or refer
them if they need further, specialized help.
Bowling, who has twice taught "The
Sociology of Combat," says veterans tend
not to identify themselves as such in the
classroom, and may recoil from insensitive
or antiwar comments from peers, or even
from professors who seem to ask their
opinions as if the students represent the
entire military's standpoint.
"We not only want to educate all the
administrators, but also the faculty and
staff about how to make
(veterans) feel valuable,
and do it in
a way that makes
them feel comfortable,"
he says.
That's why Bowling
was so enthusiastic
about helping to organize
15 events during the
week of Veterans Day,
including recognition
ceremonies at
Memorial Chapel
and at a football
game, a field trip to
Walter Reed Army
Medical Center and two
brown-bag lunches focusing
on veterans' issues.
Terp Vets President Laurissa Flowers,
a senior majoring in kinesiology, says the university's progress in reaching student
veterans is "awesome." Her group, which
has more than 370 people on its listserv,
has organized a monthly happy hour called
Warriors Wednesday at a local bar, a bowling
night at TerpZone, and the visit to
hospitalized veterans.
"The (national) VA system is like a black
hole. It's daunting to find information,"
says Flowers, a former Army sergeant who
focused on public health during a year in
Baghdad. "Having the Veterans Program
Office involved, and so many resources,
when (a veteran) wants to talk, there's help
available all the time."
Army Sgt. Nathan Steelman, who
came to the university from his post
guarding a Baghdad prison, said
university staff and administrators,
particularly in the financial aid office,
went out of their way to make sure he
graduated this spring. "A lot of people want
to see me succeed," says Steelman, a criminal
justice and criminology major.
Chris Day says he's found some support
through the Veterans Program Office and
Terp Vets, even as he continues to struggle
with lecture-hall distractions and keeping
a schedule without a military regimen: "It's
good to know there are people who are here
who were there and understand what it's like.
But I still haven't found anyone who's had a
trip like mine." TERP
