The number of student veterans in the University of Wisconsin System has doubled since 2005, and is expected to continue to increase. While UW-Milwaukee is home to the most student veterans receiving GI benefits in the state, educating more than double the number enrolled at UW-Madison, all UW schools are involved. This has caused the UW System Board of Regents to give the situation more attention than before.
Board of Regents Vice President Michael Falbo, an army veteran who enrolled at UW-Parkside after serving in the Vietnam Medical Corps, recently encouraged the UW System to put forth extra efforts for their student veterans. He remembered the transition from military to university as “cultural whiplash” and explained to the Board that veterans face a number of obstacles traditional students do not.
He’s right, of course. Student veterans have needs that students coming straight from high school don’t have, and it’s the UW System’s responsibility as a public institution to make sure those needs are met. While efforts have been made and UW colleges are working toward better resources for veterans, there are still improvements to be made. However, it seems UW-Madison already has great resources for students who served in the military.
UW-Madison has made great strides in the past few years toward a welcoming and helpful environment for student veterans. Vets for Vets, the UW-Madison Student Veterans Association chapter, has its own space in the SAC where it holds meetings for veterans to socialize and learn about more opportunities, and the UW-Madison Law School just opened a free legal clinic for veterans dealing with non-criminal issues such as divorce and foreclosure this month. UW-Madison websites and offices also offer information about nearby off-campus resources for veterans, like the Madison Veterans Center and the Dane County Veterans Service Office. The university even provides housing exclusively for non-first-years transfer students, or student veterans.
In all, UW-Madison has done very well in making resources available to student veterans, and when the university can’t meet their needs, it provides the necessary information to find those resources elsewhere. But, looking at other UW colleges’ plans, there are a few areas in which UW-Madison might improve.
An additional resource the university might consider instituting is a lounge for veterans where they can socialize and gain a real sense of belonging at their university. Several other UW campuses have such lounges, and while UW-Madison’s Vets for Vets group provides something similar to this twice monthly, there isn’t an informal place for student veterans to gather.
The university might also try to address the culture shock a veteran could experience going back to the classroom. UW-Green Bay’s veteran’s financial advisor, Elaina Koltz, told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “In the military, one person talks and everyone listens,” but in the classroom, students are often texting, doodling or surfing the web. A veteran would consider this highly disrespectful and distracting, a huge barrier to their academic success, while another student views it as commonplace.
Koltz’s solution to this problem is practical, too: “What we’re looking to do is have a … separate section of an English class just for veterans or service members.” Offering separate classes in several subjects would allow veterans to bond with people who are in similar situations and get used to college culture, working in the same way as UW-Madison’s First-year Interest Groups. This is perhaps the most easily implemented resource for veterans; it has minimal additional cost, can be modeled after a program UW-Madison already uses, and could be key in acclimating veterans to their new lives as students.
Really, this is one of the few feasible additions to UW-Madison’s resources for veterans. Though a veterans’ lounge is good in theory, UW-Madison has so many students and so little space, a permanent lounge simply wouldn’t work. UW-Madison has done an excellent job of implementing fantastic resources for its student veterans when possible, and though there is some room for improvement, if the university continues to do what it is already doing it may quickly become the ideal college for veterans.
Kate is a junior majoring in English and Gender and Women’s Studies. Please send all letters and feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
