UNIVERSITY OF UTAH VETERANS SUPPORT CENTER ANNUAL REPORT 2015 2016
Overview The (VSC) continues to be utilized as a place for student veterans to find services, support, and camaraderie. The services include university certification of enrollment for Veterans Administration (VA) benefits, VA Vocational Rehabilitation case management, VA counseling and referral, and Utah Tuition Gap processing. The center offers advocacy, scholarships, computer and printing resources, tutoring vouchers, and peer support, as well as a lounge, study area, refreshments, friendship, and veterans events. The center staff has experienced substantial turnover. A new Director was appointed when the founding Director retired after five years, and the Executive Secretary was twice replaced. However, the Registrar s two School Certifying Officers have remained at the center. Additionally, the VA s Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership (VITAL) Coordinator has continued to work at the center each week, as has the VA s VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) Counselor. Recently, a representative from the Personal Money Management Center has been manning an office in the VSC once a week. Key Activities Outreach The ability to reach all veterans is challenging, because many students do not self identify as veterans. Generally older, often married and/or having dependents, and focused on obtaining a degree quickly and then finding employment, veterans are less interested in engaging in campus activities than traditional students. However, the center offers support, services, and information that can assist them in achieving their goals. For this reason, the center seeks to contact and engage as many student veterans as possible. Outreach Activities: Advertisement: The VSC has utilized signs, tabling opportunities, its website, and Facebook to advertise the presence of the center and its offerings. Newsletter: Each month, the Director of the VSC produces a newsletter highlighting events and information relevant to student veterans, including updates from the VA, events at the VSC, and academic or professional opportunities for veterans. The newsletter is publish on the VSC website and through email using a listserv. Lunch with the Director: Each month, the VSC offers free lunch with the director for student veterans. Veterans Day commemoration: Annually, the university hosts a Veterans Day commemoration event that honors eleven Utah veterans for their service. The event includes a panel discussion, military formation by the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), music by the Wasatch and District Pipe Band, music and a cannon salute by the Utah National Guard, recognition of the Student Veteran of the Year, and a luncheon.
Goals: Make student veterans on campus aware of the services available. Demonstrate the university s commitment to the veteran population. Outcomes expected: Increased utilization of the VSC. Increased enrollment of student veterans. Outcomes Achieved In the 2015 2016 academic year, the VSC received 7,461 visits, representing a 123% increase over the previous year s total of 3,341 visits. Reasons for visiting the VSC are listed below. This count is not complete, as some students forget to sign in when they visit the center. Furthermore, the reasons are not precise. For instance, some students select socialize to represent time spent in the conference room receiving tutoring from other students. The known student veteran body comprises 1,011 students who are receiving VA educational benefits and those who self identified. This number represents an increase of 1.3% over the fall enrollment of last year. Approximately 75% of the veterans are undergraduates, 16% are in master s programs, and 9% are doctoral students. These student veterans represent tuition revenue exceeding $3M annually of which 75% is paid for through VA programs. Data for student veterans who do not receive VA educational benefits and have not self identified and those who attend the College of Law or School of Medicine are not available at this time. Student Support Reason Total Academic Assistance 114 Admissions 46 Appointment 23 Campus Information 15 Center Information 47 Computers/Printing 1647 Counseling 84 Faculty/Staff Issue 6 Financial Aid 78 First Visit 1955 Job Assistance 14 Other Issue 315 Potential Student 21 Socialize 2537 SVU 285 VA Benefits 274 Grand Total 7461 The culture from which veterans come is one that less than 1% of the population has experienced. Leaving behind the close knit bond shared with fellow service members and carrying the memories of war can be challenging for some. Student veterans bring with them a strong work ethic, maturity, direction, experience, and leadership, but challenges associated with delayed entry into higher education, supporting dependents and, for some, overcoming new disabilities can make academic success more difficult. Navigating through the bureaucracy and voluminous regulations that complicate the veterans ability to obtain their benefits can be challenging for many. The intent of the VSC is to provide a dedicated place for student veterans to share their similar experiences and common bond as they reenter civilian life, to develop new friendships, to obtain up to date information about benefits, to obtain needed
services or support with obtaining services, and to receive advice and support regarding challenges they may be facing. Support Activities and Resources: The VSC facility: The VSC offers free coffee, tea, and hot chocolate daily. It contains a computer lab with Common Access Card readers, free printing, a lounge, and a conference room that is used primarily as a study hall and tutoring room. The center is a free speech zone, permitting students to speak about whatever they want in whatever way they want, with few exceptions. This open and unfiltered communication allows student veterans to openly share a part of their identities without censorship or fear of misunderstanding from those who have not experienced military life. Registrar: Two School Certifying Officers are located in the VSC to certify VA educational benefit eligibility of veterans and provide related information regarding such things as changes in credits and classes and the impact on the students benefits. VSOC: A VA VSOC Counselor is located in the VSC four days a week for 10 hours each day, providing services to those veterans with medical issues or service connected disabilities. The VSOC program provides services in support of education and employment, such as vocational counseling and rehabilitation services. VITAL: A VA VITAL Coordinator is located in the VSC one day a week, but can be reached via mobile phone daily. The VITAL program provides collaboration between the VA medical services and the University, including counseling and disability support. Scholarships: The VSC currently administers two undergraduate veteran only scholarships. Goals: Provide a safe place for student veterans to request and obtain academic and individual support. Provide a place to receive accurate and up to date information about benefits. Provide a safe place for student veterans to be themselves among students with similar experiences. Outcomes Expected: Increased mean undergraduate student veteran grade point average (GPA). Overall growth of the non first semester undergraduate student veteran population. Outcomes Achieved The undergraduate student veterans mean GPA at the beginning of the fall 2016 semester was 3.13, compared to the fall 2015 average of 3.09. This is an increase of 1.3%. There were 663 non first semester undergraduate student veterans in the fall 2016 semester, compared to 606 in fall 2015. The fall 2016 figure is 9.4% greater, which may indicate greater retention and persistence of student veterans.
Plans for the Future Anticipated Challenges General Outreach The ability to identify every student veteran on campus remains a challenge. Currently, student veterans are predominantly identified by their use of VA educational benefits and to a lesser degree, by their selfdisclosure. The university s policy to give student veterans priority registration provides incentive for those who are not receiving VA benefits to self identify. The VSC will continue to seek ways to identify more student veterans. The VSC has had meetings to collaborate with the Registrar s office to develop systematic means to identify veterans. Additionally, the VSC will work with other appropriate offices such as New Student and Family Programs, to reach out to those who may not know that they qualify as veterans under the state of Utah and university definitions. Data Collection The VSC will seek to improve the precision of data collected regarding utilization of the center. Current reasons for visits are ambiguous, omit common reasons such as tutoring, and do not provide students with intuitive choices for the reason for each visit. Additionally, the current system of data collection uses old ipod technology versus a U card. Cost of upgrading to a modern and more appropriate system is currently unknown but would likely require additional funding for the VSC in order to implement it. Female Veteran Support Female veterans have come from a male dominated military and have faced challenges that are unique to women and that are often better understood by women. Female veterans make up 26% of the overall student veteran population, so again, they have found themselves in a male dominated environment. The VSC will seek to better serve the female student veteran population. The VSC has discussed the annual year long Purdue University s Focus Forward Fellowship program for female veterans with its director. The program brings in female student veterans from across the nation, with a cost of approximately $7,000 per participant. Sending a student from the university would require additional funding from the university. The VSC will explore opportunities and initiatives locally to support female student veterans as well. Faculty and Staff Awareness and Support Faculty and staff awareness and support of student veterans and their needs is mixed. The VSC intends to develop and implement a faculty and staff training program to better prepare them for the education and support of student veterans.
Student Veteran Engagement The VSC recognizes that not every student veteran needs assistance and some students are reluctant to seek assistance. However, the center desires to inform every student veteran of the center s services and to encourage them to take advantage of them. To that end, the VSC will develop and implement a peer mentoring program with the goal of contacting every new student veteran to offer a friendly and informal peer to contact for assistance or advice. The VSC will also work with the National Center for Veteran Studies and the VITAL Counselor to provide training to the peer mentors so that they can identify signs of any student in crisis who needs referral and/or hand off to an appropriate service provider. Anticipated Opportunity Enrollment The National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics stated that from 2014 to 2019, the overall Post 9/11 veteran population in Utah would increase more than 40%. This represents a substantial opportunity for the university to increase the enrollment of Post 9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries at the campus. An equivalent increase in the university s 2014 student veteran population would mean more than 380 additional student veterans above current enrollment. Aside from honoring the veterans service by providing them with a university that supports them, the additional student veterans could represent more than $3,800,000 in tuition and related revenue. Utah legislators are taking great efforts to make the state increasingly more veteran friendly. For instance, in 2015, the state enacted legislation that broadened its definition of veteran, thus providing state benefits to a broader number of those who served. The state already offers its Tuition Gap program, which pays for a veteran s last year of tuition if the student expects to graduate within a year, has established Utah residency, has exhausted his/her VA educational benefits, and meets certain other criteria. The state is continuing its efforts to draw more veterans through an increasing number of benefits and a strategic marketing plan. The 40% increase of veterans in Utah that was projected by the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics is likely to be low. However, setting the goal of increasing the Post 9/11 GI Bill student veteran population commensurate with the state s overall expected growth represents a missed opportunity. The university must actively and systematically recruit veterans to its campus. Advertising in military oriented publications, making presentations at education centers and transition assistance programs at major bases and stations, and sustained communications with those entities will result in increased enrollment of students who possess funding for tuition and who have honorably served our nation. Such an effort would require increased funding and additional personnel. Staff Excellence
The VSC welcomed a new Director, Paul Morgan. Mr. Morgan is a retired Marine Corps Communications Officer. He earned a BS in Psychology from the U and an MEd from the University of Virginia. The VSC welcomed a new Executive Secretary, Jennifer Brown. Ms. Brown is a former Army Aviation Repair Technician with substantial clerical and administrative experience.