Higher Ed Leadership: Do You Have These Policies for Veterans and Their Instructors?

If you are reading this, then you are familiar at some level, with the student veteran population. Not all veterans have the same service experience, and this difference in experience will require different levels of support. The reserve and guard populations in the United States currently make up approximately 33% of the veteran population. However, there are few institutions with published guidelines or policies for how to support this particular subsect of the student veteran population with regard to deployments or their obligated service time. This is potentially destabilizing to the reserve or guard student that has Title 10 activation experience, and is still currently serving in some capacity, as they can feel a lack of stability in their education pipeline. To better support this population, leadership can focus on deployment policies, drill obligation policies, and education support policies.

If a reservist or a guardsman has served on Title 10 active duty orders for a period of time outside of training, they are considered a veteran, even if they are still serving. What is unique about this situation is the random ability of this population to activate at any time for any reason. These students might get activated for a mobilization to a logistics base to consolidate and reconcile gear issues after a hurricane hits to supply warehouses and this activation can be as long as a year. When these students get that call, there will often be less than a week for them to get their affairs in order and report to duty.

Clear and Easily Understood Guidelines
From the student’s perspective, knowing a deployment is potentially on the horizon, and not knowing how an institution will work with them during that crisis creates a lack of stability in the education process. A clear and easily understood guideline with metrics for the student to review will assist not only them, but the instructors as well, in how to most appropriately handle the situation. For example, if the student was to have only a single week left of the term, perhaps giving their final to them early and affording them the opportunity to not have to retake the entire course would be an appropriate solution. No matter what policies are created, by leading from the front and giving these students tools, you will strengthen their ability to operate independently, and you will reduce the ambiguity that the instructor faces in such a scenario. While this will help for deployments, there are other areas that these students could use more structured support from leadership as they engage in service. One such area is their obligated service time.

Institution-wide Drill Leave Policies
Everyone in this population is required to serve “one weekend a month, two weeks a year.” In reality, there is an obligation of 48 drills (24 days) that can be allocated however the commander sees fit (not just on a weekend), as well as two weeks during the summer that do not have to include travel dates (generally two days of travel on each end of the two weeks for exercises outside of the continental United States). In some areas where snow is more prevalent, a commander might sacrifice a weekend in February and then have a Thursday through Sunday drill obligation elsewhere in the year. This is a fairly standard practice that can leave the student attempting to balance their contractually obligated service with their obligations to their education. While there are federal laws that require employers to be flexible for these drill dates, there is no codified policy on how to support this population in the classroom. If there is no institutional policy, you force the instructor to make decisions that can potentially leave the student where they receive a zero due to a policy set forth by the instructor regarding the missing of a midterm test. This potentially forces the student to fail a course or sets them up to pursue the appeals process.

Non-monolithic Education Benefits Policies and Support
While deployments and drills are areas that these students could be further supported through policy development, more clearly defined education benefit support would also be beneficial. While most institutions have some level of student veteran support regarding benefits, these systems generally treat the population in monolithic terms. This is not as helpful when 33% do not have standardized benefits. Reserve education benefits are based on a tiered status, which means that even someone that has served a year-long deployment will not rate 100% of their GI Bill® benefits. This leaves students in a position where they might believe they have their college paid for, only to find out halfway through the semester that they only rated 50% of their GI Bill® benefits, and the other half of the tuition for that term must come out of pocket. By ensuring that there is someone able to help navigate these policies, you will set this population up for success at your institution.

Student veterans are not a monolithic group. Those still serving in a part-time capacity are liminal beings, acting as civilian students for part of their lives and as servicemembers during the other part. Many within this population will be required to navigate the complexities of these situations with little to no support from administration except on a case-by-case basis. While they have proven themselves capable, and the onus is on the individual student, a consideration of policies to support and enhance their education would assist in bolstering a sense of belonging.

By providing clear instruction at your institution, you support this population as well as those instructors and administrators that make up the network these students engage with.