ATI is launching a publication series focused on enrolling, supporting, and graduating student veterans. Making the Case for Student Veterans: Building Support for Student Veteran Enrollment, the first in the series, offers an important starting point for this work: making the case and building support for enrolling veterans at your institution.
To guide senior leaders at the beginning stages of this work, this brief uses data to illustrate that student veterans not only enhance campus diversity and enrich academic discourse, but also perform well in the classroom, arrive on campus with ample financial support, and remain engaged members of the community after graduation. The brief also outlines key practices, along with institutional examples, for senior leaders looking to build support for student veteran enrollment:
- Define commitments and integrate them into a comprehensive strategy for diversity.
- Identify and charge key stakeholders to champion and enact strategy.
- Engage faculty, staff, students, and alumni to garner buy-in.
- Communicate explicit commitments to prospective student veterans.
Future briefs in the series will cover other important components of building a veterans program, including best practices for recruiting and enrolling student veterans, financing a veterans program, and supporting student veterans through graduation and beyond.