Us vs. them? How student veterans percieve themselves within the university community

Abstract

This multi-case study explored the experiences and perceptions of student veterans in a college setting and who work or regularly spend time in the student veteran center. Through in-depth interviews, student veterans described their experiences on campus and the extended campus community. Further, participants discussed their experiences and perceptions of campus veteran support student such as with the Student Veteran Center and campus support staff. The institution used for this study was a large, public, 4-year institution in the Midwest United States. Six participants participated in face-to-face interviews as well as various support staff that works with student veterans or in departments that service student veterans. Transcripts, observations, and artifacts of collected data were analyzed to identify common themes and contextual information to understand the student veterans’ experiences and perceptions at their institution.

The primary research questions for this study were: 1) What are student veterans’ reported experiences with support systems in place specifically for them? 2) How do student veterans perceive the role of support services in meeting their goals and needs? 3) Using which tenets of Veterans’ Critical Theory (Phillips & Lincoln, 2017) best explain the experiences student veterans have on campus and with a university community as a whole?

This study informs university administrators and faculty about the unique student veteran demographic and their unique attitudes that come out of a military background. The findings of this study will help determine areas that need further assessment and future studies to advance understanding of student veterans and their journey through higher education. Furthermore, results will help inform higher education institutional policies and strategic planning on areas to best support student veterans so they may successfully integrate throughout the university community and meet their educational goals, leading to program completion and eventual graduation.