Make Your Campus More Welcoming to Returning Veterans

Madison, Wis.—July 15, 2008 — Higher education institutions vary widely in the resources they currently offer to returning veterans, according to a poll taken July 15.

During an online seminar about preparing for returning veterans, more than 40 percent of campuses said that their ratio of veterans’ service staff to veterans is 1 to 25 or less. However, 30 percent said that their ratio is 1 to 1,500 or more.

The respondents were among the more than 100 sites participating in Returning Veterans: Implications for Higher Education. The online seminar was presented by W. Scott Lewis and Brett Sokolow of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM).

In the first half of the seminar, Lewis and Sokolow reviewed the characteristics of current returning veterans, comparing and contrasting them with those of earlier conflicts’ veterans. Current veterans are surviving at a higher rate than they did in earlier conflicts, but they are returning with injuries at a higher rate, too, which has significant implications for student and disability services, Sokolow said.

In the seminar’s second half, Lewis and Sokolow turned to how campuses should prepare for returning veterans. They recommended concrete steps in following areas:
• enrollment management
• lobbying
• veterans services
• disability services
• mental health services
• critical incident response
• faculty and staff training

If you missed the live event, you can order the program in CD or print transcript format, both of which include the presenter's handouts.

Magna Publications is a leading publisher of newsletters and other information products in the higher education segment. Magna also manages onsite and online conferences on topics of interest to higher education.

For more information please contact David Burns, Publisher, Magna Publications, Inc., at 608-227-8109, or dburns@magnapubs.com.