Military Veterans at Universities: A Case of Culture Clash

The new GI Bill will allow more veterans to pursue college. This increase in resources is long overdue. However, our recent research indicates that by returning to college veterans may face a social and academic environment that does not always honor their work as soldiers or their efforts to get in and stay in college. We conducted two focus groups in May and October 2009 to uncover barriers and challenges that veterans may experience when attending college, as part of the study “Helping Colleges to Help Vets,” directed by research psychologist William H Zywiak. Participants were recruited by John T Powers and the focus groups were lead by Irene Glasser. The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) funded the research and approved it through their IRB. Participants represented a variety of branches of the US Armed Forces and all had been in combat (Iraq, Afghanistan, Grenada, Vietnam). Six were currently attending public institutions of higher education in Rhode Island and one had dropped out before completing his degree many years before. Although most themes that emerged in the discussion were related to college students that have served in the military, some are also relevant to other non-traditional college students.