SAN DIEGO (AP) — On the giant state university campus in this military town, veterans have long been marbled into the student body. For many, anonymity is part of the appeal.
But as service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan, some at San Diego State are raising their heads and making themselves more visible. They’ve started a veterans organization that is one of the most active in the country.
The group, which lines up support services for veteran students, lobbies for benefits and hosts social events, is fielding calls from other campuses interested in copying the idea.
Students such as Nathaniel Donnelly, a former Marine who served in Iraq, insist they don’t flaunt their military service but are happy to talk about it in social settings or classrooms. Many transform their leadership training from the military to campus organizations.
Gary Hirsch, a former Marine who graduated last spring with a top academic award, was involved in no fewer than nine different extracurricular groups.
“If I could have 50 percent of our student body be veterans, I would,” said Sandra Cook, executive director of enrollment services at San Diego State, which gives veterans special consideration in admissions. “Maybe they didn’t shine in high school, but they have that experience.”
Veterans have been a presence on many college campuses since right after World War II, thanks to the GI Bill of Rights. But their visibility and influence hasn’t always reflected that. The Vietnam War and the current Iraq war have been sharply criticized by academics, and service members haven’t always felt welcome. Student veterans are often eager to signal a new identity, so they keep their heads down.
But these days colleges are eager to welcome veterans. One reason is the financial aid many carry, but they’re also seen as students who have a lot to contribute to the community. New education benefits for veterans have been proposed in at least 32 states this year alone and signed into law in at least 11, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Veterans “offer a real ‘rubber-meets-the-road’ approach that is unique in higher education,” said Jeffrey McIllwain, who teaches national security courses at San Diego State and says veterans always stay on top of the voluminous readings he assigns.
“Many professors have a lot of theory, and these students bring a wealth of experience to test that theory in really unique ways,” he said.
Classroom discussions about, say, the surge in Iraq or the nature of the insurgency often bounce aimlessly around, Mr. McIllwain says.
“Then you have a student come in and talk about how he was responsible for trying to co-opt a Sunni tribe to help the coalition,” he said.
Mr. Donnelly recalls a class on nuclear-weapons security where the professor questioned a student who had served in a counterintelligence unit working on that very issue.
In many places, the growing numbers allow veterans to pursue a relatively normal college life but also have a real community of older and more empathetic friends.
“I have my civilian friends and it’s good, but you still need your veteran friends because they know what you’ve been through,” said Mr. Hirsch, who served on President Bush’s Marine One helicopter crew.
It’s hard to say how many veterans attend colleges and universities because the veteran community includes former active-duty soldiers and airmen on the GI Bill, current National Guard members and reservists.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 250,000 veterans are currently using the educational benefits of the GI Bill.
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