This week at our Careers & Coffee chat, we discussed the most efficient way to stay in contact with your military-affiliated student populations. Each institution has its own way of handling the influx of questions, requests, and events that come with the beginning of an academic year.

Reaching Your Students
Michael Barany, director of Military and Veteran Success Center at Stockton University, uses Blackboard to communicate directly with students. While not all universities have this direct line of communication with their students, there are other options for staff attempting to reach their communities. Charlene Ross, the lead academic advisor for Student Veterans and Military at Central Ohio Technical College, has started to use a large-scale texting system to connect with students. She mentioned it may be too soon to determine if it is efficient, however, it is a new tool that some universities may be able to utilize.

The discussion then moved to tips and tricks that professionals at institutions of higher education can use to best serve their military-affiliated populations, while simultaneously ensuring that all other work can be completed in a timely fashion.

Navigating Your Email Inbox
The 24-hour email rule has often been used as the rule of thumb. In especially busy times, such as the beginning of the academic year, should higher education professionals still be expected to reply within 24 hours when their inbox often overflows with hundreds of emails each day? Hira Byrne, assistant dean of admission at Amherst College, advised to use an auto reply in subsequent emails. Her auto reply explains that she is working hard to respond to emails within a timely manner, and a response may just be delayed due to the number of daily requests. Additionally, individuals can designate a specific time in their calendars to check email and complete daily tasks. Although work-from-home schedules are still varied among colleges, speaking often with coworkers who may be doing similar work can help ease stress of an overloaded calendar.

Serving New Students
In addition to organizing certifications for VA benefits, professionals serving military-affiliated populations may also be asked to help students acclimate to a new environment. Other university officials may not be expected to do the same for more traditional students. While this is an important task of making student veterans and their families feel welcome on campus, it is also important for this community to understand that being always available, also means not being available to do other tasks that are necessary to successfully run an office. One solution mentioned in the discussion was to incorporate the VA Work Study Program to have peer support to new students. It can be easier to hear about certain VA processes (i.e., monthly housing and tuition payments) from students who have been in the same situations as new students.

Happy Fall Semester!
We here at HigherEdMilitary hope you all have a wonderful start to the semester!

If you were unable to make this Careers & Coffee, please leave your comments on how you stay connected with your military-affiliated community!

Also, make sure you sign up for our next Careers & Coffee chat to share your experience and thoughts on topics affecting the military-affiliated community in higher education.

Article Topics

Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success Working as a Veteran in HigherEd

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