In the September HigherEdMilitary Careers and Coffee session, the discussion focused on supporting active-duty students and specific tips and best practices for when students are activated.

Here are some key takeaways from the discussion:

• Although it may be the last thing they want to hear, students who are activated need to know that activation will be disrupting to their education, even if that is difficult for advisors and directors to tell them.

• The disruption of education will be different for students who are deployed versus those who are mobilized.

• Time zone differences will be challenging for deployed students. Veterans offices may be more flexible with scheduling meetings but other campus offices may not be as flexible. One director in the discussion mentioned how they sometimes meet with their students abroad at 2:00 AM. It was also mentioned that coursework submission deadlines are easy to miss with time zone differences.

• There are risks and rewards when it comes to deployed students continuing their studies and staying enrolled while activated. The major reward is, of course, graduating sooner. However, discussants mentioned there are likely more risks. These risks include lower GPAs which could result in not getting into desired programs, stressed relationships between the student and their faculty and advisors, and less knowledge actually acquired during the course/subpar engagement in the course.

• Advisors must be clear and upfront about the challenges of being deployed and continuing coursework, and create a plan(s) in coordination with the student that will benefit their future.

• The start/stop and enroll/drop phenomenon that occurs with activated students can be very discouraging and demotivating. It is imperative that advisors and directors keep communication channels open and provide services from a distance even if students need to drop courses in the middle of the semester and not return until the next semester or later.

How do you serve your active-duty students? What have you found to be the best practices for your institution/office?

If you missed this discussion, join us for our October Careers and Coffee session that will focus on recruiting more veterans to work in higher education. You can sign up here. We look forward to seeing you there!

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