The typical profile of a veteran student is different from traditional or civilian student counterparts. They come with life experience and values that center on resilience, hierarchy, and discipline. They tend to be older, balancing responsibilities like marriage, children, and employment. While many colleges and universities have programs in place to professionally train their faculty and staff to better understand the military student population, there is more work to be done.

To cultivate inclusive school environments, developing learning resources and training specifically on military-affiliated students is a good start. However, it is not enough to provide one-time or infrequent learning and development on this topic because of the pace of changes related to VA educational benefits, health and wellness needs, and steadily increasing rate of enrollment from this group.

The demographics and enrollment trends have shifted in recent years with most veteran and other military-affiliated students attending online, career-focused or community colleges based on their learner profile, where practical and accessible workforce programs are most important. According to Pew research, nearly 72% of undergraduate veteran students took part in some online courses and 22% were exclusively enrolled online. Approximately 47% of veteran students enrolled in public community colleges, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

Current Program and Training Structures

Some higher education institutions have matured their systems further than others. More than one hundred colleges and universities have implemented a Green Zone training. These programs are designed to establish and improve the knowledge and skills necessary to support the academic success of military students. With varying delivery and frequency modes depending on the institution, Green Zone programs provide information regarding military career transitions, unique circumstances, and communication strategies. Other military cultural training programs that can support educators are available, like PyschArmor with on-demand modules.

The main question is, "How much do faculty and staff know about how their school supports military students and how do they individually contribute?"

Often, training is inconsistently applied to faculty and staff, and the nature of support is decentralized for students. Training should be tailored specifically to faculty and staff roles and types of higher education institutions. This allows school employees to meet military students where they are while also providing optimal support based on their area of expertise.

For instance, admissions staff should have military-affiliated trainings that differ from faculty military-affiliated trainings since the scale and scope of interaction with military-affiliated students is different.

Schools that already have programs and training in place may have an easier time continuing to promote military cultural awareness than those that do not.

Tips to Promote Military Cultural Awareness

Tip #1 Learn Where Your Campus Military Cultural Awareness Stands: Similar to how curricula, professional development, or other programs are built, the first step to building military cultural awareness should be a needs-based assessment for faculty and staff. A needs-based assessment will measure the current level of institutional military-affiliated knowledge and identify gaps in support. What do your faculty and staff actually need? What information and resources are they lacking regarding military-affiliated support? Every school is different. Assumptions about your campus military culture may be debunked or supported after a needs-based assessment.

Tip #2 Commitment: Lay the foundation, set standard expectations, and develop procedures for military cultural awareness on your campus, moving this initiative from goals to action.

Tip #3 Transparency: Gather and share the data from your needs-based assessment and share it with appropriate stakeholders. Strong campus-wide decisions are based on informed ones. Effective assessments provide good insights to determine strengths and opportunities. Promoting military cultural awareness is about everyone and includes input from them.

Tip #3 Implementation: Develop role-specific training vs. a one-size-fits-all approach. Include mixed methods of delivery that are module-based but also consider short live trainings that allow for deeper learning and discussion. As part of the training, showing how the roles interdepartmentally interact and function can help employees know where to go for referrals and understand the entire military-affiliated ecosystem. Meet faculty and staff where they are at and consider hosting trainings during their regularly scheduled departmental meetings. Work with deans and department chairs to see what would work best for their teams.

Tip #4 Engagement: Information visibility is key to engaging both employees and students. High visibility is needed to achieve engagement with campus resources., Consider posting details about your campus resources, policies, contacts, accommodations, veteran centers, and other related services across different platforms. Common and accessible areas may include student orientations, school websites, learning management systems, marketing materials, and face-to-face campus settings. For online schools, utilizing technological solutions such as AI-assisted chats, pop-ups, e-mail communications, dedicated contacts, and virtual veteran resource centers work similarly.

Tip #5 Sustainability: Remember that changes are ongoing with respect to the military learner and their educational benefits. Additionally, creating a 'military-aware' culture requires continuous feedback, learning, evaluation, and adjustments. Sharing perspectives and collaborating across departments is what separates a school from being merely compliant to fully committed to valuing military students. Set expectations for how your campus will sustain these military-affiliated efforts every year, through employee turnover, and evolving student needs.

The Future of Military Cultural Awareness on Campus

Military students usually work with VA-approved schools to use their educational benefits, and enrollment trends show that more are attending college as they seek accessible opportunities to reach their goals. As they continue to reshape the landscape in higher education, colleges and universities should reassess their learning environments and employee professional development to see how to best engage with this segment of the student population whose needs and cultural cues are not always well understood.

The future of creating 'military-aware' schools is about sustained commitment and investing back into the communities. Many veteran and military-affiliated students bring valuable leadership skills and experiences into academic environments that they hope to transfer to workforce opportunities down the road. Because the profile of the military learner tends to be older, career-focused, and GI Bill-funded, they have become an increasingly significant enrollment demographic for higher education. This is especially important as colleges consider enrollment stability, retention, and graduation outcomes. By supporting school faculty and staff members with consistent training and resources, both military students and higher education institutions benefit from stronger, supportive environments that lead to positive results.

Article Topics

Military Friendly Institutions Research on Student Veterans Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success

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