Avoid Isolating Your Veterans

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Man alone

Recognize that criticism of the military can be taken personally by student veterans and cause them to feel isolated.

Promising Practice

While sharing our personal and political beliefs is an important part of the higher education experience, as it helps us create a more informed understanding of the world, staff and faculty must be aware that there are many instances in which these beliefs can be taken as a personal insult. This is especially true when it comes to topics like the military and war. Some opinions can cause veterans and/or military family members to feel isolated from others. When students begin to feel isolated, they are less likely to stay engaged with the content and their performance will suffer. Therefore it is important for staff and faculty to recognize the signs when this happens and to possibly reach out to them in private if deemed appropriate.

From Timm Lovitt's Promising Best Practices: Veteran-Supportive Institutions of Higher Education in King County (Veterans Training Support Center, 2013). See the full report: download pdf, 99 pages

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Project provided by King County Veterans and Human Services Levy
and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.