Duke student veterans have been relatively unknown on campus-but that may soon change.
Michael McInerney, a second-year graduate student in public policy, recently started the Student Veteran's Association to give veterans more of a voice on campus.
The organization-also called DukeVets-is the first of its kind at Duke. Among its primary goals are to identify the number of undergraduate and graduate student veterans on campus, develop student veteran support services within the University and provide student veterans with a chance to network.
"Duke seemed very open to doing anything they could for us as a population," said McInerney, a U.S. Army major on active duty who plans to teach at West Point after obtaining his degree. "But they didn't know how to identify us or know what we wanted or needed."
Matthew Meyer, a Marine Corps veteran and residence coordinator for Wannamaker and Keohane quadrangles, said he believes that DukeVets will increase veteran awareness on campus.
"The [veteran] population is so underrepresented here because Duke is basically a traditional liberal arts type school and most of the students here are 18-year-old traditional freshmen," he said.
One of DukeVets' initial projects is to make Duke more financially accessible to veterans by lobbying the University to take part in the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program by offering a scholarship for veterans. Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the government provides veterans with money equivalent to the tuition cost of the most expensive public school in the state. The Yellow Ribbon program is a provision of the same bill in which the government must match financially any scholarship assistance that a university above the state tuition cap might offer to veterans.
Freshmen Paul Salem, a veteran who recently returned from duty in Iraq, said student veterans would have more of an incentive to come to Duke if the University participated in the Yellow Ribbon program.
"Let's be honest here-the pool of academically qualified enlisted guys who qualify for the GI Bill is not huge," he said. "Duke needs to do something to attract them to come here, as opposed to some other private schools that do the [Yellow Ribbon program]."
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which student veterans are able to attend for free under the GI Bill, has more than 200 student veterans, according to The Daily Tar Heel. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said he is not sure of the number of student veterans at Duke, but administrators are working on a system to obtain that data.
Salem said he would like to see the veteran community expanded on campus because he believes it would be beneficial for the student population.
"These are highly motivated, very intelligent people who really want to be here and really want to make something out of themselves, and I think having them on campus would be a good example to some students and would just be a good thing to have," he said.
Moneta, who worked closely with McInerney to form DukeVets, said one of the inspirations for starting the group was the success of the picnic hosted for Duke veterans and military families last Fall before the Duke-Navy football game. More than 100 people showed up at the event, he said.
More support programs for student veterans will emerge as Counseling and Psychological Services, the Career Center and other University services begin outreach on the topic, Moneta noted.
CAPS is currently working to establish itself as the primary consultants for veterans who wish to seek counseling services and are working with other organizations, like the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, to provide more appropriate care, CAPS Director Kathy Hollingsworth said.
"The most important goals for the program are to stimulate awareness, interest and discussion across campus in providing services for student veterans," she added.
Another reason McInerney started the group was to create an unofficial way for veterans to meet and talk.
"I noticed when I [started the] program, a lot of students haven't even met anyone in the military," he said. "A lot of times there are experiences that are easier to talk about with other vets than with everyone you go to school with every day."
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