IUP Veterans

The IUP Veterans Organization is in place to serve veterans of every U.S. military branch and any honorary members. This organization consists of veterans and aims to help bring other veterans together, inform veterans of various benefits available to them, and help ease the transition from military life to life on campus. Every veteran-student, or other student interested in veterans’ affairs, is eligible to become an active member of the IUP Veterans Organization. -IUP Veteran Affairs

The dynamic of college campus has been ever changing. More and more non-traditional students are attending colleges nation-wide. At IUP, there are many resource programs and opportunities available to non traditional student especially veterans. In order to understand the role of veterans and active members of the military who attend IUP, I contacted the Veteran Association Club President, Brad August.

      According to Mr. August, there are currently 455 students who have either active or veteran statuses at IUP. The university itself has an active ROTC program which helps non military members of the IUP community, get a taste of military life. Also, IUP host an support group for veterans and active members of the military to help ease the transition from military to student life. For more information about veteran affairs on campus,  here is a link to some organizations and outreach programs available at IUP.
Unfortunately, as I conducted a more in-depth view of veteran involvement on campus, I found that many IUP students were not aware of the importance of veteran affairs on campus. In many ways, I found this to be slightly contradictory to the opinions of the residents within Indiana Borough. A number of residents could list off the many activities that veteran have contributed and actively participated in. Veteran Affairs and veteran issues seemed to be interwoven within the Indiana Borough. But in contrast, many IUP students could not list any contributions that veterans made on campus. Perhaps its the lack of awareness of veteran affairs, or the lack of interest that some of the students have but, I believe that it is essentially important to bridge this divide.  One key question that emerged from this research project was the following: How can we engage students to be more aware and participatory in veteran and military affairs on campus?  A significant and important question to analyze in this ATP project.