Veterans, Educators, and Traditional Students is a student organization dedicated to facilitating discussion for the student-veteran experience, and serves as an academic resource available to both students and faculty on campus. VETS aims to educate the larger community on veteran issues and experiences through informational workshops.
Often professors and departments will reach out to VETS, requesting a member to present to a class or group about their personal experiences or those shared by other student veterans.
Members of VETS are also available to talk with students one-on-one about a career in the military, which often includes giving ROTC students honest and personal life viewpoint of life from someone who has served.
A portion of VETS’ budget is dedicated to bringing in guest speakers, who will appeal to students from across campus rather than just student veterans.
“If it’s just us bringing in speakers … we are not reaching out, we’re not educating the public about what the veteran experience is like,” said VETS President James O’Rourke.
VETS also serves the campus community by providing research subjects for various departments that study traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions with high incidence rates in the veteran community.
Student veterans can also use VETS as a resource when they first arrive on campus, which offers aid to newly transitioning veterans by directing them to tutoring services and giving peer-to-peer support.
VETS members presented their 2016-’17 budget to the Student Services Finance Committee Nov. 29, which was approved at $32,896.30.
