Veterans Resource Center
2023-2024 Program Review

The Veterans Resource Center offers support with Veterans Affairs educational benefit procedures, new student enrollment, academic counseling, and serves as a central hub for military-affiliated communities. The VRC has counselors to create VA Educational Plans and certifying officials who support processing VA educational benefits. In partnership with the Veteran’s Readiness and Employment, the VRC houses a VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) counselor to support service-connected veterans with Employment based educational goals that work with their disability accommodations, career counseling, transition assistance, and referral services. The center also provides a computer lab, hosts events, and actively foster relationships with local veteran organizations to promote academic success and promote community for an easier transition into college life.

The national average of veterans with disability is 30% and although our college campus doesn’t have the ability to capture all veterans with military related disabilities, the number of student veterans in Fall 2023 utilizing Chapter 31 benefits (VA Educational Benefits for veterans with military disabilities) is 42. Out of that number, only 18 veterans have utilized DSPS services on campus for the 2023-2024 academic year. It is difficult to capture veterans with disability based on their VA benefits as there are more than one educational benefits veterans can utilize. Also veterans oftentimes, do not associate military disability as  traditional disability due to military culture, stigma and VA terminology. All veterans with any form of disability have access to our college’s DSPS services,though this population chooses to not use the service for the above listed reasons. 

In Fall 2023, 53 out of 321 veterans were considered below poverty and yet only 14 are receiving a Pell grant. This shows the lack or misinformation of veterans who can potentially utilize both their VA benefits and financial aid. Due to the lack of staffing and the need for additional data that cannot be captured in Data on Demand, we are unable to disaggregate data outside of enrollment numbers, including retention, persistence, disability, course success rates, and transfer/graduation. Our center plans to incorporate surveys in our student veterans intake procedure to capture data our systems may not be able to capture. When the available staffing is filled, a better strategy to review data will be reassessed.

The Veterans Resource Center was severely impacted by the pandemic and the changes that followed regarding student veteran educational benefits. Enrollment at the peak of the pandemic, Fall 2022, decreased almost 50% to 271 compared to the Fall 2018 where veteran enrollment was at 641. As of Fall 2023, ARC veteran enrollment has increased to 321 student veterans and 151 students who are dependents. As part of the effort to clarify the pathway for our military affiliated student population, the VRC revamped the process to access veteran benefits by shifting paper forms to fully electronic where forms can be submitted via computer or mobile devices  with clear instructions and transparent communications from our office to students. A website revamp occurred in 2021 where before, paper applications and pdfs were littered throughout the website causing confusion among new student veterans/dependents who were unfamiliar with the educational procedure. Since then a veteran's very first step requires our office to make first point of contact to properly identify the benefits a veteran is entitled to email them the electronic application with clear step by step procedures. Certification processes now have the flexibility to offer remote or in person appointments. Access and flexibility is significant for our population as non-traditional students who have been out of the academic pipeline for years have additional barriers with matriculation and access to veteran educational benefits. 

To improve the working environment of the VRC, in the 2022-2023 academic year, the office took big strides to improve accessibility and comfort for students. The computers in the student lounge have been upgraded for student use. The center added more ada compliant equipment that includes automated doors and desks in the student lounge. That same year, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty donated 2.5 million dollars to the college’s VRC for renovations. The college is currently working to begin renovations later this year. 

The VRC celebrates and honors veterans in many ways throughout the academic year. The center highlights significant military anniversaries such as recognizing Marine Corps birthdays to Adopt a Family during the holiday seasons funded by community partners. VRC hosts a separate graduation ceremony honoring our veteran graduates with stoles and military challenge coins.

In 2023, the VRC partnered with the Women Veteran Alliance organization to host their annual Women Veterans Engage conference. Women veterans attending our college make up for roughly one third of the veteran population. Though women Veterans in general are under represented in students that self identify as Veterans. By hosting the conference on our campus, we provide additional access to resources, empowerment and education. The conference will also be held at our college this year in Spring 2024 as a continued partnership.

As of now, the Veterans Resource Center has not been fully staffed since the beginning of Fall 2023. There are two main vacancies (SSA and supervisor) that support the majority of our outreach initiatives in the center. The center is being held together with 3 full-time certifying officials that process 500 student benefits each semester along with additional monthly and semester reports to the Veterans Affair Office and annual college catalog approval by the state approving agencies. The school is also audited yearly by the state approving agency, with the three certifying officials also being responsible for this process.  

Over the last few years, the VRC along with other veteran centers in Los Rios have been advocating for the district office to pursue an MOU for Tuition Assistance. That would allow for veterans using benefits to receive additional funding towards their education and cost of living, thus increasing recruitment and retention and allow the students an alternative funding source.

Factors to remove barriers for disproportionately impacted students that will be focused on when staffing is available would be flex training to provide education on veteran culture to faculty, rebuilding of veteran community resources, the pursuit of Tuition Assistance and educating veterans about opening and reopening cases to file for military disability ratings. In the past, there have been trainings for faculty and staff where the training was conducted in house and by guest facilitators. The last 3 years, this training has not been done at the same frequency as pre-pandemic. Many of the community partners are slowly recovering from the pandemic and are looking to rebuild relations with our college campus. The advocacy for Tuition Assistance among all 4 sister colleges has been an ongoing conversation with the district office that has not moved past its dialogue. Often enough, many veterans who have not filed a case for military disability are either ill-informed or have given up in their process for applying due to the red tape surrounding the process. The procedure to apply can often take between 1 to 5 plus years with veterans revisiting many traumas to attest for disabilities beyond their physical state.

A major concern that impacted all colleges was the changes to benefits during the pandemic and the historic rise of cost of living. One factor that drastically affects Veteran benefits is the cost of living and with changes that allowed veterans to receive benefits by taking fully online courses, many of the veterans attended colleges in areas where cost of living was higher than Sacramento without having to physically live in the area. Although the changes have been reverted back in the summer of 2022 where a student veteran now only needs 1 unit full semester  on-ground class to receive their benefits, many of them locally are still enticed to drive to the bay area to receive additional funds. Tuition assistance allows for the veteran to not use up any of their 48 months of VA education funding while still in the Service. Tuition assistance is funded by the Military and leaves the individual entitlement for the student to go further with their education goals. Only one local college offers Tuition assistance and that is Sierra College, so all students wanting to use this funding source only have that local college as a choice.