Colleges need to focus on recruiting, supporting and graduating student veterans now more than ever, as these students face hardships due to the pandemic, experts say.
A recent brief from the American Talent Initiative urges colleges to enroll more students who are military service veterans.
The initiative is a collective of colleges and universities committed to expanding access for more vulnerable students. Its goal is to, by 2025, enroll and graduate 50,000 more lower-income students at colleges that have a six-year graduation rate of at least 70 percent.
This includes student veterans, very few of whom attend colleges with high graduation rates.
Many in higher education are more concerned than ever about this student population due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Student veterans are likely to start their education at community colleges, said Emily Schwartz, program manager at Ithaka S+R and one of the authors of the brief.
Community college enrollment is down by nearly 10 percent, which doesn’t bode well. At the same time, enrollment at for-profit colleges remains steady. Historically, these colleges recruit student veterans during economic downturns, according to Schwartz.