Tucked away on the second floor of Hughes-Trigg is the SMU Veterans Center. The walls of the small room are lined with colorful military flags honoring the members who frequent the center. Comfortable couches surround coffee tables scattered with newspapers and magazines and a coffee machine sits in the corner of the room.
On a recent afternoon, three veterans were found reading newspapers and enjoying coffee. They greeted a curious guest with a handshake, a smile and offered her a cup of coffee.
More than 170 enrolled students at SMU are military veterans. Although they aren’t the typical college student, with growing support from the university, these veterans are encouraged to get their degrees after returning from service. The majority of most veterans’ tuition is paid for with the help of the GI Bill.
There are currently 72 undergraduate veterans, 79 graduate student veterans and an additional 22 enrolled in professional programs at SMU. With the help of SMU Military Veterans, an undergraduate group sponsored by the Maguire Center, military veterans have become an active part of SMU life. The group participates in public service events and they host a tent on the Boulevard on football game days.
“Most veterans are older and have more life experience than the average college age student, so we made the group to provide support, a listening ear and a place to vent,” SMU Military Veterans president Hannah Wood, 26, said. “As a club we provide support and comradary and just a place for our members to hang out.”
The average age of an SMU veteran is roughly 30 years old. Currently the oldest undergraduate veteran is about 55 years old, Wood said. Many have families, some have part-time jobs and most veterans commute to campus.
Sharing a class with a military veteran can be a learning experience for students. Senior accounting major Monica Pillow has made relationships with student veterans during her time at SMU. One veteran in particular made a lasting impression on her two years after sharing a class with him.
“I really enjoyed being in class and getting to know veterans. He had very interesting stories and was very personable and easy to talk to,” Pillow said.
According to Wood, who spent seven years of active duty in the United States Navy and currently serves as a United States Navy reservist in Fort Worth, her fellow students just don’t recognize their older classmates as U.S. Military veterans. Since they are not on active duty, they aren’t in uniform. And unless there is a reason to talk about their service, most veterans tend to blend into the classroom.
“Some of the students don’t really understand what’s going on or don’t really know who we are. And that’s not a bad thing,” Woods said. “But to a student who is wondering what to say to a veteran, just say ‘thank you for your service’ or ‘tell me a story’. We love to tell stories.”
The disconnect between student veterans and the average college age student is typically a matter of varying life experience. SMU president R. Gerald Turner spoke at the recent SMU luncheon to honor military veterans where he said he strongly believes having veterans in the classroom as an asset to the university.
“Our veterans bring a great deal of experience and points of view to SMU. They have been taught discipline, a strong sense of personal responsibility, judgment, leadership and teamwork. They are great to have in our classes scattered across the university,” Turner said.
Wood agrees and added that the hardest part about going to school with younger classmates is a difference in dedication.
“The level of commitment to school in younger students is much lower,” Wood said. “If there’s a social event during school or the aftermath of a social event, that trumps school sometimes.”
Sharing classes with younger students isn’t the only difficulty veterans face during their transition from service. Andrew Phillips, 28, president of SMU Cox Veterans in Business, another support group on campus designed to help SMU Cox student veterans, believes the most difficult part of returning from service is transitioning into the workforce.
“Our veterans are some of the most driven, dedicated and skilled people that we have in this nation,” Phillips said, stressing the importance of encouraging others to give veterans employment opportunities. “They will benefit, the veterans will benefit and we will all benefit as a society.”
SMU Military Veterans opened the Veterans Center in Hughes-Trigg in August. The informal gathering space serves as a central meeting place for the group on campus. Wood, along with many other group members, travel at least an hour to get to SMU every day, so the Veterans Center provides a comfortable place to rest and relax before going to classes.
The opening of the Veterans Center was not the first gesture of appreciation on the part of the university. SMU has been honoring veterans since World War I. When SMU students left the classrooms to fight in World War I in 1917, a librarian stitched a red wool service flag to honor the soldiers. The flag hung behind the reference deck in Dallas Hall while the students fought. Blue stars stitched on the flag spelled out SMU and after the war ended, the librarian covered 11 blue stars with gold stars to honor the students who lost their lives. The flag is now held in the SMU Archives.
Although SMU has honored veterans for nearly a century, they still have a long way to go to catch up to student veteran programs at other schools.
“A lot of schools are better equipped and have handled veteran students longer. But we’re getting there,” Wood said.
Colonel Samuel Nelson, the keynote speaker at the luncheon, expressed his faith in the SMU veteran programs moving in the right direction. Additionally, Wood believes the most important factor of the program’s growth is the unbelievable support the club gets from SMU.
“The best thing about SMU is that the faculty and staff that help advise us really care about us and it’s very apparent,” Wood said.
