Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services. Veterans Services. Annual Report September 1, August 31, 2015

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1 1. Department Overview Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services Veterans Services Annual Report September 1, August 31, 2015 Veterans Services (VS) is a hub for information and services that address the needs, concerns, benefits, academic support, and assimilation of student-veterans at the University of Houston. The department employs professional staff and student-veterans who are experienced and knowledgeable about VA and University policies and procedures. The department strives to consistently provide accurate and helpful information in a professional and friendly manner. 2. Department Mission The mission of Veterans Services is to foster student-veteran success by facilitating the transition from military to civilian and university life. The department assists veterans, guardsmen, reservists, and dependents in receiving military and educational benefits. The department also provides academic, career, financial, psychological, and health-related services through department-based programs and through referrals to the Veterans Administration, other University departments, and community agencies. 3. Department Goals a. Interact with newly-enrolled student-veterans early in their college careers to foster student engagement and student success (DSAES Strategic Initiative: 1a, 2a, 6a) Status: Partially Accomplished. Veteran services is outreaching new enrolled veterans by hosting a brown bag information luncheon during each NSO/ART conference. Changes in the format of NSO/ART conferences, changed the way that Veteran services engaged with Students. Veteran Services provided a presentation to Veterans, but were not able to provide a brown bag info luncheon. We continued to engage students, inviting them back to our center for 1 on 1 assistance. Veteran Services hosted a Mixer in collaboration with the Student Veteran Organizations and hosted approximately 60 new student Veterans to the event. As the conference process changes Veteran Services will continue to find new ways to engage new student Veterans. b. Contribute to student engagement by fostering the growth of a Student-Veteran Organization (DSAES Initiative: 1a, 1c, 1d, 1f) Status: Accomplished. Veteran services has a strong Student Veterans of America chapter. Veteran Services routinely collaborates with the SVA to engage student Veterans and to develop successful Student Leaders. Membership continues to grow, and currently has 200 active members. SVA Continues to lead other chapters in the area of Leadership. Officers have attended Leadership conferences in Dallas, Texas and in Savannah 1 P age

2 Georgia. They will compete in the National Conference s Business Plan Competition in January of This organization has strong leadership. They continue to grow achieve success in all areas. c. Develop methods to identify student veterans at risk for academic probation and suspension. (DSAES Strategic Initiative: 4c, 6e) Status: In progress. Veteran services will work with Enrollment Services and or other departments, to identify a method to identify student veterans at risk for academic probation and suspension. VS is still trying to identify a method to use. VS explored Map Works, but due to funding VS would not be able to develop its own cohort within Map Works. This may still be a possibility, but we will have to continue to explore options. d. Collaborate with the administrative and academic departments in developing and implementing methodologies to educate the campus community about issues facing student-veterans and inform the campus community about the programs and services offered by Veterans' Services. (DSAES Strategic Initiative: 1b, 6a) Status: On Going Veteran Services will work with division marketing to develop marketing strategies to advertise a series of classes and or presentations to be offered to Staff and faculty on campus. Veteran Services has increase marketing efforts and staff had increase advocacy services for Students. VS Director, conducted several meetings with stake holders to discuss options to continue to offer staff and faculty education. e. Cultivate the development of a broad-based standing Veterans Services Advisory Committee, encompassing individuals and organizations within the University community as well as external entities who are actively committed to serving the educational and developmental needs of student-veterans. (DSAES Initiative:1b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 5d) Status: in Process Veteran Services has developed Bi-laws for an Advisory board, Bylaws are pending approval by leadership. f. Create and implement a comprehensive training program for VA Work-Study students to ensure, including delineation of responsibilities, customer service, reception of guests, conflict resolution, attendance and punctuality, and knowledge required to address the most frequently-asked questions. (DSAES Initiative: 2a, 2e) Status: Partially accomplish. Veteran Services currently has developed some training measures for work study students. Veteran services will work this semester to implement this training and assessment measures. Veteran services implemented a pre-test for all student workers. Veteran Services currently has a Human Resources intern who will continue to implement training, develop assessment measures, and improve record and file maintenance. 2 P age

3 4. Department Major Accomplishments a. In January of 2015, VS sponsored 12 students and two staff members for the Student Veterans of America National Conference in San Antonio, Texas. The Nation Conference assisted Student Veterans in Networking with some of our Nation s largest corporations. It also, helped UH and SVA at UH to leverage some our concerns and needs with our Regional and National Leaders. b. On December 17, 2014, VS held the Military and Veterans Cording Ceremony honoring UH graduating Veterans. There were approximately 150 attendees. (47 Veterans honored). (VS did offer a Satisfaction Survey and I can include those results on this report if needed) c. The Spring Semester bought some staff shortages to the VSO as we lost a staff member to military training. Despite those challenges, the VSO continued to offer high quality of services to our Veterans. On May 8, 2015 Veteran services hosted a Military and Veterans Cording Ceremony. We had a significant increase in the number of veterans attending, with approximately 234 attendees. (80 Veterans honored). Veteran services offered a satisfaction survey, and attendees overall had a high satisfaction of the event) d. Veteran Services was awarded $5000 from the James T. Hall DAV Chapter in Houston, Texas. VS worked with The Scholarship office to award those funds to 10 deserving Student Veterans who attended during the summer session. e. Veteran Services partnered with The Fortune 500 Consulting Firm Deloitte to bring Warriors to Workforce program to Student Veterans at UH and other surrounding Campuses. The program brought over 50 professionals from the Deloitte Organization who partnered with Student Veterans to provide students with face to face instruction on creating a Brand statement, Networking, Developing a 30 second elevator speech. The event also hosted top industry leaders from Conoco Phillips, Shell, Deloitte, and GE who conducted a panel for student Veterans. Deloitte provided all materials, and staff to work the event. Over 90 Veterans RSVP d to attend the event that occurred on campus on June 5, f. Veteran Services renewed our contract with the Veteran administration to continue services from the Veteran Success on Campus. The MOU signed by the University President extends services for four more years. g. In May of 2015, after Veteran Services was contacted by Operation Finally Home, in search of a deserving Veteran; student and combat veteran Josh Philippus was awarded a brand new home courtesy of Fisher Homes of Texas. VS continues to work with Operation Finally home in hopes of finding our student veterans homes. h. In August of 2015, after Veteran Services was contacted by KHOU, Student Veterans Sterling Dodd and Kayla Brown were given a $50k dream wedding courtesy of Ashton Gardens and numerous vendors in Houston. 3 P age

4 5. Utilization Reports The following data represents program participation and office utilization for AY 2013/ 2014 and for AY 2014/2015 The department uses an access database to track each student visit using their PeopleSoft ID. Key Program Objectives Attendance AY 14 AY 15 Student Engagement Student Success Advocacy and Recognition Civic Engagement Fundraising $ $5, Office Utilization AY 13/14 AY 14/15 % Increase September % October % November % December % January % February % March % April % May % June % July % August % Total % 6. Assessment Projects A. New Student Veterans Services i. VS is assessing the efficiency of programs and services provided for student Veterans who are transitioning from active military service or transferring from a community college. 4 P age

5 ii. VS will develop methodology to determine effective surveying methods to assess the needs of prospective and new student Veterans. B. Advocacy and Recognition Programs i. VS is assessing the level of participation and satisfaction of programs and events that advocate and recognize the accomplishments of student Veterans. In December, VS hosted the Military and Veterans Cording Ceremony to honor graduating student Veterans with an honor cord. ii. General respondents to the survey report positive feedback on the Ceremony. iii. Veteran Services will continue to assess the surveys to make decisions on the date and time of the event, the process to RSVP and attend, and also on the type of Keynote that the attendees would like to hear from. iv. VS is currently looking at the assessment tools available to them, in order to develop an ongoing method of assessment of over services provided at Veteran Services. C. Academic Success and Early Intervention Programs i. VS used baseline survey to determine the housing needs of student veterans. The intent of the assessment was to determine whether or not VS would move to request a Veterans Learning Community with in the UH residential community. The Survey was sent out to approximately 1000 beneficiaries of GI Bill benefits and we had 89 recipients responded. The results were almost even with 48% of the respondents stating they would or would probably live on campus and 52% reporting they would not or would probably not live on campus. Of those that would like to live on Campus, most reported they would want to live in the Lofts dorms. Many of the respondents stated the availability of family housing and the affordability of the housing would influence them to move on campus. ii. Student Veterans often take courses together and study in small groups in the Veterans Services office. In November, an LSS tutor came to VS twice a week to tutor 3 student Veterans for Math Students welcomed the additional service in the Veterans Service office. iii. VS will develop methodology to determine the effectiveness of a formal student Veterans learning community and on-site tutoring. Veteran services through the use of our work study program added a part time math tutor, and a part time Chemistry Tutor. Tutors offer as needed tutoring in the center at no cost to the student. VS upgraded office equipment to ensure that tutors could effectively provide the services. iv. At the request of students, Veteran Services increased office hours during Finals in the Fall 2014 semester and Spring Office hours were 5 P age

6 7. Areas of Continuous Improvement changed to 8-midnight, Monday through Thursday the week of finals to accommodate students wanting to study. Office utilization increased during the week. Several community groups donated snacks and drinks to the students during Finals week. a. Veteran Services Office is often filled to capacity. As a department we have continually worked on creating a friendly and inviting space for students. This has been both a success and a detriment, as we often do not have the room to fit the demand of the students that would like to use the center. We have increased seating with the addition of a new sofa to our kitchen area. The kitchen area is often used not only for lunch, but for tutoring sessions. We added a large white board in the kitchen to help facilitate meeting and tutoring sessions. We also added 12 lockers to help create a cleaner less cluttered space. There have been some student comments stating that b. Veterans Services is working with Campus Solutions, Enrollment Management Production Services, to develop a query that will capture all students who selfidentity as a military service member, dependent, or veteran on the common application. This will ensure we capture and report accurate information for the military and veteran student population. All staff members in VS successfully gained access to Campus Solutions, and received the appropriate trainings to utilize the database. c. Since peer counselors are often asked by student-veterans about the status of their paperwork, it would be helpful if some of the peer counselors had limited access to PeopleSoft. In an effort to effectively track data. VS will implement the use of Cougar Check-In. This continues to be an ongoing project. d. VS advisory committee with representation from campus departments, students, offcampus agencies, veterans organizations, the Mayor s office, and other possible entities. The Advisory Committee will meet at least once during each of the fall and spring semesters and will provide expertise and advice to help advance the activities and planning associated with UH Veterans Services. The Bylaws have been drafted and VS is seeking approval of leadership to start the selection of committee members. 8. Budget/Fundraising/Grants A. Veteran Services is currently conducting a Budget Evaluation to determine if there are any budget deficits. B. VS with the assistance of Eddie Davis, received a donation from Disabled Veterans of America $5000 to be dispersed as 10, $500 scholarships. VS is still waiting to receive guidance on this donation. 6 P age

7 9. Staff Highlights C. The Student Veterans of America participated in various fundraising events and SVA was able to raise approximately 20K in corporate donations, and OKRA fundraising event. A. December 2014, VS welcomed a new Director, Celina Dugas, LICSW B. VS added over 10 new student workers increasing student staff from 8 to 15. Students are paid through a VA benefit. This increase supports our increased student utilization of our office and services. 10. Collaborations Partnerships A. External Partnerships i. VS partnered with George Forman to host NFL game nights on Thursday during the fall term. Operation Liberty kicked off August 21, 2014 and continued through November 9, ii. On is Oct. 2, 2014, VS partnered with UH Athletics, UH ROTC, and the Marine Corps Recruiting Battalion to participate in the halftime super flag performance at the Salute to Service Heroes Game iii. On is Oct. 3, 2014, VS and UH SVA facilitated volunteers for the Houston Stand Down. iv. VS partnered with the Houston chapter of the Disabled Veterans of America to provide weekly VA disability claims counseling at the Veterans Services office. Veteran services officers from the DAV provided monthly service to approximately 40 veterans and assisted Veterans in filing service claims with the VA. These claims are crucial to providing much needed benefits to Veterans who might not otherwise access the benefits. v. Veteran Services submitted an MOU to the business office to collaborate with the Vet Center. Vet Center clinicians would be available on a weekly basis to provide 1 on 1 services to Veterans eligible for their services. vi. Veteran Services had meetings with Union Pacific, Target, Shell, Apple, and HP to discuss engagement with Student Veterans; and potential partnerships to provide services to student Veterans. Veteran Services also, worked with each of these partners to provide adverting for hiring events. B. Internal Partnerships a. VS partnered with the SVA to host weekly enrichment workshops for student Veterans. b. VS, DSAES, UH ROTC, UH Office of Special Events, the Texas Veterans Commission partnered for the 9/11 Memorial Day of Remembrance events. c. In collaboration with UH CSD, UH CAPS, and UH SVA, VS hosted a PTSD and wellness workshop for student Veterans. 7 P age

8 d. In collaboration with UH Learning Support Services, on-site group tutoring at Veterans Services began in October of Tutors are provided by Learning Support Services twice a week for STEM courses. e. VS collaborated with Wellness and hosted a Panel and documentary viewing on Military Sexual trauma. f. VS along with WGRC hosted a panel and viewing of When Women come Marching home. April, 2015 g. Veteran Services Collaborated with ROTC to host a 5k in February to benefit Veterans who are hospitalized in the VA. The Run brought over 100 Students to support the cause. 8 P age