"Did you kill anybody while you were in the military?"
It’s a provocative title for an education-related research paper, admits Lesley McBain, its author.
But it’s not an embellishment. The question is one that young veterans on college campuses routinely face, McBain said Friday during a presentation on student veterans at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education here.
She uses the question -- which she characterizes as "offensive" -- as the driving example of how student veterans are alienated by civilians.
But the question also is off-putting because it highlights a misunderstanding of student veterans -- many were never even in a position to kill someone.
In fact, despite varied topics, all three of the papers presented in the session on veterans suggested that higher education institutions carry misconceptions about and biases toward veterans that limit their ability to support them effectively.
Veterans are not a homogenous group of white males who have a shared experience of combat.
Instead, they are growing more diverse, in terms of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. There also are likely to be differences in their needs based on service status, whether active duty, veteran or reservist. A large population of veterans never served in combat; some have never even left the country.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/24/more-research-needed-student-veterans