Faculty and Staff Perceptions of Student Veterans Pursuing a Degree in Engineering

Abstract Student veterans' skills, unique gifts, and experiences are well documented as value added to their organizations. However, student veterans experience biases and perceptions from a variety of sources to include faculty, staff, fellow students, employers, and even pop culture. Some of these perceptions may generalize student veterans positively, while some may portray them negatively without any ill-intent. Faculty and staff perceptions of and interactions with student veterans can impact student veteran learning outcomes and their classroom experience. While student veteran populations fluctuate with the tempo of military activity, the US has seen some of the highest student veteran enrollments as a result of the Post 9/11 GI Bill and the student veterans' desire to pursue their educational goals. Student veterans are a growing part of the university population. Veterans are a special demographic that is tracked on federal and state employment Equal Opportunity Hiring Policies and as a special interest group in the US government census. Demand for technical expertise in the military and civilian sectors will result in student veterans and active duty military members' presence in physical and virtual engineering education campuses. This increase of student veteran and active duty populations requires higher education faculty, advisers, staff, and administrators to appreciate the student veterans' strengths and challenges and to acknowledge their own perceptions of this population. This paper is part of a larger study of perceptions toward student veterans and the impact of those perceptions on student veterans. Specifically, this investigation focuses on faculty and staff perceptions towards student veterans in engineering higher education. Through the quantitative survey instrument described here and administered across many academic institutions, this paper surfaces existing stereotypes and perceptions retained by faculty and staff. Questions from this survey sought the level of agreement or disagreement regarding several known veteran stereotypes. Preliminary results from mixed model logistic analyses indicate that these biases or perceptions are active in non-veteran faculty and staff populations.