Auburn has a long-standing history in encouraging and accommodating military students after service.
An example was in the post-WWII era, when Auburn was overwhelmed with veteran students taking advantage of their G.I. Bill benefits and coming back to school, administrators panicked to house all of the veterans that wanted to earn their degrees from Auburn.
They decided to transport ninety-three "tugboat deckhouses" from Mobile to serve as housing units to avoid turning any veteran away.
Today, Auburn is still keeping military students in mind and is considerate of serving these veterans in continuing their education through a course called success strategies in the Veterans Learning Community (VLC).
Auburn has made this course available for the upcoming fall semester and it is aimed at transitioning students in the military back to a university setting. The class will create a unique atmosphere, offering a chance for students with similar military backgrounds to learn together and adapt to college courses.
Success strategies is an opportunity for prior service veterans, active duty, National Guard or reserves, said Steve Barnard, Veterans Affairs Certifying Official.
David DiRamio, an assistant professor in the College of Education, is the major developer of this class at Auburn.
As a professor that has experience in the military and in working with military students, DiRamio will also be teaching the course.
This section of success strategies will help military students to develop personal learning and studying plans, and it will also address aspects of transition from military service to the college setting through guest speakers and peer connections, DiRamio said.
"With a focus on helping students make a successful transition from the military service to the university setting, the success strategies course is intended to help deepen students' understanding of the learning process and the role higher education plays in shaping their lives," according to the Auburn University official blog.
The long-term goal for this program is to create a learning community of approximately 20-25 veteran students that will be co-enrolled in certain courses through the first year of their post-military education, explained DiRamio.
"The addition of this class is the first step in that long-term goal," DiRamio said.
DiRamio said that his interests in teaching the course are both personal and professional.
"Personally, I am a veteran and when I came to the University I could have used a course like this with strategies that could have helped me transition more easily," DiRamio said. "I had been accepted to the University, but I was overwhelmed because I was rusty in math and science skills that I had learned before my time in the military. If someone had offered me a class like this, I think it definitely would have helped."
DiRamio recently published a book titled, "Creating a Veteran Friendly Campus," that contains the combined efforts of researchers throughout the nation in this particular area. DiRamio said that research for his book showed that peer support is something that is learned in the military.
"We are hoping that same peer support will help here at Auburn," DiRamio said. "It is no coincidence that they will be in the class with me as the teacher and can look to their left and right and have peer support."
This is a great place for them to re-connect with the university setting, DiRamio said.
DiRamio said he thinks that with the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, which will offer military veterans that have served at least three years after September 11th, 2001, full tuition to match the highest in-state tuition in the state that they are attending along with a monthly living stipend, enrollment from men and women with military backgrounds will begin to increase.
"Because of the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, Auburn becomes a more realistic opportunity for veterans," DiRamio said. "Hopefully, this learning community will be able to go through the first year of transitioning with them and give them the best possible chance to succeed."
"I think it's a good idea because it seems like it's a whole different environment over there," said Brian Thomas, a building science major who was involved in Auburn's Reserved Officers Training Course (ROTC). "They have briefings and specific orders for each day and here you have your schedule for classes but it's much less structured so I can see how it would be difficult to get used to."
DiRamio said that his personal experience and the research that he has done in this area will both be specific advantages in better serving this community.
"Through national boards and veteran's institutes that I am a part of, I get to hear about what is going on all over the nation," he said.
We have a few hundred students involved in the military, through the marines, Air Force, Army and some of those are currently on active duty, Barnard said.
There are also a lot of graduate students that are still involved and even more that are studying at Auburn through the distance-learning program, Barnard said.
"I'm starting to get e-mails from upper-division graduate students that want to help, too," DiRamio said.
"Other colleges and universities have done this and DiRamio is spear-heading the efforts here," Barnard said. "He has done papers on the subject of combat to college transitions. He is really starting up an outreach to this special community."
We aren't the only ones doing this, but we are definitely out in front, DiRamio said.
He said other universities are beginning to consider classes similar to this success strategies course.
"Especially because of our location, close to Fort Benning and in conjunction with the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, now is the time for Auburn to have this opportunity available for military students," DiRamio said. "I've always felt Auburn would be a place that veterans would love to come home to."
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