In the few years leading up to the momentous ice-cream social and other equally memorable orientation festivities, many Brown students are caught up in an over-scheduled world of sports, theater, standardized exams and, of course, the usual high school drama. For Staff Sergeant Chaney Harrison '11, though, that was not the case.
On Aug. 22, 2007, just three or four days before embarking on the Brown Outdoor Leadership Training program, Harrison separated from active duty in the U.S. Air Force's 23rd Special Tactics Squadron. Based out of Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle, he served as a Special Operations Pararescueman prior to enrolling in Brown's Resumed Undergradute Education program.
Finding support
"Coming directly from the military onto a campus with the resources like those we have here at Brown, the opportunities to explore my interests in almost any direction have been almost overwhelming," Harrison wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
And Harrison, a public policy and education concentrator and avid rugby player, has certainly had the opportunity to pursue a wide range of interests in his first three years here at Brown.
After beginning his study of Portuguese, he won the Oliver Kwon Research Award through the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. With funding from this award, Harrison was able to travel to Rio de Janeiro in the summer after his freshman year to film a documentary that was then featured at Providence's Latin American Film Festival the following spring. The following year, a C.V. Starr Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship from the Swearer Center for Public Service allowed him to return to Brazil the following year for nonprofit work.
Though Harrison soon learned how to make the most of his Brown experience, the beginning was not entirely easy. "My freshman year I quickly realized that there was nothing on campus, either in the administration or among the student groups, that was prepared to help veterans make the transition into campus life," he wrote in an e-mail to the Herald.
That is where the Brown University Student Veterans Society comes in. In spring 2008, Harrison — along with veterans Chris Baker '09, John Hermansen '10 and Miranda Summers MA'09 — created the society to provide a peer support network for current veteran students as well as veterans considering Brown for their college education.
But "due to the extremely small number of veterans we have in the undergraduate community, it has been very challenging for our organization to put on numerous activities or programs," said Harrison, who serves as the group's president.
Fortunately for veteran students, it seems that the administration is taking notice of this lack of social support. Last fall, Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn and Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron hired Harrison as a veterans liaison to the administration. In this position, his role has been to make faculty and other administrators cognizant of the various issues that veterans face.
Becoming ‘veteran-friendly'
Brown has made significant progress in veteran affairs in terms of financial aid. While veteran students have always been able to bring in their standard GI Bill benefits to help pay the cost of tuition, they have also become eligible to receive supplementary funding through the newly-formed Yellow Ribbon Program, an initiative set forth in the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Run by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs, the Yellow Ribbon Program forms partnerships with schools willing to provide additional funding for veterans who want to attend college. Brown, for instance, annually provides twenty $10,000 scholarships for undergraduates, ten $14,000 scholarships for graduate students, and three $5,000 scholarships for medical students. These amounts are then matched by government funds.
Director of Financial Aid James Tilton, who is a veteran himself, praised the Yellow Ribbon Program. "We believe this is a great opportunity for students who are talented and interested in coming to Brown to have the resources necessary to do so," he said, adding that the University was immediately interested in a partnership when approached by the program two years ago.
Brown's commitment to financial aid for veterans is apparent after a comparison of scholarship amounts awarded by similar institutions. "Some of our peers have more students that are eligible, but the total amount of scholarship they can receive is lower," Tilton said. Harvard, for instance, provides fifty scholarships to undergraduate veterans through the Yellow Ribbon Program, but each award is only $3,000. Yale gives out fifty $5,000 scholarships, for undergraduates and graduates combined.
Financial aid aside, Brown has more to do to draw veterans to the Van Wickle Gates, Harrison said. "When it comes to the public attitude of the institution towards veterans, the policies and programs in place for veterans, and the presence of a student veteran community as a whole, then Brown is definitely behind some of its peers," he wrote.
He cited Columbia University as a specific school that has actively tried to make itself veteran-friendly and as a result, has increased its veteran enrollment to approximately 140. Brown, by comparison, has veteran enrollment in the single digits, according to Harrison.
"One of the biggest barriers to creating the necessary support structures is simply the lack of demand," wrote Harrison. And "unfortunately, Brown is simply not doing a good job of attracting student veterans."
Future directions
When asked about any changes in the number of veterans applying and coming to Brown, Admission Officer Peter Newcomb was optimistic. "We have not seen big increases in our enrollment numbers, but we have fielded many inquiries from service members and vets in the past year," he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, adding that the University "may have an increase in the number of applications from vets this admission season."
The Resumed Undergraduate Education program, designed for students who have been out of high school for six years or longer, is the most common route of application and admission for veteran students coming to Brown, Newcomb wrote. When veterans apply as RUE students, admission officers "have more time to carefully consider and discuss their experience" because the RUE applicant pool is "much smaller," Newcomb wrote. "Specific training and experience in the military is considered, especially in terms of how it relates to choosing Brown and a potential field of study."
Overall, Harrison explained that his time on College Hill has been an "incredible experience from day one."
"Despite its reputation as an anti-military school," Harrison wrote, "the Brown community has been incredibly welcoming and supportive of myself and my fellow veteran students."
