For incoming freshmen, the University injects a multifaceted support network into campus life that includes advisors, student organizations and extracurricular activities.

For students returning to civilian life from military enlistment or a combat zone, however, the familiar support networks tend to fall short of being helpful.

William Suclupe, a junior majoring in social work, said he served in Iraq as a mental health non-commissioned officer to help soldiers cope with combat stress injuries and mental health issues.

For veterans returning to the civilian life of a college campus, symptoms of post-traumatic stress can develop with signs of stress, anxiety and depression that can culminate into the more pronounced syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The biggest thing … is the social aspect,” Suclupe said. “In the service you … build camaraderie like a brotherhood. Veterans are non-traditional students. The majority of them find they cannot relate to average college students, and if they don’t have a social network, then they can become isolated.”

He said he discovered the student organization Campus Veterans Association, initiated by Ashkan Bayatpour, in fall of 2008 after he stumbled upon an e-mail sent only once from a staff-member in the financial aid department.

Bayatpour, a student pursuing a master’s degree in marketing and a veteran who served in Iraq, said the University overlooked the student veteran demographic, which compelled him to found a student organization for veterans by veterans.

“Just having an organization … for veterans by veterans is important in itself,” he said. “Nobody on campus really paid attention to the demographic of veterans. The issue wasn’t very constantly thought of. It was a private struggle for a lot of individual veterans.”

He said the transition from military life to civilian life can be an unsettling adjustment.

“Some [veterans] make easier transitions to student life, but some of them have issues with struggling in the transition,” he said. “For a lot of soldiers … they have certain levels of PTS. It can range from things like irritability … to full-blown shell-shock where they really cannot function.”

The sharp contrast between military life and peaceful civilian conditions can make college a trying experience for veterans, Bayatpour said.

“Military life is not just a 9 to 5 job,” he said. “Military life is a lifestyle … that you live and breathe every day.

“Sometimes [aspects of college life] just seem irrelevant. For someone who has faced death, when you know that you could die tomorrow, what does it matter what you got on the last quiz?”

He said the Campus Veterans Association fills a much-needed gap for veterans during the transition period.

“We tell each other stuff we may not tell best friends or families,” he said. “That bond is there.”

Suclupe said veterans tend to develop self-destructive behaviors, such as isolationism, and 732 students are currently recipients of G.I. Bill benefits.

He said he believes the University should staff a Veterans Center on campus with fellow veterans who can offer peer-to-peer counseling.

Otherwise, Bayatpour said, veterans may feel isolated in a community that is unaware of their wartime experiences.

“It’s hard [for veterans] to connect with people who don’t understand what they’ve been through,” he said.