Written by: Dr. Mike Haynie
Driving home one night last week, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. It was a good day.
It was a good day, because it ended with an event at Syracuse University’s Schine Student Center, to welcome SU’s newest class of student veterans to campus.
It was a good day, because at that event resource providers from all over campus and the community – from student services, the library, the bookstore, career services, the health center, and even our local VA – came out to welcome the newest members of class of student veterans.
But more than all that, it was a good day because I had the opportunity to meet and learn about Syracuse University’s newest class of student veterans – an impressive, diverse, and motivated group of men and women, who will undoubtedly excel as students and members of our campus community.
But they will do more than just distinguish themselves…it wasn’t or isn’t just about them.
I often talk about how and why I believe that integrating veterans into our campus community will pay dividends for all our students. The foundation for this argument is a folder that I keep in my desk. In that folder are letters that I’ve accumulated over the past few years, from alumni who were students at Syracuse University in the 1950s and early 1960s. This correspondence shares in common a particular theme, which can be summarized by well by the following passage from just one of those letters:
“I came to SU in 1954 as an 18 year-old freshmen, and found myself living and studying with veterans of the WWII generation. They were mature, motivated, and worldly in a way that I was not. I am grateful to this day for that experience. It changed me for the better, and informed the person I’d become.”
Why was I driving home with a smile on my face?
Because my mind went right to this folder of letters, after talking last night to one of Syracuse University’s newest student veterans.
This particular student veteran is probably about 25 years old, and up until just a few weeks ago, he was a Sergeant and Squad Leader in the U.S. Army’s 1-32 Infantry Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, NY. He’s was a Distinguished Honor Graduate of the Army’s prestigious Warrior Leader Course, and has deployed all over the world – including to Afghanistan.
However at Syracuse University, this young man is all those things, and at the same time something different – he’s a freshman. He’s a freshman student, living in a freshman dorm, and living with a freshman (18 year-old) roommate.
When he told me he was living in a freshman dorm, he also shared that a few weeks ago someone from the student housing office called him, apologized for putting him in a freshman dorm, and offered him the opportunity to move to graduate student housing on South Campus. He said thanks, but declined the offer.
I asked him why? His response is why I went home smiling, and why I couldn’t wipe that smile off my face.
He said to me, ‘I’ve been leading 18 year-olds for as long as I’ve been in the Army. I figured I can do it here too.’
History repeats. They will make us better.