Support for our veteran students

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, we'd like to share some news about how we support veteran students at UC Santa Cruz.

About 100 veterans are currently enrolled at UCSC, and their presence adds to the diversity of experience and viewpoints on our campus. Our goal is to increase access for veterans from all branches of the military: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. California is currently home to 25 percent of all veterans who receive education benefits. The number of veteran students will only go up as service men and women return from Iraq and Afghanistan. At UCSC, we are committed to serving those who served.

Our campus has developed a comprehensive network of services that has become a national model, and we are proud to support these motivated students. The success of our program is directly linked to the participation of veteran students in the development of our services. They told us what they needed, and we responded.

Two core features distinguish our services: A peer mentor support program provides veteran-to-veteran counseling and advising under the supervision of a part-time veteran student coordinator. And staff across campus provide assistance with admissions, enrollment, housing, financial aid, and more.

Resources are available through the Veterans Education Team Support (VETS) office, which is part of Services for Transfer and Re-entry Students (STARS) in the Academic Resources Center.

Also, 12 scholarships of $500 each were awarded this year to current veteran students, including five funded by the UCSC Retirees Association Bruce Lane Memorial Award fund. That endowment honors former campus planner and US Army veteran Bruce C. Lane, whose 27-year career at UCSC began in 1964.

We are grateful to our veteran students and ask that you take a moment this weekend to reflect on the origins of Memorial Day.