Shane Hachey, GS ’04, remembers a day during the spring semester of 2003 when he and fellow military veteran Eric Chen, GS ’07, were tabling for signatures in support of a proposed Columbia veterans group. One of Hachey’s professors walked up to the table and showed “disgust” for Chen’s army field jacket, and called the American armed forces a “fascist military organization.”
“He was one of the most distinguished professors at Columbia … but what am I supposed to say to that?” Hachey said. “Incidents like that happened to people … you can’t help but feel that is a hostile environment.”
That was eight years ago, and veterans say that the environment on campus has changed considerably since then. Now, veterans have a much larger presence on campus—the group of 30 a decade ago has grown to more than 400, partly due to the post-9/11 GI Bill and Columbia’s participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program.
As the school’s veteran population has increased, the group that Hachey and Chen eventually helped found—the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia University, or MilVets—has expanded its activities, too. And after intense participation in political campaigns related to the GI Bill in the last year, members say that the group has refocused this semester on holding public events and on services for its own members.
New kind of activity
Over the past two years, MilVets has increased its presence on campus, planning more public events and initiatives—such as a recent “Toys for Tots” drive—than in previous years.
“Our mandate is such that we look out for the social, academic, and professional welfare of our members,” MilVets president Dan Lagana, GS, said.
Lagana described the group’s activities this year as “hyperactive.” In addition to the club’s social and philanthropic activities, its leadership is focusing on the development of the Veterans Career Initiative, inviting companies to host more events with Columbia veterans both on and off campus.
“We decided to focus on trying to ensure that our members, our veterans, have the tools at their disposal to be intelligent and knowledgeable about … what they need to do to go pursue a career in the civilian world,” MilVets vice president Azar Boehm, GS, said.
The group is holding information sessions related to finance, law, medicine, consulting, film, and journalism, and is working with the Center for Career Education to help veterans work on skills like résumé-writing, according to Boehm.
“The reason that we really wanted to focus on this in particular was MilVets has grown,” Lagana said. “And we were top-heavy in juniors and seniors, and so I felt that … it was incumbent upon us to work even harder to put people in tune for a more professional outlook.”
The high unemployment rate among veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an unsettling statistic that the MilVets “really need to tackle,” Boehm said.
“There is still a gap between the veteran who has all of these amazing leadership and life experiences and what the employer sees. … So we’re trying to bridge that gap,” Boehm said.
‘Growing pains’
MilVets’ initial function as principally a social group has also shifted in a more political direction. As GS Dean Peter Awn put it, the group’s “instinct now is to reach out.”
Former MilVets President John McClelland, GS ’11, said the group had to overcome initial “growing pains” to figure out whether it should be a social or a political group. Even if it has become more political, McClelland said, maintaining the social aspects is important.
“There has to be a social element, because this is a group of people that was supposed to have a common experience and that is something that is helpful to people when transitioning to the school,” McClelland said.
Boehm agreed with McClelland, saying, “We obviously want to make sure that it continues to be a social environment … but we also want to make sure that we are providing resources for them [veterans] and that we can service their needs.”
MilVets was involved in increasing Columbia’s involvement in the Yellow Ribbon Program—a federal financial aid program for veterans—and earlier this year, group members successfully lobbied Congress not to cut GI Bill aid to veterans currently enrolled in private universities.
Justin White, GS ’05, who wrote the group’s constitution and served as its president from 2003 to 2004, said it’s been “really impressive” to watch the MilVets’ activities in the last few years, especially their GI Bill lobbying push.
“It’s a whole other level, that none of us could envision then,” he said.
But Chen, one of the group’s founders, said he pictured the group taking this direction. “This is exactly what I imagined from day one,” he said.
“It’s become a real national entity. … A lot of that had to do with our work on the GI Bill,” MilVets secretary Rich Baldassari, GS, said. “It’s gone from a student group to something … more robust.”
Although Hachey has been away from campus for over five years, he stays informed about the club through its extensive alumni network. He said that he thinks its newfound activism is only the beginning of a “slow shift” caused by veterans’ increased visibility at Columbia.
“I think it could go farther, but I think there’s been a lot of progress,” he said. “It has been uphill—uphill with a 100-pound rucksack.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Rich Baldassari's title—he is the secretary of MilVets.
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