The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1 - 182

Wade G. Livingston • David A. Scott • Pamela A. Havice • Tony W. Cawthon

Because student veterans want to congregate with one another and because they seek each other out for social support, student veteran living-learning communities could be a valuable source of institutional support .
they rarely utilized other forms of academic support. in terms of social support, they tended to congregate with each other (assuming they knew each other). their social support network was organic for the most part, often created by fellow veterans they happened to meet on campus. more formalized social support structures included the campus’ reserve Officer training corps (rOtc) detachment and its student Veteran association (sVa). While there was social support from these two sources, most participants were not members of these groups. the recurrent theme undergirding support (and, more specifically, social support) was that participants felt more comfortable associating with other veterans, who had the kind of knowledge, background, and experience they needed to ease their social transitions.

status from others and sought social support from each other. these actions and behaviors depict a very independent, highly focused, and resilient community. However, the same actions and behaviors imply that the community was very insular. the student veterans on campus did not have a well-defined or highly interconnected community; in fact, most did not know each other. the few who did (and who were part of the campus student veteran association) expressed difficulty in connecting with and recruiting other student veterans to join their student organization. the nature of their community meant that their experience with re-enrollment and social transition was often an isolated one. livingston (2009) asked the research question “How do student veterans manage social transition after re-enrolling in college?” the short answer is that most of them manage the transition either in isolation or with the support of only a few fellow veterans. However, while they can manage the transition associated with college re-enrollment, do they manage it in the most effective way? the answer is no. they neither effectively managed nor failed to manage the social transition; instead, they were reluctant to engage in the social transition and were more comfortable staying hidden.

DISCUSSION
the interconnected themes of military influence, invisibility, and support describe student veterans’ social transitions during re-enrollment. in essence, student veterans camouflaged themselves socially, tending to navigate re-enrollment autonomously and perceiving a rift between them and their non-military college peers. they often hid their veteran
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LIMITATIONS OF THE LIVINGSTON STUDY
livingston’s (2009) study has several limitations. the first and most notable one is the demographics of the participants. the vast majority of them were White males, so this study is really the story about White male student veterans’ social transitions. it is not representative in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity.

The Journal of College and universiTy sTudenT housing

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1