32 Chapter Relationships A Chapter will maintain relationships with its members and potential members, university administrators, faculty and staff, community members, political leaders, and more. These relationships are incredibly important to the success of the Chapter, and should be cultivated strategically, understanding that growth and development occur because of relationships. What underscores all relationships created by Chapters is inclusion. The benefits of diversity and inclusion in student organizations stretch far and wide — affecting academic and social experiences, as well as having a direct impact on the future of the organization. The positive effects of diversity and inclusion enable Chapters to work with people from other races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds and challenges the views they are accustomed to. This leads to greater awareness, understanding, and acceptance of differing beliefs and customs. While those who serve in the military have experienced greater than average diversity in their every-day experiences, emphasizing inclusion within a Chapter allows for a two-way exchange of the benefits explained above. Not only can Chapter members gain a better understanding of others unlike them, but also teach others more about student veterans. Relationships with the School As a registered student organization, Chapters are most closely tied to the universities that support them. Because of this, Chapter Leaders should first develop relationships with those at their school that have a hand in either student life or the day-to-day of student veterans. When these personnel are on board the Chapter and its mission, both the identification and reach directly to student veterans on campus becomes easier, growing the pool of potential candidates through simple connections with the campus. Chapter Leaders often run into the hurdle of accessing lists of student veterans due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA, 20 U.S.C. § 1232(g)), which is a United States federal law that governs the access to educational information and records by public entities such as potential employers, publicly funded educational institutions, and foreign governments. This law prevents Chapter Leaders from simply requesting a list of student veterans on many campuses in the U.S. While a barrier, FERPA should not prevent Chapter Leaders from leveraging relationships on campus to gain access to these students. Only a handful of potential relationships are listed below, but Chapter Leaders are encouraged to find relationships wherever they are on campus. Any relationship is a potential benefit in some way to the Chapter. School Certifying Official The first obvious stop in developing these relationships is the School Certifying Official (SCO). These are the university staff members who know and understand the student veteran population the best because it is their job to ensure that a student veteran’s GI Bill is processed correctly so that student veterans avoid the stress of that financial burden. The SCO maintains, then, a list of active students currently using their GI Bill, including student veterans, reservists, National Guard members, and dependents. By solidifying a relationship with the SCO, Chapter Leaders can use that connection with active students to grow Chapter membership and convey important information. Student Veterans Center Staff For the Chapters at schools that are lucky enough to have a designated space for student veterans, a relationship with the veterans’ center staff is a must. These relationships provide space to post information about meetings and to hold meetings. They have connections with student veterans not using GI Bill—those with whom the SCO may not be familiar. While a member of the veterans’ center may be
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