1 Chapter Guide Introduction Who We Are Student Veterans of America (SVA) is the premier organization leading service, research, programs, and advocacy for veterans in higher education. Our mission is to act as a catalyst for student veteran success by providing resources, network support and advocacy to, through, and beyond higher education. Through a dedicated network of more than 1,500 on-campus chapters in all 50 states and three countries overseas representing more than 750,000 student veterans, SVA inspires yesterday’s warriors by connecting student veterans with a community of like-minded Chapter Leaders. Every day these passionate leaders work to provide the necessary resources, network support, and advocacy to ensure student veterans and military-affiliated students can effectively connect, expand their skills, and ultimately achieve their greatest potential. SVA National Headquarters, located only a few blocks from the White House in Washington, DC, oversees the provision of programs and services that empower student veterans to succeed to, through, and beyond higher education by focusing on the unique life cycle of student veterans. These include Regional Summits, the Leadership Institute, the National Conference (“NatCon”), Washington Week, Veterans of Foreign Wars-SVA Legislative Fellows, scholarships, and other annual offerings. In order to reduce barriers to success, SVA’s team of legislative and policy experts oversee advocacy efforts including preserving the integrity and evolution of the GI Bill. As a data-driven organization, SVA’s research arm collects, analyzes, and interprets data from national partners as well as institutions and chapters, and then tells the story of our nation’s most talented group of college students: today’s student veterans. Our History The history of student veteran organizations on college campuses began long before SVA’s founding in 2008. A helpful place to start in recounting this story is near the end of World War II when President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, otherwise known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. After demobilizing, returning veterans of WWII flooded colleges and universities around the country like never before in American history. Not only did these student veterans face basic challenges associated with reintegrating into civilian life, but schools were unprepared for this influx of students, which lead to additional problems for student veterans such as severe housing shortages and a lack of transitional assistance. Student veterans banded together, forming peer-to-peer support networks to overcome these challenges, build community, and earn their college degrees. But did you know that this ‘GI Bill idea’ almost never made it out of Congress? In fact, there were some who said this new program would be ‘the ruin of the veterans of World War II’ as they returned home to the United States after the guns of Europe and the Pacific fell silent. The President of Harvard famously penned at the time, “We may find the least capable among the war generation, instead of the most capable, flooding the facilities for advanced education in the United States.” Further, the then President of the University of Chicago—a World War I veteran himself—argued, “Colleges and universities will find themselves converted into educational hobo jungles.” By 1947, just a few years after that original opposition, there were many retractions; for example, Benjamin Fine of The New York Times wrote that “The G.I.s are hogging the honor rolls and the Dean’s
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