It is easy for us to say we care about our nation’s veterans. It is easy for us to say we are for or against the interventions and conflicts in which our nation?s soldiers serve.

It is not so easy to recognize and be responsible for the not-so-obvious burdens facing our veterans, the ones who never make it to the front page. It shames me to say it, but student veterans in the University of Wisconsin System face these kinds of hidden burdens right now. To make matters worse, a few such burdens could be so easily fixed, that they are inexcusable.

The first involves a University of Wisconsin student who served her country honorably as an active duty member of the Air Force. Her name is Laura Geick. Ms. Geick had satisfied every residency requirement necessary to receive in-state tuition upon attending UW. She paid Wisconsin taxes; she had a Wisconsin driver’s license; she even registered to vote and did so four times in Sauk County.

The only ?problem? was that she had not been physically present in the state for a year, because she was stationed out-of-state. Despite this, she was denied upon applying for residency status. Only a political intervention by state legislators saved her the burden of paying out-of-state tuition.

Now, I’m not saying veterans who have never lived a day of their lives in Wisconsin should get residency. The injustice here was that a veteran who had a great case for residency was denied solely because of her military service. What makes the situation even more frustrating is how easily this problem can be fixed. Literally, all that is needed is a one-sentence UW policy saying: ?For applicants serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed forces, place of employment outside of Wisconsin and lack of physical presence in the state shall not be used to disprove bona-fide residence.? See how easy that was?

There are too many hidden burdens like this one to mention, but here are a few more that are just as easy to resolve.

There is no veteran in the veterans? department of the Registrar’s Office ? the department placed in charge of handling student veterans’ records. As a result, many veterans are left unaware of the financial, social and educational opportunities available to them. Most college campuses have a veteran employed in this department, so why can’t we? The fix: hire a veteran part- or full-time in this department, or at least have a veteran act as a part-time volunteer specialist or liaison.

Nowhere in UW policy does it state the UW System is obligated to help veterans adjust to civilian life. A student veteran asked a UW committee whether or not this was the case a few weeks ago and ? after a waffling answer ? finally received a firm: ?No, we are not obligated.? If we profess to actually care about our veterans, then it is our responsibility to help them return to civilian life and a civilian career, and help them to receive a university education. To keep the university from doing the bare legal minimum, let’s write down some further obligations for which the UW System is accountable.

The UW System is not asking systemic questions about student veterans. For example, the System does ask why few racial minorities attend UW-Madison, but it never asks why UW-Madison ranks the lowest in the UW System for the percentage of student veterans in the student body ? .546 percent.

To remain consistent, if faculty are concerned about acceptance and retention rates for one minority, shouldn’t they be concerned about them for all minorities? Plus, there are plenty of other issues to address: campus counseling, housing, unique needs of student veterans, etc. So let’s make a permanent body to annually look at these issues, ask the right questions and have the power to adopt policies to fix any problems.  

Now, if you think the UW System is not doing enough for student veterans, here are a few things you can do to help.

Write a letter to President Mark Bradley of the UW Board of Regents, expressing concern over the hidden burdens facing student veterans. Write a letter to Regent Colleene Thomas, UW-Madison’s student representative to the board. And, since we are in the process of picking a new UW-Madison chancellor, speak out at the Search-and-Screen Committee forums Feb. 20, 26 or March 6. Many of these problems are so simple to fix that a note from just a few people may be all that is needed.

So if we really care that student veterans have served us, let’s do some meaningful service for them.

David Lapidus ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in economics and mathematics.