Category: Uncategorized

By Chase Reavis

The Razorback Reporter

UA student veterans receive benefits and accommodations including financial aid and prolonged time on tests from on-campus facilities.

The Veterans Resource and Information Center, VRIC, staff work with students and their dependents on a variety of college success factors, director Erika Gamboa said. Among these factors are college preparedness, financial aid, scholarships, registration and admission.

VRIC provides information for student veterans and sometimes refers students elsewhere on campus for further assistance, Gamboa said.

“We work with different departments across campus,” she said. “We have partnerships to make sure that the students have everything they need in order to be admitted, be enrolled and graduate.”

VRIC also informs students of career opportunities, because the goal is not for students to “just graduate, but also have a plan afterwards, like a career,” Gamboa said.

One avenue for opportunity is the Sam M. Walton College of Business, specifically Meredith Adkins, director for corporate relations and outreach.

Adkins receives releases from corporations – including Amazon – that are seeking veterans for employment and forwards them onto Gamboa to give student veterans the opportunities, Adkins said.

Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt Transport Services are listed on VRIC’s page on the UA website as veteran-seeking employers, in addition to organizations such as Hire Heroes USA, Show Your Stripes and Goodwill Industries. Hire Heroes USA provides employment workshops, career coaching and job sourcing for veterans, and their work has resulted in the employment of over 18,000 veterans, according to their website.

Adkins works closely with Gamboa to be sure that student veterans get the opportunities meant for them, Adkins said.

From Oct. 23 to Oct. 27, the Office of Diversity and Inclusivity will work with Walton College to present diversity week, Adkins said. The event is “to celebrate diversity and inclusion in the workplace” and veterans are “specifically reached out to as part of that event.”

Beyond campus support for student veterans, staff members also refer student veterans to the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, especially for mental health concerns, Gamboa said.

Student veterans can request accommodations during tests and classes, such as extended time, transcribers and note-takers, but those accommodations must be approved by the UA Center for Educational Access after a meeting and documentation, said Laura James, Associate Director of Student Access for the Center for Educational Access.

“Circumstances and disability-related barriers vary based upon the individual, (so) there are not specific accommodations that students who are currently serving in the military or are veterans typically request,” James said.

The case-by-case nature of CEA’s offered accommodations means that not all student veterans can be assumed to be afforded the same accommodations.

In addition to helping student veterans with general college success, VRIC also works to make sure student veterans who need accommodation receive that accommodation.

“Our purpose is to help these students graduate – all the ones who come through our door,” Gamboa said.

By Katie Serrano

The Razorback Reporter

The University of Arkansas School of Nursing is preparing their graduate students to find the right hospital to work at after a strike at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Little Rock raised concerns about working conditions in June.

Susan Patton, interim director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, said she had “mixed feelings” about the strike that lasted a week in Little Rock.

“Nurses’ primary job is to take care of their patients,” Patton said. “But if they feel that their working conditions are affecting the way that they care for those patients, they also have an ethical responsibility to speak up about it.”

There were approximately 50,000 job vacancies throughout the VA in April 2017, according to data released by the VA.

After the strike, the hospital responded by implementing a plan to recruit more nurses, start a bonus program for experienced medical and surgical Registered Nurses, and lowering the bed capacity in order to protect and enhance patient care, according to the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

“Here in Fayetteville the nurse-to-patient ratios are well balanced at the VA hospital,” Patton said. “I notice significant differences between the environment at VA hospitals compared to other local hospitals. When our students go through their clinical rotations, I like to visit the VA last because the nurses are typically in a good mood. They are taking care of veterans, who are very service oriented people, and some of the most appreciative patients you can work with.”

One incentive for Arkansas nurses is the VALOR program, which stands for VA Learning Opportunities Residency.

“The VA hires students while they are in school and gives them special training, as well as pay,” Patton said.

Pay also has been an increasing issue for Arkansas Registered Nurses. The annual mean wage of registered nurses in 2016 in Arkansas was $57,630 compared to the national mean annual wage of $72,180, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, “pay isn’t always the most important thing,” Patton said.

“We tell our students to pick hospitals based on the support system they will be offered,” Patton said. “Although the pay at VA Hospitals may not be the highest, I have seen that taking care of veterans results in the happiest nurses.

Arkansas nursing students also are required to research and apply for jobs themselves while they are students. They must take into account several factors that make it a desirable place to work, such as turnover rates and cost of living.

Arkansas is in the top regional percentile of states with the highest turnover rate, which is the percentage of employees in a workforce that leave during a certain period of time, for Registered Nurses, according to Nursing Solutions Inc.

Although Little Rock nurses went on strike, their pay is approximately 10 percent higher than nurses in Northwest Arkansas, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I think this helps prove that the environment is ultimately the most important factor for a nurse,” Patton said.

Patton encourages students, nursing or not, to talk to military recruiters even if it’s something they’ve never considered.

“VA hospitals give special preference to veteran nurses,” Patton said. “Not only do they offer incredible financial support, but from my personal experience, veterans make the best nurses because they are working with the newest technology, and can relate the best to the people they are helping.”

By Erin McGuinness

The Razorback Reporter

Fayetteville is taking steps to permanently control, or end, homelessness among veterans in the city, a feat that Mayor Lioneld Jordan said in 2014 he thought could be achieved by 2015.

That goal was an outgrowth of President Barack Obama’s goal to end homelessness among veterans. In “Opening Doors,” cities throughout the country were asked to join the effort to end homelessness among veterans by 2015, a challenge that Jordan accepted.

While the administration did not meet the goal, the number of homeless veterans nationally steadily declined by 47 percent between 2010 and 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But in northwest Arkansas, the number of homeless veterans increased, according to data collected by Kevin Fitzpatrick, UA sociology professor and Community and Family Institute director. 

Brian McAnally, Health Care for Homeless Veterans manager, works with homeless veterans throughout northwest Arkansas. 

“The VA has poured lots of resources into our area because we are one of the only areas where the homelessness is actually growing,” McAnally said, citing the growth in northwest Arkansas economy and the highly regarded VA hospital in Fayetteville as attractive to veterans. 

There are approximately 195 homeless veterans in Fayetteville, including those in permanent housing, Fitzpatrick said. Approximately 60 are without housing services, living in emergency shelters, the woods, with friends and in other temporary situations. 

The city’s goal is to reach functional zero, the point when more housing units are secured than the number of homeless veterans in need, said Yolanda Fields, Community Resources director for Fayetteville.

Fields runs the city’s Hearth program, a service that aims to provide transitional or permanent housing for the homeless in Fayetteville. 

“Once you have more units on an average than you have homeless, you have reached functional zero because you can house everybody that is homeless,” Fields said. “Ending homelessness,” is something that is not achievable, she said.

Once the goal is reached, people who become homeless, or homeless people who move to the area, can be housed, she said. 

The city is working with the Center for Community Care to list all of the homeless persons in Fayetteville, their needs and how they can be helped. The platform is called Hark and serves two purposes – as a data base and as a hub for homeless people and others to find service providers including healthcare and shelter.

The Center for Community Care began in September 2016, said Ben Cashion, director of content and training for Hark at the Center for Community Care. The organization was approached by the Continuum of Care in November about a need for a list of homeless people in northwest Arkansas. Through this, multiple homeless shelters in the area that often serve the same homeless people can coordinate their data, and the number of homeless people can be tracked. The data is being collected and should be available in less than a year, Cashion said. 

When the mayor joined the effort to end veteran homelessness in Fayetteville by 2015, “the goal for collaborating with area service and resource agencies to raise awareness and come up with a plan was an attainable goal,” Donnie Osborn, assistant to the mayor said via email.  

Fields hopes Fayetteville can reach functional zero among veterans by the end of the year, she said. 

By Veronica Torres

The Razorback Reporter

Veterans who served active military duty and need assistance in getting temporary housing can turn to 7hills Homeless Center in Fayetteville.

The 16-year-old non-profit organization has goals of “ending homelessness and poverty with education, opportunities and hope,” according to the website.

“The ultimate goal is to develop a continuum of services and housing programs that will allow us to assist all clients and families, no matter their individual challenges and life circumstances,” according to 7hillscenter.org.

Beyond that goal, 7hills staff work with veterans in Washington, Benton and Madison counties.

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) is aimed to promote housing among low-income and veteran families. The idea is to assist veterans and veterans’ families in transitioning to permanent housing, according to 7hillscenter.org.

SSVF offers short-term services for veterans, including case management, moving and storage costs maximum of three months, short-term rent assistance and/or arrears, short-term utility assistance and/or arrears, housing search assistance, security deposit once per two years, utility deposits once per three-year period, money management skills, job readiness assistance, childcare, community referrals, assistance obtaining public benefits and emergency supplies, according to 7hillscenter.org.

Seven Hills services are different for each individual.

“Homelessness is a really unique situation,” said Steven Mills, chief operating officer for the 7hills Homeless Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “Most of the homeless individuals don’t want to be homeless.”

There are eligibility requirements for the SSVF program. They must be from a veteran household, either being a veteran or a household where the head of household, or the spouse of the head of household, is a veteran. The veteran must have served in active military, naval, or air force and was discharged or released under non-dishonorable conditions. They must have very low-income meaning it would not exceed 50 percent of area median pre-tax income. And they must occupy permanent housing, meaning they are experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing permanent housing, but not SSVF assistance, according to 7hillscenter.org.

“I wouldn’t say there is a high volume of students coming through,” Mills said in an interview.

“Of the homeless population 37 percent are veterans in northwest Arkansas,” according to 7hillscenter.org.

“One of the No. 1 reasons for someone becoming homeless is because just a lack of a support system,” Mills said.