New office to help veteran transition into academic life

Adjusting to everyday life after fighting in a war can be difficult. Pitt student and war veteran Josh Galiyas would know.

“When you leave the military, the military doesn’t have time to tell you what to do after,” Galiyas said. “You’re on your own.”

Galiyas has a work-study position in Pitt’s Veterans Services Office, which is moving to the College of General Studies and expanding its services to accommodate a likely increase in student veteran enrollment. He helps answer questions from confused veterans.

Galiyas said he felt confused when he returned from two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. While driving in his car with his girlfriend, he saw a garbage bag in the middle of the road and swerved his car.

He said the black bag looked like the animal carcasses that covered improvisational explosive devices he’d seen in Iraq, which would have exploded underneath him if he didn’t swerve to avoid them.

Another time while Galiyas was driving, the tassel from Galiyas’ high school graduation cap blew past his face in the wind, and he buried his face below the wheel. The tassel reminded him of fire from an IED.

When the Post-9/11 GI Bill goes into effect Aug. 1, more veterans like Galiyas will apply for the expanded educational benefits program it offers.

But navigating two complex bureaucracies — the University and the military — can be a daunting task.

The U.S. government passed the Montgomery GI Bill at the end of World War II to ensure that veterans who wanted to pursue higher education after they completed their service would receive the help they needed.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill, offers expanded benefits for veterans who qualify, including full tuition for those who served at least 36 months of active duty, and a monthly stipend to pay for living expenses.

But veterans said it’s confusing and they often need someone to help them apply for benefits — someone like Ann Rairigh, new director of the updated Veterans Service Office.

“It’s really case-by-case for the veterans,” Rairigh said. “Some have everything covered. Some qualify for one program. Some qualify for two programs.”

Pitt’s Veterans Services Office helps veterans by sending their information to the National Veterans Administration, which then returns a description of the kinds of programs for which a student veteran qualifies.

Rairigh can’t advise a veteran on which program to choose, but she can help to explain the details of each one so that a veteran can choose the option best for him.

Some of the confusion arises from the difference in standards of the military and the University, especially related to compensation for a disability.

Rairigh said the University sometimes treats injuries or disabilities differently than the University does. For example, one student broke his foot, so the military gave him money to compensate for his injury. But the University didn’t consider it a disability, because he could still walk on it, Rairigh said.

Besides helping veterans with their benefits, the new Veterans Services Office will aim to provide specialized care for veterans, who represent a nontraditional block of students.

“Moving everything over to the College of General Studies will help us provide different programs and services,” Rairigh said, “because the College of General Studies is dedicated to providing services to nontraditional students.” The office is currently located in Thackery Hall.

As new director, Rairigh is hosting two open houses this week — one on Wednesday and one on Saturday.

She is also coordinating an orientation for new student veterans some time in late August or early September. The orientation, she said, would answer the specific questions of student veterans instead of students who are coming directly from high school.

“Most veterans are choosing to come here,” Rairigh said to emphasize one of the major differences between normal student enrollment and veteran student enrollment.

Attending college is typically the next step after high school, she said. Choosing to attend college immediately after leaving the military, however, takes more motivation.

“It’s not just the thing to do,” Galiyas, who is pursuing a degree in elementary school education, said. “It takes a hungry veteran.”

Galiyas was making $75,000 per year in Miami as an intelligence analyst for the military, in addition to receiving compensation for cost of living and housing.

But he said he got sick of being deployed and decided to go to school.

“I was dating a girl,” he said. “I missed her.”

After two tours in Iraq and Japan, McNeil said he missed his wife too much to risk getting deployed again. He said he was also tired of having little control over his life.

For example, the military had once told him he would be leaving Iraq the following day. So he packed his bags and waited to depart, but didn’t leave for another three weeks.

“There are so many things out of your control in the military,” Rairigh, whose husband is currently on his third tour of Afghanistan, said.

Galiyas said he also enjoys student life. He considers a blessing any day when he spends less than 12 hours on schoolwork, compared to military days, when every hour of his day was put to a schedule.

He said he has so much free time now that sometimes he feels anxiety and doesn’t know what to do.

Because he is so used to being on a schedule, Galiyas said, he is the main planner in his group of friends and makes sure they all arrive on time to go bowling.

Both he and McNeil find it difficult to fit in sometimes.

“I hear random girls in class talking about reality TV shows, and I just can’t relate to that,” Galiyas said.

And even though he would never argue with a professor and rarely identifies himself as a veteran, McNeil sometimes hears a professor say something that conflicts with what he directly experienced.

As a response to these problems, Rairigh said she hopes to create a more cohesive community of veterans who can meet to talk about their experiences.

“When you’re talking about it with other veterans, everybody gets it,” McNeil said. “You hear a lot of similar stories.”

There are many things that only veterans could understand. Upon returning, Galiyas said he felt overwhelmed by the vast variety of foods he could choose to eat.

Most meals in the military are called MREs — meals ready to eat. They consist of an odd mixture of foodstuffs and weigh in at 1600 calories each. To keep his water cold, Galiyas said, he tried to cover his bottle with a block sock, but the sun still warmed it up.

Besides helping veterans adjust to the small but important differences between student and military life, Rairigh said she wants to create a leadership coalition for veterans.

The differences between leading 50 men on a battlefield and leading a group of students in classroom are vast, but student veterans can easily transfer their leadership skills to the classroom, she said.

“I’m so used to speaking to individuals higher and lower than me,” Galiyas said. “In the peer groups in my classes, I [can] lead in a good way for everybody.”