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A clearer picture of war

Posted on | November 4, 2009 | 1,326 views |

Veterans Learning Community aims to provide military students a better way to share their experiences

By Adam King

Anna Rice found her time spent behind a .50-caliber truck-mounted machine gun protecting convoys in Iraq to be an incredible bonding experience with the 32 other soldiers in her platoon.

“It’s a great feeling of people who have your back and can relate to you and really know you,” said Rice, who as a member of the US Army Reserves was pulled just three quarters into her college studies for deployment in 2005.

After her 15-month tour of duty, Rice returned to Ohio State to continue pursuing her undergraduate degree in exercise science/pre-medicine. She’s now a 25-year-old undergraduate and has seen and experienced things no straight-from-high-school student would ever be privy to.

But that’s exactly why there was an interdisciplinary effort by the Department of Comparative Studies and Academic Program Coordinator Susan Hanson, the Center for Folklore Studies and Director Dorothy Noyes and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies to create the Veterans Learning Community (cfs.osu.edu/veteranslc), to give Rice and students like her a way to turn their unique experiences into academic learning, bond with one another and share what they know with the entire university.

Part of the VLC’s mission will be to oversee two military student-only classes, the first of which begins in winter quarter.

“The Experience of War,” limited to 45 veteran, active-duty, Coast Guard or National Guard students as well as international students who are or were members of their country of origin’s military, is an undergraduate comparative studies reading course that looks at representations of the war experience in art, literature and film. Hanson will teach the course and said it should foster greater discussions than the duplicate course she taught this past spring that was open to all students.

“It was a good class, but the vets and active-duty students were uncomfortable engaging with the material in front of other students,” Hanson said. “For many of them, their experiences are so extraordinary that they’re reluctant to describe the relationship of their experiences to the material in the course to students who have little to no knowledge either of current conflicts, military culture or life on the ground during a war. To some extent we tried to pull them out, but you needed to respect their reluctance.”

The students’ reticence was the driver for Hanson and Noyes to work with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies to develop the general education course and a follow-up spring quarter writing course, “Translating Military Experience,” which will be limited to 20 veterans and focus on student-developed projects based on their experience and interest.

“They might learn more than they might have because we’ll create a platform for them to communicate, and we expect a really effective forum,” Hanson said.

While there has been some criticism that the courses, which don’t cover the current conflicts, exclude the general student population from perhaps understanding war through their classmates’ first-hand experiences, Hanson points out that the courses are optional, and veterans can elect to take similar courses open to all. A vets-only course is no different than an honors course that has prerequisites, Hanson said, but in this case, the students also are partners in the learning process.

“With these students, you can take for granted their knowledge in that area of military experience and get to a higher level of discussion,” Noyes said. “But I would also emphasize that the point of a learning community is to encourage research and communication beyond the classroom. We’ll be creating opportunities for dialogue as the project develops.”

To that end, some students who are taking the courses will be asked to participate in a spring conference April 9-10 at the Mershon Center titled “Making Sense in Afghanistan: Interaction and Uncertainty in International Interventions” that will be open to the campus community.

With more than 1,200 veteran or active military students attending Ohio State, there is a large pool to choose from. This fall 127 new or transferred military students began at OSU, and those numbers are expected to grow over the next few years as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.

Rice has had almost three years to make sense of her time in Iraq, but she’s looking forward to exploring why war happens with her fellow vets, especially those who are fresh from the battlefield.

“Everyone had questions when we deployed,” she said. “We didn’t know what we were going to do and how would our job directly affect the conflict and how would it help the citizens of Iraq. I had tons of questions, but you don’t always get them answered. You’re in the dark in some ways.

“I’ve been in the reserves for six years, and it’s not something you want to tuck in the corner, but it also doesn’t consume you as a person. You have to find the balance, and a lot of times the balance is you have to engage in it when you’re not performing military duty.”

For more information about the VLC or the new military-only courses, contact veteranslc@osu.edu or Susan Hanson at 247-6539.

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