By Natasha Goushey, KTXT News
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY – I’m Natasha Goushey here on KTXT.
Many may not know about a service here in Lubbock that serves veterans on the Texas Tech campus. The Green Zone that was put into effect last August helps faculty and staff know what the veteran population looks like and what they can do to help them while they continue their education. Ryan Van Dusen who is the Assistant Director of the Military Veterans Program gave me the inside on what the program does and how it works here at Tech.
RYAN VAN DUSEN: “The Green Zone Program is really an advocacy program for faculty and staff to just have a better awareness of our student veteran population on this campus. Our population has grown significantly in the past three or four years and so we want to make sure everyone is aware of kind of what they go through on a daily basis or what they go through to get their benefits and some of the issues that may or may not happen while they are enrolled here at Texas Tech.”
He went on to explain how the program helps veterans at Texas Tech.
DUSEN: “I think it helps veterans just by letting hem know that there are people on this campus that care about their success.”
Even Mr. Van Dusen did not think that this program would expand as rapidly as it has.
DUSEN: “I just finished my doctoral work last year and I graduated in May of 2011. And when I wrote my dissertation I wrote it on veteran retention in college and one of my suggestions for future research was to establish this Green Zone Program not knowing that a month after I finished my dissertation I would be in this position. So it has kind of been my signature program here to give, or maybe even establish a legacy for me this is my initial creation. I’ve now been consulting with other universities across the country that they want to do similar programs. Its exciting that kind of what we are doing here is truly a national best practice and everyone wants to at least some version of what we are doing. Not that many schools have other schools have something similar to this but this is a Texas Tech’s brand of it. I can’t even say how proud I am of our campus that they really are committed to our veterans.”
Places around Texas Tech that have the Green Zone stickers are the student disability services, center for campus life and many more. If you have any questions or would like to become apart of the Green Zone program, contact Ryan Van Dusen at 806-742-6877 you can also visit the military veterans program online at www.mvp.ttu.edu. I’m Natasha Goushey here on the Raider 88.1.
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