2016 Annual Conference

This study used Bean and Metzner’s (1985) model of nontraditional undergraduate student attrition and social support theory to examine the impact of institutional support mechanisms on veteran student persistence at 17 North Carolina community colleges. Results found that four institutional support variables and one environmental variable significantly impacted veteran’s persistence.

The audience for this presentation could be those inserted in student persistence in general and more specifically those interested in the persistence of veteran students. Additionally the context of the study is the community college which often have less student services than larger four year colleges.

The community college system, long regarded as a gateway to higher education for nontraditional students, is well positioned to meet the needs of veteran students. However, while community colleges have done an exceptional job of ensuring access to education, lately they are paying more attention to the success—or persistence—of their students. Despite the fact that nontraditional students have continued to comprise an increasingly larger percentage of undergraduate enrollments and have a higher rate of attrition than traditional students, little research has been devoted exclusively to the attrition of nontraditional students, and even fewer studies have been dedicated to the attrition of veteran students. There few accurate counts of the number of veterans enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions and there is limited information on their success rates. There is a lack of evidence in the literature on the impact of institutional factors (or support services) on success of veteran students. Findings from this study may inform community college administrators to help them shape institutional policy and program decision-making in order to enhance persistence and completion rates of veteran students as well as institutional effectiveness.