2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Classroom dynamics between students can impact downstream Engineering enrollments and retention for Student Veterans and Service Members (SVSMs), in particular. SVSM interactions with traditional undergraduate engineering students are an overlooked area of student veteran pedagogical research, with prior focus emphasizing faculty, staff, and advisors as key interaction pathways that support SVSM enrollment and retention in STEM and Engineering. Despite bringing valuable assets from their service, such as technical expertise, maturity, leadership, teamwork, and discipline, Student Veterans and Service Members (SVSMs) often confront socially ingrained narratives and stereotypes. SVSMs experience biases and perceptions from a variety of sources to include fellow students, staff and faculty, employers, and even pop culture. Some of these perceptions may generalize student veterans positively, while some may portray them negatively without the ill-intent. Other student perceptions and interactions can impact SVSM learning outcomes and their classroom experience. Although federal protections against discrimination provided through the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) and the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) exist, SVSMs continue to face typecasts and bias in both campus and employment contexts. The national priority for workforce development and technical expertise will result in SVSM presence in the physical and virtual engineering education campuses. Going forward, it is crucial to further integrate SVSMs in engineering classrooms because enrollment data suggests that variability in SVSM classroom presence is cyclical and tied to average contract lengths rather than strictly dependent on peace-keeping efforts or conflict events.

This paper is part of a larger study of perceptions of and impact on SVSMs in engineering programs. Specifically, this investigation focuses on traditional student perceptions of engineering student veterans in higher education. Through the quantitative survey instrument described here and administered across many courses at a R1 land grant institution, we show existing stereotypes and perceptions retained by other students and perception differences from first year students who started high school before and those after the US withdrawal of the last major conflict in 2021. Questions from this survey sought the level of agreement or disagreement regarding several known veteran stereotypes. Preliminary results from the analyses indicate that these biases or perceptions are active in non-veteran student populations.