Women veterans: 'invisible warriors' on your campus.

Do you have a hidden group of women at your school whose needs aren't being addressed? You do if your student body includes women veterans.

Following reintegration, military women don't think of themselves as "veterans." Whether through denial or pride, they believe that they don't need special assistance. Often their service is misunderstood or discounted.

"My experience was that for many years, I didn't identify with being a vet," said Michelle Cyrus, diversity office at the Center for Diversity and Social Justice at Central Washington University (CWU), who left the Army after five years to raise a family.

At the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference held in Phoenix in March 2012, three student affairs professionals with ties to the military spoke about the issues surrounding women veterans. They also suggested ways to help schools to become more veteran friendly.

Other panelists were Katrina Whitney, senior director of the Empowerment Center at CWU and Rafael Lozano, veterans' benefits enhancement program manager at The Evergreen State College WA.

Speaking from their experiences, the trio also shared the results of a study they conducted. Cyrus, whose husband was and whose son is now in the military, wishes she had been able to stay in the service long enough to retire from it. Lozano served in the Air …