University of Minnesota. Bureau of Veterans' Affairs

On April 28, 1944, the University of Minnesota, at the behest of president Walter C. Coffey, established the Committee on the Coordination of Advisory Services for Veterans. The committee was to consider and plan all factors involved in veteran enrollment at the University. The plan outlined by the committee to assist veterans at the University became the Bureau of Veterans' Affairs, which was officially established on January 1, 1945 as part of the Office of the Dean of Students. The committee became the University Committee on Veterans Affairs in May 1946.

A significant service of the Bureau was the exit interview with the student veteran who had withdrawn from the University. This service was extended so as to keep in the veteran in good standing with the Veterans Administration and the University. From these interviews information was obtained which would enable the Bureau to assist in solving certain problems confronting student veterans through a more adequate program of counseling, and to help the University improve its education facilities. It was also the function of the exit interview to make sure that the veterans who left were not dissatisfied with the services of the University.

The years 1946 and 1947 necessitated an expansion of Bureau services and increased counseling and clerical staffs on both the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses as a result of the progressively increasing enrollment of veterans. Only in the early 1950s did the student veteran enrollment decrease to a degree where, in January 1954, the Bureau proposed to decentralize its functions and have each college assume counseling, administrative and financial duties for student veterans. The majority of the faculty members did not approve of this plan and thus, the Bureau continued its services until September 1954, at which time its name was changed to the Veterans Activities Unit. From then, until its closing in April 1957, the primary concern of this office was to assist the majority of student veterans on campus with matters relating to the Korean GI Bill (Public Law 550).

The Veterans Counseling Center (VCC) was established on January 1, 1945, as a part of the Office of the Dean of Students. It operated under contract to the Veterans Administration to provide vocational counseling services to disabled and non-disabled veterans. Its functions were different from other counseling agencies within the University in that the case load of the VCC consisted primarily of non-University veterans. These veterans were referred to the VCC by the Veterans Administration to be given professional counseling and guidance in making plans for vocational and education training under the VA Vocational Rehabilitation Program and the G.I. Bill of Rights. The Veterans Counseling Center closed as of April 30, 1959.

In addition to the immediate functions of the Bureau of Veterans' Affairs and the Veterans Counseling Center in dealing with student and non-student veterans on the University campus, the Office of the Dean of Students was active in other spheres of problems related to veterans both on the local and national level. The Veterans Administration contracted with the University Speech Clinic to render its services to patients with speech and hearing defects at the VA hospital (now the VA Medical Center) in Fort Snelling.

Dean of Students, Edmund G. Williamson, served as the chair of the Advisory Committee to the Veterans Administration Advisement and Rehabilitation Division, which was headquartered in Washington D.C. This committee directed its efforts toward the solution of problems confronting disabled or non-disabled veterans in seeking employment with the assistance of the guidance centers, such as the VCC at the University, established by the Regional Offices of the Veterans Administration throughout the country. Of prime significance was the committee's approach to the program of testing and counseling in vocational rehabilitation and education for the veterans.

Another committee of which Dean Williamson was the chair was organized by the American Council on Education to set up a research program on disabled veterans attending colleges and universities throughout the country. The program was financed by the Disabled Veterans of America and sought to evaluate the adjustment disabled veterans were making to college and civilian life.

The Veterans Club of the University, independent of the Bureau of Veterans' Affairs and organized in 1945, was a student organization which represented the veterans at the University in their overall relationship with the administration and acted as the voice of veterans' opinion. The club disbanded in 1947.

From the guide to the Bureau of Veterans' Affairs papers, 1944-1959, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University Archives [uarc])