The College Fix

This fall, a series of studies have said that veterans returning to college on the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill can have a tough go of it returning to civilian life on campus — the University of Michigan, however, might be bucking the trend.

Campus veteran populations increased significantly over the past year when the first class of Post-9/11 G.I. Bill students arrived on campus — 24 percent of whom made the decision to return to school because of the legislation, according to a recent study conducted by the American Council on Education.

“The Post 9/11 Bill really changed the landscape of what students could get for college and how that money is paid out,” said Phil Larson, the transition specialist for the Student Veterans Assistance Program (SVAP) on campus, which aims to transition veterans to student life.

Under the new legislation, veterans are eligible to receive not only tuition payments, but also housing and book stipends. Payments are limited based on the in-state tuition rate for the most expensive public school in the state where an individual veteran chooses to attend college. Out-of-state student veterans or veterans attending certain private colleges must still pay any difference; however, policies may vary from college to college and from state to state.

Under the “Yellow Ribbon Program,” in which Michigan participates, some universities may choose to split the overall cost with the government 50-50, giving all veterans, even those who would qualify as out-of-state students, the opportunity to attend college without putting themselves under any large-scale financial burden at all.

The American Council on Education study found that the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill has certainly run into its fair share of troubles in its first year. In particular, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) struggled with delayed payments, due to the flood of nearly half a million claims which were called in throughout the first nine months of the bill’s existence.

At Michigan, however, the SVAP quickly set up a system to counteract such problems. The university only required that veterans verify the legitimacy of their claims before becoming enrolled; if payments were not received from the VA by registration time Michigan promised to temporarily cover the cost of veterans’ tuition.

“We anticipated some of the lag time that would happen with the VA, and actually put something very proactive in place to offset that situation,” Larson said.

Ryan Pavel, a junior at Michigan and a Marine Corps veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq, admitted that the process of filing his claim and receiving his benefits was a bit tedious.

“It can be somewhat frustrating dealing with the VA, just because they have such an incredible amount of claims,” says Pavel. However, he noted that the VA has first and foremost an obligation to file claims from wounded and disabled veterans, and thus his claim was not exactly at the top of the VA’s priority list.

The other large survey that addressed veteran issues this fall, the National Survey of Student Engagement, reported lesser involvement from student veterans. According to the study, student veterans perceive lower levels of campus support and interact with professors less — though their overall level satisfaction on campus was comparable to nonveterans.

Pavel’s experience, however, hasn’t been like that.

“Even before I came here I was contacted by a member of the Student Veterans Association (SVA), and he was assigned as my mentor,” Pavel said. “From there I kept meeting more and more people, so I was never that far away from being able to ask somebody a question.”

Pavel is now the Vice President and Treasurer of the Michigan chapter of the SVA, which currently has about 20 members, out of 200 total veterans currently enrolled at the University.

“The goal of the association is to bring veterans together so that we can have a fluid [transition] experience,” says Pavel. “I’m a perfect example of that.”

Pavel said that the SVA works towards demonstrating how veterans can benefit the Ann Arbor community on and off campus. He admitted that coming into Michigan, he was slightly nervous about how he might be received by the campus community.

“I think there are stigmas to and from veterans,” said Pavel. “But actually, I was very pleasantly surprised with the amount of support that veterans have received at the University of Michigan. I thought it would be a little more alienating, but I haven’t been discriminated against or anything.”

Andrew Kalenkiewicz is the managing editor of the Michigan Review and a student at the University of Michigan. He is a contributor to the Student Free Press Association.

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