In a Veterans Day ceremony last month, the University recognized 11 students who have served in the U.S. military. But thanks to a new G.I. Bill to take effect in August 2009, there may be more veterans on Brown's campus and across the country next Nov. 11.
The new bill, the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008, will help cover the cost of higher education for citizens who have served active duty since Sept. 11, 2001. Authored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., the legislation will provide more financial assistance than the current Montgomery G.I. Bill, which has been in effect since 1985.
Chaney Harrison '11, a veteran, said he thinks the bill will have a big impact.
"Under the Montgomery G.I. Bill, veterans were not even able to cover the tuition of most public universities' in-state rates," Harrison said. "I think that this had the effect of discouraging veterans from pursuing degrees outside of the military."
Under the current Montgomery G.I. Bill, veterans of at least one year of active duty received $1,101 per month towards college expenses in 2007, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs' Web site, but the new bill will cover the cost of in-state tuition or allocate equivalent funding for private schools. In addition, veterans will receive $1,000 per academic year toward books and a monthly stipend for living expenses to be determined by states.
Rhode Island student veterans will be eligible to receive up to $7,724 for tuition per year and a monthly $1,558 living stipend. According to Harrison, university financial aid offices have been historically unprepared to deal with benefits received under the G.I. Bill.
"Right now, many institutions use federal financial aid guidelines that instruct them to treat the stipend from the G.I. Bill as an 'outside resource,' or essentially a scholarship," Harrison said. "This means that it gets subtracted from your institutional aid dollar for dollar."
John Powers, executive director of Student Veterans of America, said the new G.I. Bill is an improvement over the former model because it compensates for the rising cost of college tuition. He also praised the bill for including a provision that allows veterans to transfer their educational benefits to their dependents.
But Powers said a shortfall in the new legislation is that it does not apply retroactively to veterans who have already matriculated. And regardless of the funding available, Powers said veterans face obstacles as they try to acclimate to college life.
"A lot of schools say they're veteran-friendly, but they're really not," Powers said. "Guys get sent around like pinballs from office to office to office."
Harrison said most veterans have been removed from academic life physically and mentally for years and many are unfamiliar with the application and financial aid processes. Upon arriving on campus, they sometimes feel alienated from their peers, he added.
While both Powers and Harrison said the new G.I. Bill constitutes a significant step toward easing the transition from soldier to student financially, they agreed that more colleges could benefit from on-campus resource centers to help veterans navigate college life. Some schools, including the University of California, Berkeley, have resource centers in place to help veterans, but no such program exists at Brown.
But Rosario Navarro, project manager for the Office of Campus Life and Student Services, said a veterans support group might be formed on campus soon.
"There are a number of students who are eager to form a student group for the purpose of support and increasing awareness of the number of veterans that are in Rhode Island and on campus," Navarro said.
Navarro said veteran and non-veteran students are involved in the prospective organization, but there are not enough currently involved to meet the Student Activities Office's requirements for official recognition. But she predicted that the interest will increase as the new G.I Bill brings more veterans to college.
Powers said the probable increase in veteran students in coming years will constitute a positive change for college campuses.
Veterans are "going to bring a unique life experience to the campus community," Powers said. "Having a real veteran sitting in your classroom is 50 times better than showing any documentary on the Iraq War. They bridge the gap and open the dialogue."
