By: Ilan Simanin
Today’s student veterans enjoy college benefits in return for their service. The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides veterans with 36 months of educational benefits.
For a student veteran who faces other priorities, challenges and needs, 36 months is simply not enough time.
This year alone, there are more than 700 student veterans on the campus using benefits from the bill to attend the University of Maryland. A majority of our student veterans manage school as they hold down jobs and support families. Consider many student veterans’ reserve training obligations, and it’s clear that 36 months fails to provide enough time to finish school.
Even the traditional student population struggles to earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, according to a 2014 report by Complete College America. The report, titled “Four-Year Myth,” found that only 19 percent of full-time students graduate on time at non-flagship public universities, and only 36 percent do so at flagship state universities.
The typical 36-month limit to the bill’s educational benefits for student veterans only considers four academic school years, which is observed as nine months per year. But many student veterans, constrained by the time limit and other responsibilities, take winter and summer classes to stay on track. When classes taken outside of the regular academic year are not covered by the bill, student veterans must seek other funding. Congress should extend the standard educational benefits offered under the Post-9/11 GI Bill to 48 months.
This university participates in the Veterans Affairs’ Yellow Ribbon Program, which offers additional assistance to student veterans, though the university should do more to help student veterans in their academic pursuits.
Currently, the university’s Veteran Student Life office only employs one full-time coordinator and two graduate assistants in its efforts to support student veterans. Comparably, Pennsylvania State University, which has more than 900 student veterans using bill benefits at its various campuses, employs six full-time staff members, four of whom are certified in counseling about the GI Bill.
For its commitment to student veterans, Penn State-World Campus ranked No. 1 in the country in 2016 for online bachelor’s degree programs for veterans in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list.
This university must do more in covering educational expenses for student veterans.
Terps were especially proud to hear that university alumnus Florent Groberg received the Medal of Honor for his brave actions during his 2012 deployment to Afghanistan. In the fall, he was also named to HillVets’ 100 most influential veterans of 2015.
It is our responsibility to support those who have served and ensure they receive high-quality education. It’s time we help relieve the stress of affording college and demand that Congress and the university extend the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to 48 months.
Ilan Simanin is a senior communication and government and politics major. He can be reached at isimanin@umd.edu.
