Red, white & green

Tuition assistance program could draw more veterans to MSU

Criminal justice sophomore Troy Walters, a U.S. Army veteran, spent a year in Iraq when he was 20, but he had always planned on coming to MSU afterward. “The whole time I was in Iraq, especially in 2005 when the basketball team was in the Final Four, I was paying attention to that,” he said.

A recently introduced program could lead more veterans to look MSU’s way. Last month, the university unveiled a new tuition assistance program, where Michigan’s disabled veterans will no longer have to worry about paying for an education.

Veterans already receive assistance from the state and federal government, but the university will cover the rest of their undergraduate tuition expenses, including room and board, said Val Meyers, an associate director of financial aid at MSU.

“It’s great,” Walters said. “I think they (MSU) need to get more involved.”

There currently are about 270 veterans on campus, with 19 who have identified themselves as disabled.

In the long run, Walters, who does not qualify for the program, said he would like the program to cater to all veterans. However, it is a lot harder for disabled veterans to find employment, so they should be helped first, he said.

MSU is the only major university in Michigan that is offering such a tuition assistance program for veterans.

The university expects to spend $150,000 on this program for the 2009-10 school year, Meyers said.

To qualify, veterans must be Michigan residents, working on their first undergraduate degree and have a disability that is related to their service, Meyers said.

They also must work 10-12 hours a week, if they are physically able.

Although the university is aware of only 19 disabled veterans at MSU, more may identify themselves once word of the tuition assistance program spreads, Meyers said.

“There’s been no reason in the past that they’ve had to identify,” she said. “So it may be now that more of them will, because this is a potential benefit for them that they might want to apply for.”

Geography sophomore Andrew Wisniewski, who spent seven months in Iraq, said the program is a positive step that helps MSU catch up with several other states whose government pays for tuition of some veterans.

“I don’t see it as MSU’s responsibility at all, as far as paying for it,” he said. “It’s the government’s responsibility, but at the same time, it’s good that MSU tries to do that.”

Chuck Ross, deputy director for Ingham County Veterans Affairs, said he has taken calls from veterans interested in the program on a regular basis since it was unveiled.

“That’s exciting news to these veterans, and it’s going to get passed around by word of mouth like a virus,” Ross said.

Although Meyers said the tuition assistance program is financially feasible for MSU, she said she is unsure if it will continue to receive long-term funding.

“Whether or not they’ll continue to do this over the years … the university has not specified,” she said.

Although the program demonstrates the university’s awareness of veterans’ issues, Walters said he would like to see the MSU community show the same awareness with a group for veterans on campus.

“Guys suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, when they get together with other veterans, it helps them,” he said. “I even enjoy getting together with other veterans and just talking — we’ve experienced things other people haven’t.”

The University of Michigan and Western Michigan University have chapters of Student Veterans of America, but MSU doesn’t have a group where veterans can meet, Walters said.

Derek Blumke, a veteran at the University of Michigan who founded its chapter of Student Veterans of America last fall, said he has been working to bring the program to MSU.

“We’re trying to find someone at MSU who is interested in it,” he said. “We’re hoping to help every way we can.”

One of the benefits of a campus veterans’ support group is that it helps veterans break through administrative barriers that most students don’t encounter, he said.

“Universities are geared toward people coming right out of high school,” Blumke said. “They have their school advisers and their parents helping them along. Veterans are on their own.”