Arizona universities, colleges anticipate influx from new GI Bill

With BC-CNS-GI Bill-Box

By DEANNA DENT
Cronkite News Service

PHOENIX (Monday, Sept. 8) _ Universities and community colleges around Arizona are preparing for an influx of veterans and their dependents taking advantage of the new GI Bill, which doubles education benefits and helps with living expenses.

Arizona State University expects about 140 additional students, a 16 percent increase from the number of veterans now attending the school, when the bill takes effect in August 2009, said Stuart Hadley, ASU’s assistant vice president of policy affairs.

“We’re really excited about the increase of veterans on campus,” Hadley said.

ASU is basing its figures on national estimates of veterans and dependents who will use the benefits right away, Hadley said.

Mesa Community College is expecting a 30 percent increase, which amounts to about 250 new students, because veterans tend to start out at junior colleges, according to Valerie Vigil, the school’s assistant director of financial aid and director of veterans’ affairs.

Vigil said one reason for the anticipated demand is the bill’s expansion of benefits to National Guard members and reservists, many of whom have been called to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Active-duty have a good bill right now, but those coming back from Iraq will really benefit,” Vigil said.

The Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008, signed into law June 30, provides benefits to veterans and National Guard members and reservists called to active duty. Covering those who served from Sept. 11, 2001, on, it also applies to spouses and dependents.

The benefits, which can reach $80,000 and include living expenses, apply to universities, community colleges and trade schools. The maximum benefit is based on the highest in-state tuition at a public institution in the veteran’s home state.

In Arizona this means approximately $5,500 in tuition a year, according to Leland Sevy, administrator of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services’ Veterans Education & Training Approving Agency.

Last year, the University of Arizona launched a series of programs to help retain veteran students and attract new ones, anticipating more students who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Lynette Cook-Francis, assistant vice president for student affairs.

“We began to look more broadly to see how we were serving veterans on campus, and we decided we needed to get ourselves better prepared for what we knew would be bigger numbers,” she said.

Cook-Francis called that good timing now that the new GI Bill is in place.