After processing delays left student veterans struggling to afford their education in the fall, the university is working to ensure veterans receive benefits that help pay for tuition, housing and books in a more timely manner this semester.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is working closely with universities to grant student veterans benefits granted under the new GI Bill, which applies to veterans who have served on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001. Because of the high volume of applications the VA received at the beginning of this academic year, the department had trouble processing all the requests, which left many veterans without benefits for months. University officials said some veterans at the university went without receiving educational benefits last semester.
"It was a difficult transition, and many students went without checks and funding for a number of months," said Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, who oversees the veterans program office at the university.
Officials estimate there are between 500 and 600 veterans enrolled at the university. About half receive benefits from the VA. These roughly 250 university students join the ranks of more than 170,000 student veterans across the nation who also receive educational benefits through the department.
The new GI Bill, which went into effect in last August, was enacted to help student veterans afford expenses associated with a college education. The money granted from the VA for is paid directly to schools, and veterans also receive a stipend to pay for housing, books and other necessities. The bill also covers dependents of service members.
Before the new GI Bill, student veterans were covered under a previous bill that allotted students a monthly sum for these costs and did not cover veterans' dependents. In some cases, this monthly allowance was not even enough to cover tuition, let alone other college expenses.
This year, the university has also added a number of scholarships for veterans to help meet their financial needs.
"Educating for the future requires financial support, and many students are getting help from scholarships targeting military service members," said university President Dan Mote in his testimony to the state legislature Friday. "Other scholarships for veterans, active service members and their dependents grew significantly in [fiscal year 2009]."
Despite additional scholarships, university officials said some students with dependents and high commuting costs are still struggling.
Some veterans who are graduate students "have already exhausted benefits where the new GI bill doesn't help, and still others didn't have enough time in post-9/11 to find it that great a benefit," Guenzler-Stevens said.
To better serve student veterans, Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement met with state Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward J. Chow Jr. to address the slow processing of benefit applications.
"Our student veterans gave great marks to the university for how we operated in the interim, but poor marks to the VA," Guenzler-Stevens said. "Many of our students availed themselves of the $3,000 check the VA was cutting for those who did not get payment on time."
University officials said conditions have been improving since.
"At Maryland, the registrar's office is working closely with the bursar's office to assure that veterans' registrations remain active when benefit payments are delayed," said Chuck Wilson, the interim senior associate university registrar.
"I think our process is working very well," Guenzler-Stevens added. "The folks in our VA certification do a wonderful job. Where the VA slipped nationally, we were doing a great job of processing the paperwork and holding students harmless."
At the national level, the department is also increasing efforts to better process requests for educational benefits. Earlier this year, the department hired an additional 530 education claims processors, bringing the total number of employees working to process veterans' benefits to about 1,200. These employees have also been working mandatory overtime since August to meet the high volume of claims, according to a VA press release.
Although progress is being made, student veterans said it is still slow going.
"Overall the new GI Bill is a blessing to veterans, making it easier than ever to afford school, but they are still having a lot of payment issues," Terp Vets President Laurissa Flowers said. "I know that because of this delay in payment a lot of veteran students are having to go out and find temporary work to help cover their bills until the VA finally comes through with their payments."
Flowers, a senior kinesiology major, noted that almost a month into it, she still hasn't received benefits for the spring semester.
Because the new GI Bill services dependents of veterans as well as veterans themselves, a new population of students are receiving educational benefits through their parents who are actively serving in the military.
Junior English and history major Mary Williamson, whose father is actively serving in the Air Force, is receiving money to pay for almost her entire education through the bill.
"I get allowances for books, housing, tuition, pretty much everything," she said. "For my family, it's been one less thing to worry about."
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