Universities across the country are expecting up to a 25 percent increase in the number of Veterans on campus over the next three years, according to the Veterans Benefits Administration. This increase is largely due to the passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, which went into effect this fall. The act amended the original GI Bill, which was set in place after World War II to offer veterans college tuition assistance. The modernized GI Bill makes college much more feasible for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan by almost doubling previous benefits. With more student vets on campus, states such as Michigan and Maryland are working to expand veterans benefits even further, with legislators in Michigan proposing to offer instate tuition to all veterans and Maryland legislators approving $110 million in grant money for those affected by base realignment and closure. Maryland’s benefit qualifiers were recently criticized in the University of Maryland’s Diamondback, which reported that Veteran National Guardsman Scott Wilson has applied and subsequently been denied in-state tuition due to his time out of state while deployed. In Michigan, Veterans at various state schools — including Western University and the University of Michigan — founded student veterans’ organizations to help respond to student veterans unique concerns. Carl Ireland, president of the student veterans association at Michigan, helped draft a proposal that calls for veterans’ offices to be established at all state schools. The plan also suggests a mandatory review of the student’s military training upon admission to the university to determine if any of the military courses qualify for transfer credit.

More from Maryland’s Diamondback
More on Michigan Vets from the Detroit Free Press
More on Maryland’s grants from the Baltimore Examiner
More from NSNS on the new GI Bill