Combat boots to textbooks: Veteran Services short staffed among 66 percent increase of student vets

Veterans are promised numerous opportunities when they enlist into the military; one of these promises is the opportunity to pursue a higher education. Colleges and universities across the country are experiencing an incline in veteran enrollment, leaving the universities to find ways to keep up with demand for the specific services and assistance these veteran students need while attending school.

At University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL), The Office of Veteran Services opened in 2013, offering help, advice, educational support, career counseling, and assistance securing VA benefits for undergraduate and graduate student vets.

Prior to 2013, veteran students would go through the Office of Financial Aid to receive benefits. Now that there is a dedicated office for veterans, the admission/benefits process is streamlined and allows UHCL to provide a staff of knowledgeable veterans to personally assist student vets with achieving their academic goals. Additionally, vets can receive help and ask questions for any reason at this office. They take care of paperwork, financial aid, and counseling for anyone who stops by.

Growth concerns

A recent survey was conducted by the American Council on Education on how well, or not, universities are keeping up with the increase in veteran students. More than 700 hundred colleges and universities participated, giving detailed information on what services they offer specifically for veteran students. Out of these 700 participants, 57 percent currently provide specific programs and services for veterans. Out of that 57 percent, 74 percent are public four-year universities and 36 percent are private nonprofit universities.

The number of veterans enrolled at UHCL has increased from 662 fall 2013 to 1,105 fall 2018. When the Office of Veteran Assistance first opened in 2013, two full-time employees were hired to process all education benefits, council student vets, attend events and recruit. With this 443 student increase – 66 percent in five years – there has been no increased funding and the program director left the department to take another job earlier this year.

Jay Hernandez, the former program assistant, was promoted to Interim Director and a new program assistant was hired in August 2018, which means the office is still operating with two full-time employees.

“We are still shorthanded,” Hernandez said, “We can barely handle processing everyone’s benefits, we do not have time to recruit and have not been able to host or attend any events. I have also had to turn down one on one sessions due to other priorities.”

One-on-one student interactions are an opportunity for student veterans to receive answers to questions regarding their benefits. Hernandez said it’s been difficult to offer one-on-one advice with the increase in student vets on campus without an increase in staff.

“Military-connected students always have questions regarding their benefits,” Hernandez said. “How much do they cover? When will they run out? What other options they have to pay for their education? Because each benefit is different, there are no cookie cutter answers. Veterans are nontraditional students, so there are nontraditional issues that come up.”

An example of this is the ability to pass available benefits from a veteran to their children to use for school.

“The GI program has paid [off] big time for me and my family,” said Debbie Bergeron-Mejstedt, veteran who served in the Airforce during Desert Storm One and mom of three. “My oldest daughter graduated with her masters degree in psychology, [and is] now working in an office that specializes in children’s mental health.”

Bergeron-Mejstedt said there is still enough funds left to help her two younger children attend college.

“The process is a very detailed and a bit confusing because of how much is required by the government, I couldn’t have done it without the veteran assistance that helped every part of the way,” Bergeron-Mejstedt said.

Another program that has been cut is the VetSuccess on Campus program, (VSOC). This is currently available at the University of Houston (UH) and was set to become a part of UHCL until it was recently cut from the budget.

This program acts as a point of contact for vets to reach out to when attempting to accomplish all the requirements to receive veteran’s financial aid. A liaison will stay with these vets and prioritize required criteria so it is properly turned into the state and federal government for aid.

Mental health is a large priority for vets coming to school because of the learning transition they must cope with coming from the military. Dilani Perera-Diltz, associate professor and coordinator of counseling, was in place to offer peer mentoring for vets with PTSD or if the transition to school was becoming overwhelming. This position was placed on hold after restructuring and has yet to resurface.

Hernandez expressed disappointment in the lack of time to recruit and show up at events to show interested vets that UHCL is a good potential place for them to attend. Usually, VA departments are split into two sections; one handling all paperwork and financial aid, while the other is handling stress coping for the new students. UHCL does not have the staff for this, resulting in one department trying to handle everything from paperwork to counseling to recruiting.

Keeping up with the paperwork

Veteran enrollment services is another area that is different from any other student attending a public or private university. If a student with a pell grant drops or fails a class, their next step is to sign up for the class again. If a vet on financial aid drops or fails a class, it is the responsibility of the school to report this to the government within thirty days. Failure for reporting a schedule change leads to the student having a debt on their school account for the full amount of the class.

Taking a step further, if the school fails in keeping up with these reportings in a timely manner, along with meeting yearly requirements, the school could potentially lose all grant money from the government for the entire student body. Without the proper amount of staff to keep up with the paperwork, Hernandez said the VA office is struggling to keep up but doing everything they can to try and stay compliant with requirements. However, more students are enrolling every semester without any more staff to help with the workload.

Future for Veteran Services at UHCL

Hernandez will be leaving UHCL Oct. 19 and is concerned about what will happen to the Office of Veteran Services in the near future.

“After [Oct. 19], I do not know what is going to happen,” Hernandez said. “Right now I am the only full-time employee with the status to make changes on the VA side, without someone here with the access that I have, the future for these vets worries me.”

 

CORRECTION: 10/20/18 – Information under the Best Colleges for Veterans badge by U.S. News and World Report was corrected and detailed further. Previously, the information stated the rankings were for 2018, but has been corrected to state 2019. 

UPDATE: 10/21/18 – In-text graphic of U.S. News and World Report badge was replaced with graphic from the UHCL Office of Veteran Services Facebook page