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Council launches initiative to help college veterans

The American Council on Education has launched a new initiative promoting access and success in higher education for service members and their families.

The program, “Serving Those Who Serve: Higher Education and America’s Veterans,” will include a competition for grants to be awarded to veteran-friendly institutions as well as an outreach campaign to inform veterans about their educational benefits paid for by Wal-Mart donations and a college planning website paid for by the Lumina Foundation.

Those who are eligible for the benefits must fit the specifications under the post-Sept. 11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008.

John Bechtol, assistant dean of students and veterans at the University of Wisconsin, said the university is currently in the process of gathering application materials from ACE to apply for one of the 20 grants that will be awarded this spring.

Should the university receive funding, Bechtol already has some rough ideas regarding what he’d like to use the money for.

“I’d like to see it used for more substance purchases that student vets can use to assist them with their education,” Bechtol said. “Often times there’s a delay between when veterans receive their benefits and when they start classes, so even something like a laptop that we can loan out until they can buy their own would help while they’re hurting for cash.”

The initiative is designed to produce major changes in the way veterans learn about their educational benefits and post-secondary education options, as well as how university leaders can help build capacity to better serve veterans on their campus.

Currently, there are approximately 600 student veterans at UW who could benefit from the grant.

ACE President Molly Corbett Broad said in a statement the education community must develop a deliberate way to ensure returning soldiers are offered every opporunity for success.

The competitive grant program will be made possible through a $2.5 million donation from the Wal-Mart Foundation.

The “Wal-Mart Success for Veterans Institutional Awards” will identify veteran-friendly institutions and reward those that operate programs that further the success of veterans and their families.

“Wal-Mart is committed to supporting programs that help our veterans get the resources they need to succeed in their education and their readjustment to civilian life,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation, in a statement.

Twenty grants of $100,000 each will be awarded in spring 2008, and recipient universities will be required to assist other institutions to extend the practices.

According to Lumina Foundation spokesperson Dianna Boyce, the Lumina Foundation for Education also donated an $800,000 grant that ACE will use to develop and launch a website providing veterans with information regarding their education benefits and post-secondary opportunities.

The grant will also help publish various survey results from 4,300 institutions, giving veterans a broad picture of university-based support services and programs available to them.

“The Lumina Foundation’s primary interest is increasing college graduates so that by 2025, we have 60 percent of Americans with four-year or two-year college degrees, compared to only 39 percent (now),” Boyce said.