Their mission:

·       To develop student veteran groups on college and university campuses and coordinate by region between existing groups.

·       Connect student groups with resources.

·       Advocate on behalf of student veterans at the state and national level.

Thousands of veterans exit military service every month only to find an overwhelming combination of emotional, financial, and cultural obstacles standing between them and a college education. SVA is dedicated to ensuring these veterans do not slip through the cracks on their journey through higher education toward a better quality of life.

How it began:

M Ann Arbor student Derek Blumke founded the organization in January 2008. Over the last year, Blumke has been lobbying Congress to improve the current GI Bill to increase the amount of aid that student veterans receive.

What are Student Veterans Groups?

Student veterans groups are student groups that have formed on college and university campuses to provide peer-to-peer networks for veterans who are attending those schools. These groups coordinate campus activities, provide pre-professional networking, and generally provide a touchstone for student veterans in higher education. These local groups are an important part of ensuring that every veteran is successful after their service.

Other services they provide are:

·       Informal social meetings that serve as peer support groups

·       Benefits seminars and counseling in conjunction with other organizations

·       Publication of newsletters and brochures

·       Local service projects and volunteer work

·       Pre-professional networking

·       To coordinate campus activities

·       Provide a professional networking

·       Continue advancement of veterans

·       Provide open communication.

Did you know that Over 520,000 veterans are currently using their education benefits? These local peer support groups are an important part of ensuring that every veteran is ultimately successful in higher education.  They are advocates on behalf of the student veterans at the local, state, and national levels. 

Who is the executive staff?

The executive staff creates various types of communication between groups, connecting these groups with resources from outside their campuses, and organizes these groups to advocate at the state and national level for the common needs of student veterans.

However, that is not all the Student Veterans of America are trying to accomplish. The SVA chapter in Michigan will soon be lobbying the state Senate to recognize all student veterans as in-state students and remove out-of-state tuition rates for student veterans at public universities.

Through paid staff and dedicated volunteers at military hospitals, the Severely Injured program provides support and educational guidance to disabled veterans and their families.  Student Veterans of America is helping the Severely Injured program by providing student veteran advocates on campuses and a volunteer staff at military hospitals nationwide. SVA strongly believes that all student veterans, including the severely injured, can learn lessons from each other’s experiences and struggles during their transition into higher education.

How can you get involved…?

Student Veterans of America is comprised of member groups. In order to become a member of SVA, you must be a registered student organization at your college or university.  To become a member is providing SVA with your primary points of contact, an academic advisor, and your group’s constitution.

How you can start your own veteran’s organization…

If you are, an individual interested in starting a student veterans organization, contact SVA office and they will put you in contact with your Regional Director. This individual can help you get started on how to start a chapter of SVA on your campus—including sample constitutions and other informative resources.

Contact Information

For more information on how you can be apart of this great organization contact John Powers, Executive Director, at  202-470-6100 or email John Powers at john.powers @ studentveterans.org

Online go to http://www.studentveterans.org

Other helpful links on their web site:

·       If your student veterans organization would like to become a member of SVA, go to http://www.studentveterans.org/chapterinfo/member_signup.php

·       If you would like to find a student veterans organization at a campus near you, go to http://www.studentveterans.org/chapterinfo/chapterlocator.php

Opportunities for education and home ownership were virtually non-existent at this time.  The key benefits of this bill included education and training, home loan guaranty, business loan guaranty and unemployment funds.

GI Bill Solved Economic Crisis

This was no longer a wartime economy driven by the needs of the Department of Defense.  The only resolution was to keep the returning military away from the job market, thus allowing for assimilation over a four year period on a staggered entry plan.  Education and re-training was the answer to this problem.

Therefore, the American Legion National Commander drew up the first draft of the “GI Bill” and introduced it to the House on 10 January 1944.  It went to the Senate the very next day.  The result was the release of two very different versions of the original bill!  This bill almost died in debate when the members of the House and Senate came together to argue on behalf of their own versions.

Both the House and the Senate were in agreement with the benefits for education and home loans, but they were tied on the unemployment benefit.  The tie-breaking vote came from the Representative from Georgia.  The final form of the bill was passed by the Senate on 12 June 1944 and the House on 13 June 1944.  President Roosevelt signed off on it 22 June 1944.  The benefits of the bill would be administered by the Veteran’s Administration (VA).

As a result, veterans made up about 49% of the 1947 college enrollments.  Veterans took advantage of the education and home loan benefits.  However, less than 20% of the unemployment funds were tapped before the bill ended in 1956.

Figures released at the end of the bill’s life revealed that less than 50% of the eligible veterans actually participated in any educational or training program.  During the 8-year period from 1944 to 1952, the Veteran’s Administration provided the home loan guaranty to almost 2.5 million World War II veteran applicants.

Mississippi Congressman Montgomery Gives New Life to GI Bill

Former Mississippi Congressman, Gillespie Montgomery, rewrote the original GI Bill in 1984.  This ensured that the benefits of the original GI Bill would suitably serve the newest group of combat veterans.  The benefits of this newer version were updated to reflect new educational costs, acknowledge the rise in the cost of living and offer more reasonable benefits allowing entry into the home/business ownership market. His work was rewarded with the renaming of this bill which has become known as the Montgomery GI Bill to this day.

Under the Montgomery GI Bill, monthly benefits of nearly $40,000 would be available to both active duty military as well as veterans.  The main focus of this updated bill was the education benefit – and that benefit amount would be tax-free – that allowed for tuition, books, fees and living expenses for those pursuing undergraduate and/or graduate degrees or a trade school.

Post 9/11 GI Bill Update

History repeats itself and the Montgomery GI Bill needed to be revamped.  The cost of living has risen dramatically, new technology has been released (and upgraded) and the cost of higher education, as well as its method of delivery, has increased.

On 30 June 2008, President Bush signed the Post 9/11 GI Bill.  Updated provisions of this bill will not go into effect until 1 August 2009.  Since this bill is a Veteran’s Benefit and not a Military Benefit, it is administered by the VA based upon laws enacted by Congress.  Only those veterans who were on active duty after 11 September 2001 are eligible to participate in the benefits of this bill.

One of the stipulations is that election to participate must be made at the start of active duty or sometime during basic training.  An eligible participant cannot have a change of mind once the participation document is signed.

The Post 9/11 GI Bill more closely matches the spirit of the original 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act. However, this bill goes one step further: spouses and children will see benefits, too.  The totally free college education applies to the veteran who actually served.  Unused portions can be designated for spouse and children.

Upon leaving active duty, the veteran has up to 15 years to use the benefits.  Under the Montgomery GI Bill, veterans had only 10 years to use these benefits.  Colleges are gearing up now in anticipation of a strong wave of veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Post 9/11 GI Bill will make higher education 100% free for these new veterans – in most cases.  It even includes the cost of housing and many other expenses.  This is a higher education well-earned benefit and not a student loan.  The best part of the new bill allows for either physical or virtual participation in degree-earning classes.  It truly is a 21st century recognition.

In his October 30, 2006 blog post “Nine Words,” for The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-humes/nine-words_b_32838.html), Edward Humes made the following argument:

It opened up the colleges (formerly elite bastions), raised suburbs out of bean fields (a nation of renters became a nation of homeowners), grew the middle class (from 1 in 10 before the war to 1 in 3 a decade after), and provided the medical, engineering and scientific prowess to conquer dread diseases, usher in the information age, and win the Cold War.

Such luminaries as Bob Dole, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, William Rehnquist, Warren Christopher, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and George McGovern, among many others, got their starts through the G.I. Bill, as did 14 Nobel Prize winners, two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 450,000 engineers and a million assorted lawyers, nurses, businessmen, artists, actors, writers and pilots.

 With results like these, can anyone argue that the original GI Bill did not provide an incredible return on investment and change America for the better?  In fact a Congressional study completed in 1988 provided evidence that every dollar spent on the original GI Bill returned seven dollars to our national economy.

However, today the over 1.5 million service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan face a completely different landscape.  The current educational benefits available for these veterans amount to a hill of beans as compared to what their predecessors received from the original GI Bill.  Today’s veterans pay a non-refundable contribution from their first paychecks and can receive up to $39,600 for their college education.  When you take into account all of the expenses associated with a college education, such as living expenses and books, our soldiers will be lucky if this pays for seventy percent of the costs associated with a four year degree at a public college or university.

Today, there are a number of organizations and government officials pushing for new legislation to improve the GI Bill so that it provides greater benefits to our troops and gives them a leg-up when they leave the service and reintegrate into civilian life.  Senator James Webb (VA) is sponsoring a bill, S 22, which would be available to any active or reserve service member who served at least three months of active duty since September 11, 2001.  The maximum benefits of the bill would pay an amount equal to the amount of tuition charged at a states most expensive public college or university.  Monthly payments for full-time students could jump as much as $800 from $1100 a month to $1900 a month.  Senator Webb’s bill would also pay a monthly living stipend.  Webb’s bill is receiving the support or organizations such as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (www.iava.org) and the Student Veterans of America (www.studentveterans.org).

The short sighted critics of Webb’s bill fear that such improved benefits will hurt retention rates and encourage service members to leave the military after one tour.  What they fail to acknowledge is that an improved GI Bill will greatly improve the military’s ability to recruit and will provide long-term benefits to our country for generations to come.

It is time for our government to step up and invest in the future of our country again.  It is time for our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to have the same opportunities as the veterans of WWII, our “Greatest Generation”.