Dear Editor,This letter is in direct response to the article written by Ms. Mary Fish-Salsbury about ETSU being a veteran-friendly school. I would like to say that I am a veteran myself and immediately after serving four years active duty in the Marine Corps, I transitioned to school. That transition was not easy and I started at a school that had much less to offer than ETSU has. When I transferred here (over four years ago), I found that the VA Education Office on campus was fairly helpful in getting everything lined up to attend classes and receive my benefits. A slight restructuring took place and a new VA coordinator was hired and the level of service increased even more. Now with yet another restructuring, the new employees in this office are striving to achieve a level of customer service that is even more “full service.” This is also due to the fact that the associate registrar, over Records and the Veterans Affairs office, is retired Army and understands the needs of veteran students. Being part of this office, using benefits myself, and once being in the boots as many of the student veterans, my boss and I are striving to better this office in any way possible.
Here a few things that I would like to clarify about the article that I believe was misrepresented or left biased. I believe this is due to not including the complete statement that I gave Ms. Fish-Salsbury and not letting my ideas or feeling on the specific subjects be projected correctly.
The statement that the VA office is understaffed and underfunded is not explained to the fullest. We are understaffed at the moment, but that is due to the restrictions that the state of Tennessee and the human resources department have on hiring new employees. If anyone has not noticed, the money issue is campus wide. The upstart of programs, such as SERV, are incredibly expensive because they completely rework the university to include orientation, registration, Veterans Affairs, billing, housing and financial aid to name a few. ETSU is working on some infrastructure problems (such as the ever popular parking issues, and building renovations or new construction) and money is tight in every office. That puts any smaller office, whether it be Veteran Affairs or Graduation, lower on the “totem pole” for money.
The lack of peer-to-peer support does not completely fall on ETSU’s shoulders. The university will gladly help to establish any organization through the SORC if they fit the criteria. The Student Veterans Association did not stay active because of lack of involvement. I know for a fact that there was little to no student veteran participation besides the officers when it was active on campus. It is a student organization. You want it, you do it! If there is a want to start any student veteran organization of any type on campus, then you will have my full support in any way necessary. If a veteran is having issues with transitioning, there are several programs, both ETSU and Veteran Affairs, there to assist them. The VA has counseling services free of charge and VA outreach for those having difficulties. The university has counseling services for students that is available after one phone call. Just because you are not told to go to these people or places by a superior, does not mean you cannot take some initiative and get help for yourself!
The statement that there are no scholarships for veterans is very misleading. There are several scholarships and even state grants that veterans are entitled to and can apply for every year. Many of the scholarships are from outside organizations such as the VFW or AMVETS, but the office of Veterans Affairs can direct you toward those or again you can take some initiative to research them yourself. We are here to help you help yourself. We are not here to do it for you. While the university may not give tuition breaks to veterans, we do allow some services that are afforded specifically to student veterans like a tuition and fee deferment that allows them to pay their account up to the last day in the semester. Also, if a student moves to this area due to a change in duty station or switches reserve units to one in-state, then there should not be an issue to whether or not that individual is charged in-state tuition. As a service office devoted to veteran students we work closely with other programs and organizations such as Veterans Upward Bound (TRIO organization), counseling services and veteran outreach organizations. In partnership with VUB we have helped them achieve near record numbers of veteran helped by their services and be/stay enrolled in classes. We even have been in regular contact with Phil Roe’s office to try to correct or rectify issues we see with benefit programs, whether a veteran student brings the issue to our attention or we notice an unfair practice in the laws that accompany veteran education benefits!
– Jeremy W. Lofquest
Editor’s note: The East Tennessean stands by the information presented in the Dec. 9, 2010, article, “ETSU takes strides to continue as a veteran-friendly university” by Mary Fish-Salsbury.
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