More veterans seeking college educations

As war waged nearby in bloody Al-Anbar province, Cody Bingham daydreamed of being out of the Iraqi desert and in a Texas A&M classroom

"When you're in-country, you have a lot of downtime to plan for the future," said Bingham, 28, who served two years as a Marine Corps intelligence specialist.

On his return to Texas, Bingham took a detour through community college to shore up his grades, then transferred to Aggieland.

He is one of an increasing number of student veterans at Texas A&M and universities nationwide, many of them coming back from America's two wars.

At Texas A&M, students using veterans education benefits -- such as the Hazlewood Act, a tuition exemption, the Post 9/11 GI Bill, and others -- increased from 600 in 2008 to 1,700 in 2011.

At the University of Texas at Austin, the state's other public Tier 1 research university, the increase was from nearly 600 to more than 1,400, according to data provided by the university.

The numbers reflect a modest increase in student veterans, and an explosion in the number of veterans' family members using the benefits, according to A&M and UT administrators.

Universities are preparing for major increases in both categories. Veterans-support administrators cite increased veteran benefits -- the Legislature expanded Hazlewood to veterans' family members in 2009 -- the drawdown of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and military cuts.

In Texas, the number of students in higher education using federal GI Bill benefits increased from 40,400 in 2009 to 67,000 in 2010, the last year for which data are available, said Duncan McGhee, a spokesman for the Texas Veterans Commission.

The state doesn't fund Hazlewood exemptions, so the increased costs fall on the universities. At Texas A&M, tuition exemptions under Hazlewood totaled $6.1 million in 2011.

For many, like Bingham -- who is married and has his tuition waived under Hazelwood and receives a check each month he's in school under an earlier version of the GI Bill -- going to Texas A&M would not have been possible if he had to worry about work.

"I couldn't have afforded it," he said.

Preparing for more

In November -- on Veterans Day -- the University of Texas at Austin opened its Student Veteran Center, which has a full-time coordinator who serves as a point of contact for prospective students and helps connect veterans with services such as housing and mental health resources.

"Veterans are coming back and using their educational benefits in droves," said Latoya Hill, assistant dean of students at the University of Texas at Austin. "We are positioning ourselves to be competitive."

At Texas A&M, which has a historic affinity for military service, administrators say they foresaw the demand.

In 2009, the university created the Veteran Services Office, which has three full-time employees "and a whole little army of student workers," said Sarah Minnis, the office's program coordinator.

"In the military, you always have a person you go to for your answers," Minnis said. "Coming here, you don't have that one person. That's what our office tries to do: provide that one point of contact."

Last month, when thunderstorms struck Brazos County, Minnis called a couple of student veterans prone to war flashbacks to make sure they were okay. It's that sort of personal care her office hopes to foster, she said.

'They've earned it'

Administrators also have made efforts at the level of the A&M System, which oversees 10 other schools in addition to the College Station campus.

Last year, the Board of Regents created the Veterans Support Office, which is based out of the A&M System's headquarters in the John B. Connally Building in College Station.

Also created last year was the Student Veterans Advisory Council, which is made up of a student representative from each of the A&M System's 11 universities and the Health Science Center.

The student council works to provide more efficient services for student veterans. One thing the group's chair, Andrew Wheeler, would like to see is priority registration for student veterans.

"From a big picture standpoint, we want these people back in society, working and contributing to the economy," said Wheeler, a student in the College Station campus' Mays Business School. "They're good people. They've earned it."

Figuring out life

Rod Davis, director of the A&M System's Veterans Support Office, noted a dismal unemployment rate -- above 30 percent -- for veterans between the ages 18 to 24.

"Going to school is a pretty good option. Period. But especially if you don't have a job," Davis said.

It was life's uncertainty that led Bingham to the Marine Corps. Unsure of his future and dabbling in community college, the Conroe native enlisted in 2003, just months after the U.S. invasion.

"I was just trying to figure out my life," he said.

Joining the Marines was the best decision he ever made, Bingham said, but he didn't want to make a career out of it.

He expects to finish his bachelor's in environmental studies next year, and then work in the environmental consulting field.