Before a crowded hall at the VFW Post 2573 Wednesday, UNCW student veteran Jason Thigpen was bestowed a Purple Heart for injuries sustained during a combat tour in Iraq.  Thigpen suffered head trauma and other injuries when an IED was thrown at his convoy during an emergency recovery operation.

With family, friends and numerous military, state and local representatives in attendance, Thigpen used the opportunity to draw attention to his fledging non-profit group. The Student Veterans Advocacy Group of North Carolina seeks to correct changes made earlier this year in the GI Bill that prevent student veterans at public universities from receiving full tuition coverage.  Previous versions of the bill included out-of-state tuition coverage for veterans pursuing higher education, as well as benefits like book stipends, but this year’s version of the bill has created controversy by forcing veterans to pay those costs out of pocket.

Speaking to a crowd that included U.S. Congressman Mike McIntyre, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and UNCW Chancellor Gary Miller, Thigpen spoke of getting emails and phone calls from local student veterans who suddenly found themselves without any way to pay what amounts to between $9,000 and $11,000 per academic year in additional tuition.  He discussed a conversation he had with one veteran who was considering living out of his car in order to continue his education. “It grips me and nearly brings me to tears,” Thigpen said.

North Carolina, with the third-highest veteran population in the country, currently enrolls about 4,000 former service men and women in its public university system.  UNCW SVO Treasurer and English major Mike Ramos said that the reason he came to UNCW was because of its military-friendly reputation.  After returning to the states after a tour overseas, he found that many of his fellow veterans were no longer eligible for the benefits they had been guaranteed. 

“These guys don’t just pick a new state to move to.  When you join the military, you go where they assign you,” said Ramos.  Many veterans who have been serving for years in North Carolina military bases still don’t qualify as in-state residents.

While he believed the changes to the bill were unjust, Ramos said that the group isn’t trying to pin the blame on individual assembly members who voted for the bill or supported the changed language.

“These things happen, and when the state was forced to make budget cuts this year, changes had to be made to move money around,” Ramos said. “They have a hard cap on the budget they could submit, and probably they didn’t even think about how the changes in wording would affect us.”  Noting that public school teachers and national guardsmen are still eligible to receive out-of-state tuition coverage, he added, “We’ve given this sacrifice, we’re just asking for what so many others who didn’t go overseas are getting.”

Justin Brandenburg, an officer in Thigpen’s non-profit group, said that the response the group had received from state representatives was almost unanimously supportive, and he expressed optimism that the law would eventually be changed.

 Thigpen selected Congressman McIntyre to officially present the medal.  During his speech, Thigpen praised the Congressman as a tremendous asset in helping to convince state representatives to reinstate full tuition coverage under the GI Bill.

An online petition and additional information about the Student Veterans Advocacy Group of North Carolina can be found at their website, http://www.studentveteransadvocacygroup.org/