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88–978 2015

DEFINING AND IMPROVING SUCCESS FOR 

STUDENT VETERANS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014 

Serial No. 113–67 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 


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COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

JEFF MILLER, Florida, Chairman 

DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice-Chairman 

DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee 

BILL FLORES, Texas 

JEFF DENHAM, California 

JON RUNYAN, New Jersey 

DAN BENISHEK, Michigan 

TIM HUELSKAMP, Kansas 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio 

PAUL COOK, California 

JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana 

DAVID JOLLY, Florida 

MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine, Ranking 

Member 

CORRINE BROWN, Florida 

MARK TAKANO, California 

JULIA BROWNLEY, California 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona 

RAUL RUIZ, California 

GLORIA NEGRETE MCLEOD, California 

ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire 

BETO O’ROURKE, Texas 

TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota 

JON TOWERS, Staff Director 

NANCY DOLAN, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 

BILL FLORES, Texas, Chairman 

JON RUNYAN, New Jersey 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

PAUL COOK, California 

BRAD WENSTRUP, Ohio 

MARK TAKANO, California, Ranaking 

Member 

JULIA BROWNLEY, California 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona 

Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records 

of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are also published in electronic form. The printed 

hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to 

prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting 

between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process 

is further refined. 


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C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Thursday, May 8, 2014 

Defining and Improving Success for Student Veterans ........................................ 1 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Bill Flores, Chairman .............................................................................................. 1 

Mark Takano, Ranking Member ............................................................................ 2 

WITNESSES 

Mr. Michael Dakduk, Vice President of Military and Veterans Affairs, Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) .......................... 3 

Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 28 

Mr. William Hubbard, Vice President of External Affairs, Student Veterans 

of America (SVA) .................................................................................................. 5 

Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 32 

Mr. Ricardo D. Torres, President and CEO, The National Student Clearinghouse ..................................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 43 

Letter of Testimonies From: The National Student Clearinghouse .................... 48 

Mr. Thomas W. Ross, President, The University of North Carolina System, 

On behalf of The American Council on Education (ACE) ................................. 9 

Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 49 

Dr. Melissa Vito, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment 

Management and Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives and Student Success, The University of Arizona .......................................................................... 10 

Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 54 

Mr. Curtis L. Coy, Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Opportunity, U.S. 

Department of Veterans Affairs .......................................................................... 20 

Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 69 

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD 

Universal Technical Institute ................................................................................. 72 

Reserve Officers Association ................................................................................... 80 

The American Legion .............................................................................................. 86 

Northern Arizona University .................................................................................. 92 


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DEFINING AND IMPROVING SUCCESS FOR 

STUDENT VETERANS 

Thursday, May 8, 2014 

U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, Washington, D.C. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 

Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Bill Flores [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Flores, Takano, Brownley, Titus, and 

Kirkpatrick. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN BILL FLORES 

Mr. FLORES. Good morning. The subcommittee will come to 

order. 

This morning, we will be examining how to define and improve 

success for student veterans. VA’s education and training programs 

have been credited with successfully transitioning and readjusting 

returning servicemembers for generations. 

In fact, many historians believe that the passage of the GI Bill 

following World War II kept this country out of a recession that 

very well could have spiraled into another depression. 

It has been reported that post World War II GI benefits educated 

10 million returning veterans, among them 14 Nobel Prize and 20 

Pulitzer Prize winners, three presidents, a dozen senators, and 

three Supreme Court justices. 

It was through this lens that Congress authorized and expanded 

several education and training programs throughout the years, including the newest and by far the most generous program to date, 

the Post-9/11 GI Bill. 

VA estimates that during the next fiscal year, they expect to pay 

out $15 billion in payments to students and schools for education 

and training. While I firmly believe that our veterans deserve 

every penny of these benefits, it has become clear to me and to 

most in the veteran community that there simply have not been 

enough metrics to track the return on taxpayer investment through 

student success. 

Given our Federal Government’s fiscal challenges, we owe it to 

hard-working American families to develop, track, monitor, and report these metrics. 

I was surprised to learn that up until a few years ago, we did 

not even begin to start tracking graduation rates or many other 

statistics that track student success. That is why I am happy to see 


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that there seems to be a growing partnership between advocacy 

groups, students, schools, and VA to truly understand the rates of 

success for our student veterans. 

I look forward to hearing about the Million Records project and 

how this data will positively mold the future for student veterans, 

schools, and the VA’s administration of GI Bill benefits. 

Why is this important? It is important because this data will 

help inform Congress about student veteran behavior and show 

schools and the VA what type of best practices and policies will improve outcomes for student veterans. 

I also want to comment on VA’s implementation of the Transparency Act from last Congress. I know that the VA created the 

new comparison tool and complaint system on a shoestring budget. 

And while there are many limitations to these tools, I think that 

they have the potential to be a game changer and will allow for 

better transparency for our student veterans. 

I look forward to hearing more about these and other VA programs, including the VetSuccess on Campus program during today’s hearing. 

In the end, it is up to the student to make the right choice and 

to use their hard-earned benefits wisely. It is our job to ensure that 

they have the tools they need to be successful and to make the 

right decisions to help both themselves and their families. 

With that, I recognize the ranking member, Mr. Takano, for his 

opening remarks. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF MARK TAKANO, RANKING MEMBER 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. 

I want to start by congratulating Student Veterans of America 

for their hard work on the Million Records project that has yielded 

such interesting and useful information. 

This hearing will give us an opportunity to delve deeper into the 

findings from the recently released project done by SVA in collaboration with the National Student Clearinghouse and the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

This key empirical study compares the academic outcomes of student veterans to those of traditional students and highlights the 

need for this information. The findings shed light on the amount 

of time it takes student veterans to complete higher education programs, the type of degrees they typically attain, and common areas 

of study. 

SVA will elaborate on the impact of the initiative and how lawmakers can use these findings to improve educational programs for 

veterans. 

Today we will hear testimony about how different organizations 

define the success of student veterans and what measures are still 

necessary to help veterans achieve their academic goals. 

We will also hear commentary on the implementation of the Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities for Veterans Act, 

Public Law 112–249, which is designed to improve a veteran’s access to information on an institution of higher education’s accreditation and federal student aid programs. 

Finally, I want to add that Chairman Flores and I have introduced H.R. 4248, the Veterans Education Outcomes Act, which 


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would require the disaggregation and dissemination of data on student veterans with respect to completion rates, employment rates, 

and retention rates of recipients of GI Bill funding. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for scheduling this hearing today, and 

I yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. I thank the ranking member. 

And I now invite our first panel to the table. Your complete written statements will become part of the hearing record and each of 

you will be recognized for five minutes for your oral statement. 

We have joining us today Mr. Michael Dakduk, vice president of 

Military and Veterans Affairs, at the Association of Private Sector 

Colleges and Universities; Mr. William Hubbard, vice president of 

External Affairs, for Student Veterans of America. 

Will, I understand that you proposed in the last few days and 

that she said yes. And so congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. 

And next we have Mr. Ricardo Torres, president and CEO of the 

National Student Clearinghouse; Mr. Thomas Ross, president of 

North Carolina System, who is here on behalf of the American 

Council on Education; and we have Dr. Melissa Vito, senior vice 

president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and 

vice provost for Academic Initiatives and Student Success at the 

University of Arizona. 

I do not know how you get all that on one card, but—so thank 

you all for being here. 

Let’s begin with Mr. Dakduk. You are now recognized for five 

minutes. 

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DAKDUK 

Mr. DAKDUK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member 

Takano, and Members of the subcommittee, for inviting the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities or APSCU to 

testify here today. 

I am representing APSCU, our member institutions, their faculty, and the nearly four million students who attend private sector 

institutions, including the 325,000 plus military veterans that attend our member institutions. 

We appreciate the opportunity to offer our views on the successful educational outcomes for returning servicemembers and veterans, the VetSuccess program, and the implementation of Public 

Law 112–249. 

To begin, please allow me to offer a short summary of my background. I previously served in the marine corps where I deployed 

to Iraq and Afghanistan. I used military tuition assistance while in 

the service and studied on base and onboard a navy ship preparing 

for my second combat deployment. 

After the service, I used the Montgomery GI Bill and other Title 

4 funds like the Pell Grant. Once the Post-9/11 GI Bill passed, I 

began using that benefit and I am still using that benefit today to 

earn my master’s degree. 

In brief, I have a special appreciation for the programs discussed 

in this committee and Congress as a whole when it comes to supporting student servicemembers, veterans, and their families. 


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I would like to begin by discussing outcome measures specific to 

veterans. You will likely hear from the Student Veterans of America representative, who will go into more detail on the recent results from their Million Records program, a comprehensive study 

of veterans on the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill. 

Given my previous tenure at Student Veterans of America as 

their CEO and my specific efforts on this project, I would like to 

offer a few thoughts I found relevant to this hearing. 

The overall completion rate was approximately 52 percent, well 

above the nontraditional peers. Existing research on post World 

War II and Vietnam veterans indicate that the vast majority of veterans complete their post secondary programs. Post Vietnam era 

veterans have GPAs greater than or equal to their peers. 

Recent research in 2010 conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs showed that 63 percent of veterans self-reported as 

completing their post secondary training. Over half of the post-9/ 

11 era respondents said they completed as well. 

While the private nonprofits had the highest completion rates, 

approximately 22 percent later completed at a public or proprietary 

institution. The completion rate for the private sector was approximately 45 percent. And private sector institutions or the for profits 

had higher proportions of veterans completing degrees faster. 

Overall, the reports suggest that student veterans are succeeding 

at levels comparable to, if not greater than, their peers. This refutes previous notions that veterans drop out in high numbers. 

We understand that the process for collecting outcomes data on 

student veterans is already underway at the federal level given the 

recent charge by President Obama under Executive Order 13607 or 

the Principles of Excellence, although Congress should be keenly 

aware of the limitations in current federal databases like the integrated post secondary education database systems or IPEDS. 

As of today, IPEDS does not disaggregate data based on military 

or veteran enrollment. We have provided at APSCU recommendations for tracking student outcomes in our proposal for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. 

Our proposal offers thoughts around five key areas, retention 

and progression rates, completion and return on investment, employment of graduates, earnings and/or salary gains, and graduate 

satisfaction. 

We believe the common college completion metrics as proposed 

by the National Governors Association chair’s initiative provides a 

good foundation for advancing the conversation around student outcomes and success metrics. Conceptually this model could be applied to veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill and other Title 38 

funds. 

At a minimum, though, we should appreciate the unique life experiences of veterans and servicemembers. They differ drastically 

from the 18-year-old, first-time, full-time college student. Current 

and future attempts to track their academic success should be done 

with an appreciation for their exceptional life trajectories. 

And I would like to say a few words on VetSuccess and Public 

Law 112–249. With the VetSuccess on program or VSOC, the program provides important access to services and supports to vetVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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erans on campus. The VetSuccess on Campus is on 94 campuses, 

but only one is located at a private sector institution. 

With Public Law 112–249, our association was an early supporter of H.R. 4057, which is now the Public Law, and we remain 

supportive and look forward to working with the VA on implementation. 

I look forward to your questions and thoughts. Thank you so 

much, Mr. Chairman and Members of the subcommittee. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DAKDUK APPEARS IN THE

APPENDIX] 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you for your testimony and thank you for 

your service and thank you for the numerous trips you have made 

to help this committee do its job better. 

Mr. Hubbard, you are recognized for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM HUBBARD 

Mr. HUBBARD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I appreciate your 

kind words earlier. 

Ranking Member Takano and Members of the subcommittee, 

thank you for inviting Student Veterans of America to submit our 

testimony today. As the premier advocate for student veterans and 

higher education, it is our privilege to share our on-the-ground perspective with you this morning. 

As quintessential nontraditional students, student veterans face 

a myriad of challenges that most of our peers in the classroom do 

not. Fortunately, this generation of veterans has proven that they 

are well equipped to succeed. 

Take, for example, Abby Kinch. Abby served as a Chinese linguist in the Air Force for more than two years before leaving to 

have her first child. Today Abby attends classes part time in pursuit of her Ph.D. at Florida State University while caring for two 

children and having to work full time to support her family, a shining example of what student veterans can accomplish. 

Since the release of our Million Records project, we have the data 

now, for the first time ever, proving that veterans of the post-9/11 

generation are broadly succeeding in higher education. 

SVA defines student veteran success as: student veterans making well-informed educational decisions, achieving personal academic goals without incurring student loan debt, and securing 

gainful employment that propels them forward in their career aspirations. 

With veterans graduating across the country, we believe that the 

debt burden for some of them will ultimately be the single largest 

inhibiting factor to long-term success. There is a common misconception that veterans who go to school on the GI Bill have a free 

ticket, but we know that that is simply not true. 

An earned benefit, the GI Bill is, not only not free, but for some 

it does not cover the full cost of their education. As the MRP results indicate, some student veterans take longer to complete their 

degree due to being nontraditional students, resulting in the need 

to take out additional loans. Others face abusive or misleading 

practices across sectors of education that can result in undue and 

unnecessary debt burdens. 


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We also remain concerned with some of the technical and career 

colleges that claim to offer credentials and certifications, whose 

exams students are not able to sit for at the end of their course 

of study due to a lack of proper accreditation. This results in the 

loss of valuable benefits and years of study. 

Beyond the typical understanding of student success and higher 

education, it is important to recognize that due to the nature of the 

Post-9/11 conflicts, traditional definitions of time to completion may 

create a false narrative of student veterans. Many of these veterans 

face multiple deployments that interrupted their academic efforts 

or put their education on hold to complete a tour of service. 

When the timeframe is extended out by a few years, these completion rates increase significantly. The story here is one of persistence as student veterans continue to work towards graduation, 

even if it takes longer than traditional students. 

Using data from the last fiscal year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics illustrated the importance of higher education. For those who 

achieved an associate’s degree, unemployment dropped to 5.4 percent and for those with a bachelor’s degree or greater, that drops 

even further to four percent and below. 

Being able to support student veterans so they pursue fields that 

positively impact the economy is a top priority for us. 

In fiscal year 2014, the Department of Defense budget request was approximately $526 billion. Unfortunately, the billions of dollars invested is often lost when servicemembers exit the service 

and reenter civilian fields unable to cover the cost of a longer education track required for fields like STEM that would capitalize on 

previous advanced training. 

We believe there may be opportunities to encourage these individuals to pursue those rigorous fields of study. Together with programs like VA’s VSOC and VITAL, the community around each 

student veteran is critical to their success. The community acts as 

a web of support to create an environment where all veterans will 

succeed. 

Schools are recognizing the unique role that this web plays in the 

achievement of student veterans and some have created veteran liaison networks. In these networks, schools like American University have established various points of contact in different offices 

to provide a holistic support system to student veterans. These 

touch points exist from financial aid offices to career offices and beyond. 

Given the new data from our MRP, we see there is more work 

to be done for generations of student veterans to come like Abby. 

Our next phase will seek to build and expand upon the findings of 

the initial research by beginning to explore what institutional factors influence student veterans’ persistence and degree attainment. 

In collaboration with our partners at the Department of Veterans 

Affairs, the National Student Clearinghouse, and the Institute of 

Veterans and Military Families, the end goal of this research will 

be to inform institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders of 

what works. 

We thank the chairman, the ranking member, and the subcommittee Members for your time, attention, and devotion to the 

cause of student veterans and higher education. Thank you. 


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[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM HUBBARD APPEARS IN

THE APPENDIX] 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Hubbard. 

Mr. Torres, you are recognized for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF RICARDO D. TORRES 

Mr. TORRES. Good morning. The National Student Clearinghouse 

is a nonprofit organization which for the past 21 years has been focused on reducing administrative burdens on students and school 

administrators from Title 4 institutions that enroll 96 percent of 

our Nation’s post secondary students. 

The clearinghouse was founded to cost effectively address Title 4 

student loan program compliance related inefficiencies. Participating institutions continuously provide access to enrollment and 

degree information on each of their students allowing the clearinghouse to offer student level coverage encompassing more than 144 

million students and counting. 

Most clearinghouse verification and research services are provided to colleges and universities at no charge. Think of us as a 

back office to the university registrar, financial aid office, and institutional researcher. 

The clearinghouse performs over one billion secure and legally 

compliant transactions annually. The public/private partnership of 

the clearinghouse can be a model of a way to better serve our veterans while reducing the burdens on both governments and educational institutions. 

We have recently issued reports that broaden perspectives and 

inform many of the pressing questions about student educational 

pathways and outcomes for states, school districts, institutions, and 

policymakers. 

Through the Million Records project, we were able to help inform 

the Nation about the return in our Federal Government’s investment of more than $34 billion for veterans’ education benefits. For 

the first time for this collaboration among the VA, the SVA, and 

the clearinghouse comprehensive national statistics on veterans’ 

educational pathways and outcomes were made available. 

The data that we provided highlighted the nontraditional, multiinstitutional journey of veterans’ educational pathways. Given the 

influx of veterans expected into higher education over the next few 

years, it is imperative that we have the ability to successfully meet 

veteran program demands in a way that responds to the varied 

needs of these nontraditional students. 

The first opportunity to further assist veterans is facilitating 

entry to colleges and universities. Among the many challenges returning veterans face upon their separation from service, understanding and managing the complex information about their education benefits and multiple aid programs available to them stands 

out. 

They encounter administrative complexities around activities 

such as processing their certificate of eligibility, residency 

verifications, Kicker processing, previous credential accumulation, 

applicability of credentials to degrees, remaining benefit on transfers, and branch of service requests and inconsistencies. 


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These procedures individually all serve a purpose but could be 

greatly simplified while achieving the desired result, a timely, benefit-enabled enrollment of the veteran at the institution of their 

choice. 

Our solution here would be twofold. First, employ electronic document ordering capability into the e-benefit portal, enabling a veteran to securely and privately send their benefit summary directly 

to their chosen institution’s veterans’ administrator and, second, in 

collaboration with ACE, the VA, and the DoD, allow the clearinghouse to be the repository of active-duty and veteran competencies, 

academic credits, and credential aggregation, enabling a one-stop 

data home to help facilitate efficient access to higher education and 

a job. 

The next opportunity is supporting veterans’ continuous enrollment towards their desired educational goals. Re-mobilizations and 

employment changes and family circumstances mean that a student veteran may take longer to graduate, making it harder for 

them to maintain momentum and focus on their goals. 

We need further research like the MRP but expand it to determine which veteran support programs both qualitative and financial are working best to serve the needs of veterans today and 

which need to be improved or modified. Using the collaborative 

model of the MRP, such a project can be performed within one 

year. 

Second, we need to transform the administrative support process 

to help both the veteran and the school quickly turn around critical 

information related to student progress tied to tuition assistance 

requests and timely aid disbursements. 

Current pain points include repetitive end of semester completion 

status reports, interim add/drops, changing majors, determining 

entitlement balances, uploading of course catalogues, and constant 

reporting outside of normal cycles. 

Leveraging our Title 4 experience, we can enable a significant 

improvement in reporting these requirements, thereby allowing 

school staff to spend more time serving students and allowing the 

veteran to be less focused on paperwork and more on class work 

and homework. 

One available tool is our free open source application, Meteor, 

which provides a platform to aggregate student aid and debt both 

private and public. Meteor connected to the VA benefits’ database 

could provide the veteran with an integrated view of all aid, debt, 

and benefits. 

When it comes to improving veterans’ success in pursuit of their 

educational goals, eliminating the administrative burdens that impede a timely benefit-enabled enrollment and data-informed support program and service provisioning that sync with chosen educational pathways would be a great start. 

Thank you for this great invitation to comment, and I look forward to your questions. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF RICARDO D. TORRES APPEARS IN

THE APPENDIX] 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Torres. 

Mr. Ross, you are recognized for five minutes. 


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STATEMENT OF THOMAS W. ROSS 

Mr. ROSS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to talk 

about defining and improving academic success for student veterans. 

I am Tom Ross. I am president of the University of North Carolina System. We enroll more than 220,000 students on 16 university campuses and employ roughly 50,000 faculty and staff across 

the state. Approximately 8,000 of our current students use VA educational benefits to pay for some or all of their post secondary education. 

I know that this subcommittee and Chairman Miller have a special interest in public institutions of higher education extending instate tuition rates to certain veterans who may not qualify under 

current state law. 

I want to be clear that the UNC System supports and has always 

supported extending in-state tuition to certain veterans and their 

families. We appreciate the leadership shown by Chairman Miller 

and this subcommittee on this issue. 

While North Carolina is not currently among those states that 

offer this benefit, please know that we are aggressively with state 

legislators going to change this situation and we are optimistic that 

that will happen in our short session this year. 

As the state’s public university, we are working hard to enroll, 

educate, and graduate as many academically prepared 

servicemembers, veterans, and dependents as possible. Our motivation is simple. The success of student veterans and their families 

attending UNC institutions is vital to the success of the university 

and our state’s future. 

Since the Post-9/11 Bill became law in 2008, a series of new and 

sometimes confusing requirements and initiatives in support of student veterans have been introduced by the Congress, the President, 

the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

UNC agrees with the spirit and intent behind each requirement 

or program. We hope, however, that federal agencies will continue 

to work together to greater coordinate the effort. We also ask to be 

included on the front end in any new federal initiatives as we believe we are well positioned to offer perspective and constructive 

feedback. 

Because adequately serving student veterans requires leadership 

from the top, I have been working with our 16 university 

chancellors to implement the recommendations of UNC SERVES, 

a comprehensive report that offers specific action steps for improving UNC SERVES veterans and their families. 

Our campuses have established military affairs committees and 

our system periodically convenes the UNC Military Affairs Council, 

a coordinating body, with representatives from every campus. 

The UNC Board of Governors is equally engaged. In June of 

2013, the board approved a military student success policy that will 

provide a comprehensive network of services for military affiliated 

students. 

Under the policy, for example, any individual who has completed 

at least two years of cumulative active-duty service in the United 


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States Armed Forces will be considered a transfer student in the 

admission’s process. 

Last August, the board also established a special committee on 

military affairs with a particular focus on fostering success for university student veterans. 

Further, UNC has implemented a uniform data collection procedure to ensure that we identify and track the academic progress of 

servicemembers, veterans, spouses, and other dependent family 

members. 

Individual UNC campuses have a long history of working with 

military affiliated students and North Carolina’s military installations and several have academic advisors located on post. 

A number of campuses offer specialized programs of interest to 

veterans and active-duty military servicemembers with courses 

that are structured to accommodate student veterans’ special 

needs. 

One of our top priorities is centralizing information sharing and 

we used technology to create a virtual one-stop shop where veterans can find reliable and consistent information to answer their 

most common questions. 

We believe that this one-stop shop approach works well for the 

university, for student veterans, and for the military, but the primary reason we have taken this approach is because we care deeply about the men and women in uniform as well as our veterans. 

We are committed to supporting student veterans because of North 

Carolina’s longstanding pride in and support of the military. 

The University of North Carolina can and should be a natural 

place of transition. They have earned the educational benefit and 

that benefit can be their ticket to a brighter future. It is our duty 

to make it happen. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my testimony, and I 

look forward to your questions. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF THOMAS W. ROSS APPEARS IN THE

APPENDIX] 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you for your testimony. 

Dr. Vito, you are recognized for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF DR. MELISSA VITO 

Dr. VITO. Thank you. 

Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano, Representative 

Kirkpatrick, and Members of the committee, I thank you for the 

opportunity to represent President Ann Weaver Hart today with 

testimony about what we are doing at the University of Arizona. 

Thank you. 

I want to focus today on three primary areas, what the University of Arizona is doing to engage and support our student veterans 

and how this has evolved, how we measure success for our student 

veterans with graduating rates, satisfaction, and meeting their priority needs, and to explore further measures and make a few suggestions about what is still needed to be done to ensure that all 

student veterans across the United States are accomplishing their 

academic goals. 


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So first a few facts about the University of Arizona. We have 

over 40,000 students of which about over 1,300 are student veterans receiving GI benefits. They represent over three percent of 

our total population. Our reservist population is small with about 

62 reservists. 

Since 2009, our entering cohort of student veterans has doubled 

and we are continuing to see significant growth. Females account 

for about a third of our total student population and usage of our 

main campus vet center has increased 31 percent from fall of 2012 

to 2013 with over 10,000 visits in one semester. 

We did not know these numbers in 2008. And at that time, we 

embarked using our nationally recognized disability resource center 

as a vehicle to start to engage focused conversations around our returning disabled vets. We also held a national roundtable to try to 

bring the best minds to the table to talk about how to support our 

vets. 

Six years later, we use a constellation of coordinated services to 

support our veterans and they include our vets’ education and transition services center. We have one large facility in our student 

union. It is large in our center for student involvement and leadership and we have simply added one more center in our Arizona and 

health sciences area to support our vets in public health, nursing, 

and our other medical-related fields. 

Our disability and resource center and adaptive athletics programs is a critical partner. The Southern Arizona VA Hospital, including providing on campus counseling and other support, other 

medical support critically supports our vets. 

The SERV class, which I will talk a little bit about, focuses supportive campus, for credit classes for vets and is making a difference and our College of Law Clinic engages the University of Arizona law students to support other vets. 

Our vet center is at the core of what we do. It is our physical 

environment that creates sort of a USO type environment for students to feel like they can meet other vets. The Student Veterans 

Association is a part of it and it is the anchor for our vets on campus. 

That area has partnered with academic areas to create a video 

for faculty to help them better understand our vets. We work with 

admissions to make sure we are reaching out to our veterans from 

the moment that they apply or even think about becoming a University of Arizona student. 

Career services has provided a particular focus with specific employers like USAA and GEICO and Enterprise who are focusing on 

hiring vets. And we are now working with academic partners and 

the community to develop a coordinated web of support for vets 

that they will be able to understand easily anywhere virtually and 

physically on campus. 

Disability resource center has done a lot of research and we have 

learned a critical point about our vets, that they do not view themselves as disabled in the way that the rest of society does. They see 

themselves as needing to make adaptations to learn. And we are 

using this data to inform how we support our vets. 


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Southern Arizona VA health care I talked about. We have a lead 

psychologist, Dr. Marks, female counselors, nurse practitioners, 

and patient advocates who support our vets on campus and off. 

Our SERV program, which was really developed by Dr. Marks 

and a colleague, is a focused for credit course and now becoming 

an array of courses that focuses on resiliency, leadership, is taught 

in cohorts, and so it builds on the comradery that vets need, helps 

them understand what is important to learning, including themselves, and how they integrate their experiences as military veterans into this environment. And it is making a difference. The 

students who complete the SERV program have retention rates of 

over 90 percent. So we are looking to try to expand that program. 

As we look at measuring our success and growing our success, 

we know there is more to do. We survey regularly. We focus that 

to use that to meet our needs. And we are now adding a staff person in career services to make sure that our vets who leave the 

university and graduate in high numbers will be able to find jobs 

when they leave. 

Thank you. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. MELISSA VITO APPEARS IN THE

APPENDIX] 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you for your testimony, Dr. Vito. 

And, again, thank the entire panel for your testimony. 

I will now yield myself five minutes for questions. 

The first question is for everyone on the panel. What are your 

thoughts on the VA comparison tool and why do you think its functions are valuable for veterans? 

We will just start left to right if we can, Mr. Dakduk. 

Mr. DAKDUK. Yes, Mr. Chairman. So I am a proponent of the VA 

comparison tool. I think it needs to be updated with certain information when it becomes available, including data on completion 

rates for military veterans specifically, and that needs to be included in there. 

But by and large, I think it is a good system. I am glad it has 

been rolled out and I am supportive of it. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. Thank you. 

And by the way, when each of you give your answers, if you 

would tell us what you think needs to be added or changed about 

the tool as well. 

Mr. Hubbard. 

Mr. HUBBARD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Similarly, we think the comparison tool is a fantastic opportunity 

for vets to see an aggregated view of information that otherwise 

would have been unavailable. It would have probably taken 20 

Ph.D.s to pull all that information together otherwise. So have a 

single view of that is a huge, huge support to all student veterans. 

As a first iteration, I think it is an excellent start. I think that 

there is fine tuning that could be done. Particularly there is parts 

of information that I think a lot of student veterans would like to 

see in that view, some of which would be supportive of their college 

search. 

I think being able to reach out to particular universities to take 

the information that they are getting, that they are comparing 


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these schools and being able to reach out to vets on campus as another opportunity of informing themselves would be very important. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you. 

Mr. Torres. 

Mr. TORRES. Thank you. 

We actually think that the tool is a breakthrough. It is a very 

important first step in the process. However, there are two areas 

that I think that we could really stand to improve. 

First, it does not calculate an individual veteran’s entitlement 

and track what part of the entitlement has been used. So it is an 

estimator, which is great, and it is informative. It really does not 

help the veteran shop easily for what school they need to be—how 

it would apply to different institutions that they are thinking about 

applying to. 

The second limitation of the tool is that while it was designed to 

really limit the work burdens on schools, the graduation rates that 

are being used are really not relevant to what actually happens at 

the institutional level. 

Over a third of students overall in the country transfer from one 

school to another and, therefore, the completion rates that are in 

the IPEDS numbers really do not bear any resemblance to what actually is happening on there. 

I believe my colleagues to the left could probably comment on 

how they leverage information around transfers at their own institutions. 

But I believe that is a second step in terms of trying to come up 

with a better way so that a veteran looking at their pathways, 

which is the other piece, right, because the completion rates include first-time, full-time students, which is not what the veteran 

is, right? They are older and you have to look at what are the odds 

of success for people who look like them and what is their odds and 

by types of institutions. 

So I think further segmentation is required, but I think, again, 

it is a great start. But I think like everything else, I think we need 

to continue to improve where we are headed with the tool. 

Mr. FLORES. Mr. Ross. 

Mr. ROSS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Let me first say that I think transparency is incredibly important 

to all of our students and particularly to veterans. They deserve to 

get as much information as they can when they are making college 

decisions. And this tool, I think, is helpful in that regard. 

I think Mr. Torres points out very importantly that the information that is in there needs to be accurate. And as I said in my testimony, under our new policies, if you have had two years in the 

military, you will come to us as a transfer student. 

The military will be the transferring institution, that is the way 

we will count it, as a way to enable students a clear pathway into 

our institutions. If you do that, their data does not count because 

they are transfer students. 

And so I think we have got to be sure the data is right. You 

know, we have a dashboard that we have recently put up that 

tracks all sorts of metrics and information on success, student sucVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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cess, and we want to be sure what we put there is the most accurate information possible. 

So, you know, I applaud the tool. I think it is a helpful step. It 

can be improved, and we are happy to work with you to do that. 

Mr. FLORES. Dr. Vito. 

Dr. VITO. Thank you. 

In my 27 seconds, I would like to support the comments of Mr. 

Torres and Mr. Ross big time. I think it is a great first step and 

I think focusing on the data and the multiple pathways and then 

making it easy for vets to be able to compare different institutions 

apples to apples in ways that will be clear and easy. 

I think that we sometimes forget how easy it is to do things like 

that in other settings, and we need to use that same model here. 

Thank you. 

Mr. FLORES. Well, thank each of you for your testimony. 

And I want to say that some of the recommendations we saw in 

your verbal and your written testimony were outstanding, and 

thank you for that. 

Thank you for the participation in the Million Records project. 

That was also very helpful, provides great data. 

I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Takano, for five minutes for his questions. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Ross, I want to congratulate the University of North Carolina and the intention to comply with the role of providing veterans 

with in-state tuition for the University of North Carolina. 

Dr. Vito, is some effort going on in Arizona? 

Dr. VITO. Yes. Actually, I was just writing a note to myself that 

we do virtually the same thing. 

Mr. TAKANO. Okay. Very good. Thank you. 

Dr. VITO. You bet. 

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Dakduk, in line with the spirit of what has 

passed through our committee and the bill that we passed through 

the House to require that in-state tuition be offered to veterans in 

respective states at state universities, are your members lowering 

tuition for veterans and has your association urged that your members do that? 

Mr. DAKDUK. Absolutely. I think you can look at our best practices guide that I am happy to share with you, Congressman 

Takano, and the rest of the Members of the subcommittee. 

One of the things you will find at private sector institutions is 

how many of them buy into the Yellow Ribbon program and how 

many of them buy into the Yellow Ribbon program at the full unlimited rate for the unlimited number of student veterans that 

want to attend that. 

Mr. TAKANO. But have they lowered tuition for veterans commensurate with what the public universities are doing? 

Mr. DAKDUK. I am happy to point you to a number of our member institutions—— 

Mr. TAKANO. Okay. I would be interested—— 

Mr. DAKDUK [continuing]. Where veterans can go full time at virtually a zero rate unless they choose to pull out Title 4 funds. 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, I have not heard that you said they are actually lowering the rate, but I would be interested in that informaVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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tion. I am not convinced that the for profit sector is really serving 

our veterans. 

Can you tell me the credits that veterans earn, are they generally transferable to regionally accredited schools? 

Mr. DAKDUK. That is a systemic problem throughout all of higher 

education, the transferability of military credits and experience. 

And it is an issue that we have been looking at. 

Mr. TAKANO. But the credits that veterans earn at your member 

schools which are generally nationally accredited, to my understanding, but my understanding is that these credits are not transferable to universities such as the University of North Carolina 

who are regionally accredited. Is that true? 

Mr. DAKDUK. It depends. But I would also offer this. We might 

want to talk to the institutions on why they are not receiving those 

credits or accepting them. I think that is one of the big issues I 

have called for while I am here at APSCU and when I was at Student Veterans of America. 

Mr. TAKANO. But we also have the question of why aren’t your 

members seeking regional or obtaining regional accreditation; do 

we not? 

Mr. DAKDUK. Well, it is different. It is different for different 

types of programs and different types of institutions. Remember 

nationally accredited and regional accreditation is recognized by 

the Department of Education and this Administration. 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, that is another separate issue. But the fact 

remains that the credits are not fungible and many students will 

enroll in these programs and do not know that they cannot transfer 

the credits they earn at your member institutions to the state universities and university systems, correct? 

Mr. DAKDUK. Our association and our member institutions are 

committed to consumer education and we want to make sure that 

we give this information to student veterans, student 

servicemembers, and their families to make sure they make the 

best choice when they choose an institution and understand transferability of military credits. 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, thank you. Thank you. 

Mr. Hubbard, to what extent did your research project look at 

the success of certificate and degree programs actually leading to 

employment? 

Mr. HUBBARD. Thank you, Congressman Takano, for the question. 

We did look at that very specifically. It was not differentiated 

from any of the other degrees. Our research looked at everything 

from certificates all the way up through Ph.D.s and everything in 

between. 

Mr. TAKANO. We have introduced legislation to require schools to 

disaggregate and disseminate data on student veterans. 

Do you think it would be helpful to VSOs like SVA, the VA, prospective students for this disaggregation and dissemination? 

Mr. HUBBARD. Without question. 

Mr. TAKANO. Great. Thank you. 

Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Takano. 


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Mrs. Kirkpatrick, you are recognized for five minutes for questions. 

Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. Thank you, Chairman, for having this important hearing. 

Thank you, Ranking Member Takano. 

I want to thank all of our witnesses for your testimony today and 

extend a special thanks to President Ann Hart Weaver at the University of Arizona and to you, Dr. Vito, for your testimony and the 

great work you are doing for our veterans. 

I am extremely proud to say that my alma mater, the University 

of Arizona, has demonstrated a strong commitment to helping its 

student veterans achieve success. And I am particularly proud of 

the university’s number one ranked disability resource center and 

the model it has developed for integrating disabled student veterans into the campus community. 

I would also like to thank Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona where I live for submitting a statement for this hearing today. Northern Arizona University is nationally recognized as 

a leader in higher education services and support for its student 

veterans. 

We know that a veteran’s first year is the most critical for a successful transition from military to student life, and Northern Arizona University is leading the way by introducing an innovative 

transition program this fall that is tailored to the needs of its student veterans. 

Great ideas come from Arizona and I believe this committee has 

already learned a great deal from our University of Arizona witness and from the Northern Arizona statement for the record. 

I look forward to learning more about what University of Arizona 

and Northern Arizona University are doing and hoping we can use 

their best practices to ensure that our student veterans are 

equipped for success across the country. 

And I do not have any questions. I thank you again for your 

great testimony, and I yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick. 

Ms. Brownley, you are recognized for five minutes. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And I wanted to just follow-up on Ranking Member Takano’s 

questioning around the in-state tuition issue. And I heard several 

of you testify about certain veterans getting in-state tuition and I 

just wanted to get a further clarification on what that means exactly. 

Mr. ROSS. We are in the process now of working with our legislature to determine exactly who would qualify and who would not. 

What we have asked them to consider is those veterans that have 

separated in our state and done so within a certain period of time. 

Obviously there is a cost to the state for the differential, and so 

we are encouraging them to make this as broad as possible, understanding the fiscal cost of it and the effect on our budget. 

But we think the return for the state in the long term makes this 

a good investment, and the reason we feel that way is we have 

every indication from employers that veterans that come out of our 

institutions make some of their best employees. They have great 

work ethics. They are disciplined. They come with a can-do attiVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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tude. And so we believe that our employers will benefit from these 

individuals. 

We have a history in North Carolina of being able to attract 

some of the best and brightest from around the country because we 

have some great educational institutions public and private, and 

many of them stay in our state, which helps increase our educational attainment, which we believe we are going to need to do 

to meet the workforce demands of the future. 

So attracting veterans to our institutions, keeping them in our 

state is a good investment, we believe, for North Carolina. And so 

we are working with our legislature to iron out those particular details, but we believe they are very receptive to the idea of doing as 

much as they possibly can for as many veterans as possible. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Dr. Vito. 

Dr. VITO. And in Arizona, we are similar actually to what Mr. 

Ross had stated. We do ask that our veterans demonstrate an Arizona driver’s license, in-state lease, and some evidence of actually 

being in Arizona outside of service, but those vets are able to receive in-state tuition. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you. 

Mr. Hubbard, in terms of your good work, I will say, and in 

terms of collecting information on the Million Records project, did 

you look at all or evaluate the VRAP program and, you know, to 

determine, to look at that to see if it is successful, how it is working at all? 

Mr. HUBBARD. So for our first cut at the Million Records project, 

we did not. This research was to understand a baseline of how veterans are faring in higher education. It was just simply too difficult 

to capture all of that data and have an accurate clean methodology. 

So that is something that we have looked at, including further 

study, and we have recommended to this committee previously to 

encourage further data. There has been a lot of great legislation 

that Representative Takano and also the chairman have put out 

there and we encourage more of that. I think in future studies, that 

will be something we will be looking at. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you. 

And I have another minute here. I wanted to give a shout out 

to a university in my district, California State University at Channel Islands. They have a wonderful program for veterans and I 

think part of the success of the program is they have sort of a 

buddy system or kind of a peer-to-peer network, so veterans really 

partnering with other veterans to make sure that they are successful in school. 

And, Dr. Vito, you talked about a coordinated web of support 

that you are building at your university. And I am just wondering, 

it seems as though at least anecdotally there are better outcomes. 

The retention rate is better when programs like this exist within 

an educational institution and was wondering if you could make a 

comment. 

Dr. VITO. Absolutely true. Thank you for your question, Congresswoman. 

What we find and that is our student vet center acts as that 

peer-to-peer place and vets do work with each other. They connect 


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with each other. We hire vets. It is staffed by vets who are there 

on student work study and supporting other vets. 

Part of the power of our SERV program, and those are our 

courses for credit and actually we are developing a resiliency minor 

as an outgrowth of this, is that students go into those courses as 

part of a cohort to build comradery, to have each other, and to process that. 

So we see the power of working together as critically important. 

In the military, that is such a part of the experience and then you 

come to a large campus and the sense of isolation and culture clash 

is so overwhelming that making sure that intentionally we create 

those opportunities is fundamental to the success of our vets. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you very much. 

Dr. VITO. Thank you. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. And, Mr. Chair, I yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. Congresswoman Brownley, thank you. 

And, Ms. Titus, you are recognized for five minutes for questions. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I appreciate what you are doing on your two campuses to support 

veterans. I would like to focus a little more specifically on the 

STEM fields. I hear often from businesses that we lack people in 

this country trained in the STEM fields, and I think that veterans 

are really in position to take up that slack because many of them 

have gotten training while in service in medical and technical 

fields. 

But these degrees often require more money because of lab 

courses and things and often take longer because there are more 

requirements. 

I have got a bill that I am working on that would set up kind 

of a bridge program for veterans that would help through the GI 

Bill make up in those two areas. 

I wondered if you all would comment on it from the standpoint 

of institutions and maybe you from the standpoint of a student. 

Mr. ROSS. Thank you. Yes, ma’am. 

You know, I think that you are exactly right, that the STEM 

fields are one that we are all concerned about. And I would say just 

a couple things. 

One is if you look at the data for our veteran students, it is more 

heavily weighted, frankly, to STEM fields, particularly in engineering because of some of their prior training and experience. 

You know, I can tell you quickly one story about a young man 

who is graduating this week from Western Carolina University who 

entered NC State, spent two years, volunteered, became a medic, 

was deployed to Iraq, came back from Iraq as a medic, and entered 

Western Carolina because of their emergency medical program. He 

got there and got interested in biology and became a biology major 

and is graduating this spring, coming to Washington for a very 

highly selective post doc at the National Institute of Health. 

So veterans can find their way and be incredibly successful in 

the STEM fields, but it does require some extra effort. And so anything the Congress can do to assist that, I think, would pay dividends for the country and for certainly the veterans. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you. 

Ms. VITO. Thank you, Congresswoman. It is a great question. 


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At the University of Arizona, we see our top three majors as pre 

business, actually applied science, and international service. And so 

science is our front and center and they are front and center at the 

University of Arizona. 

I think that we have some specific programs that target student 

deficiencies around math to try to help students bridge in to be 

successful and the type of work that you have described that would 

acknowledge maybe a lengthened academic path without financial 

penalties could be really important to encouraging students getting 

into STEM. 

I know the report that was done with the clearinghouse and Student Veterans Association also made a couple of recommendations 

about how we might grow veterans’ participation in STEM. And so 

I think that we are fully supportive, but academic preparation to 

succeed in the STEM fields is really important and making sure 

that that is built in to whatever we do, I think, would be a critical 

component. 

Ms. TITUS. Do you look at any equivalency between certain college credits and experience in the military so that you do not have 

to retake a course that you have already been doing in the field? 

Ms. VITO. At University of Arizona, our branch campus University of Arizona South is able to accept fully all credit earned 

through the military. University of Arizona has a more deliberate 

analysis that is done about what transfers and what does not 

transfer. 

And so I would acknowledge that it may not be a perfect process 

and your question raises a larger national discussion. 

Mr. ROSS. It does, and we are certainly involved in that discussion and looking hard at prior learning and how it can be transferred to credit. I mean, if you have got somebody coming back 

from Iraq and they know how to speak Urdu, maybe we should be 

giving them credit for it. 

But we have developed a program that we are near kicking off 

which we think is exciting that allows medics to enter into a physician’s assistant program at our medical school. And we are excited 

that that will enable them to use their prior experiences and what 

they have learned in the military and move through that program 

more quickly. 

So that is the kind of thing we need to think more about, and 

I think with encouragement, we certainly want to do that. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you. 

Mr. Hubbard. 

Mr. HUBBARD. I think you make an excellence point, Congresswoman. As the Department of Defense invests billions of dollars in 

STEM fields, STEM related MOSes, technical fields that could be 

taken advantage of as they exit the military, that investment is 

completely lost, it evaporates as individuals exit the service and 

then go on to, say, another major that is unrelated. 

Taking advantage of that investment and reinvesting it in the 

economy by encouraging individuals to go into the STEM fields is 

absolutely a top priority for Student Veterans of America. 

I think as we look at this, we have seen across the board many 

students would pursue those degrees. They simply cannot afford to 

and that is a major problem for a lot of these student vets. 


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Ms. TITUS. Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Titus. 

A couple of closing comments before we excuse the panel and 

move on to the next panel. 

Mr. Ross, I was pleased to learn that your governor on Tuesday 

of this week has announced his support for in-state tuition in 

North Carolina and so we hope that you and the governor are successful with your General Assembly. 

Also, there was some dialogue before about for profit schools and 

I would note that there is no lack of regulation of the education industry, and that is all the education, public, private, and for profit. 

The VA, the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau, the Federal 

Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Education, State Attorneys 

General, State licensing agencies, State departments of education, 

State approving agencies, and accrediting associations all have a 

responsibility to monitor all sections of higher education. 

If there is a systemic problem, which I do not believe there is, 

the only conclusion I can draw is that multiple government agencies at all levels have failed to monitor the education industry and 

enforce the statutes and regulations now in place. 

With that, we will conclude the participation of this panel. Mr. 

Dakduk and Mr. Hubbard, thank you for your service, thank all of 

you for your support of our Nation’s veterans, one of our most valuable resources, and thank you in particular for the innovative ideas 

that you shared with us today. You are now excused. 

On our second panel, we welcome back a frequent flyer to this 

subcommittee. Mr. Curtis L. Coy is the deputy under secretary for 

Economic Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Thank you for joining us again, Mr. Coy. You are now recognized 

for five minutes whenever you get settled in. 

STATEMENT OF CURTIS L. COY 

Mr. COY. Well, good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member 

Takano, and other Members of the subcommittee. 

I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Department of Veterans Affairs’ efforts to help veterans achieve success in their academic and educational endeavors. 

VA is committed to ensuring that our Nation’s veterans, 

servicemembers, reservists, and qualifying dependents receiving 

VA education benefits have access to high-quality educational opportunities that will enhance their ability to meet their academic 

and career objectives. 

VA’s VetSuccess on Campus program provides veteran students 

seamless access to VA benefits and services and supports their successful integration on college and university campuses. 

In fiscal year 2013, we grew the program from 32 campuses to 

94 with a total of 79 vocational rehabilitation counselors across the 

country. 

I visited our VSOC site at Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College just last week. I was impressed with both 

administrations and particularly the president’s direct involvement 

with respect to their veteran programs. 

We are continuing our efforts to enhance support to veterans on 

campus across a wide range of benefits and services. VSOC counVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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selors also collaborate with VA medical centers and campus counseling centers to ensure that students are aware of mental health 

services and receive referrals as necessary to support their needs. 

Recently we developed a pilot program with the Corporation of 

National and Community Service for AmeriCorps’ volunteers at 

eight of our VSOC campuses. 

Public Law 112–249 was enacted in January 2013. It enhances 

and complements the provisions of the executive order, requires VA 

to develop a comprehensive policy to improve outreach and transparency to veterans and servicemembers. We have made significant 

progress in implementing both the law and the executive order. 

Some of those highlights include we have partnered with Department of Education, Defense, Consumer Protection Finance Bureau, 

Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and the National Association of State Approving Agencies. 

We submitted a report to Congress in April of 2013 as required 

by the law. Currently piloting an online assessment tool called 

CareerScope. We launched a GI Bill comparison tool in February 

to help veterans become informed post secondary education consumers. As of yesterday, over 106,000 unique visitors have used 

the tool and looked at 250,000 different schools. 

We launched the GI feedback system which centralized online reporting for veterans, servicemembers, and reservists to report negative experiences with educational institutions. We launched that 

the end of January of this year. As of this past Monday, there have 

been over 18,000 who have visited the site, 4,500 have logged into 

the system, and 1,400 have submitted complaints or feedback. 

In March, we began transmitting those complaints to FTC’s consumer sentinel database where they are accessible by law enforcement agencies. 

We have completed several other activities, for example, recently 

updating the school certifying official handbook, published student 

outcome measure definitions on education’s college navigator, registered the GI Bill trademark, and began enforcing the legal terms 

of that trademark. 

We also established an agreement with SVA to create the new 

education completion database for Post-9/11 GI Bill and Montgomery GI Bill programs. 

VA also established agreement with the National Student Clearinghouse to match VA records and provide graduation and program 

completion. 

In March, as you know, this year, SVA released their Million 

Records project report. The results of the study show that continued research on veteran graduation rates is imperative. 

As of this summer, we will mark the fifth anniversary of the 

Post-9/11 GI Bill, an important milestone certainly, but we believe 

that the success of the program is more longitudinal. 

Eligible veterans have 15 years to use their richly earned benefits. We hope to have some preliminary success outcomes late this 

summer or early fall. We have some already on persistence data. 

VA has worked with key stakeholders to ensure veterans are utilizing their education benefits efficiently and effectively. We will 

continue our efforts to ensure that veterans are informed conVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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sumers and schools meet their obligations in providing education 

and training to this Nation’s next greatest generation. 

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Takano, and Members, we are 

rowing hard. This concludes my statement. I would be happy to answer any questions that you or other Members of the subcommittee 

may have. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF CURTIS L. COY APPEARS IN THE

APPENDIX] 

Mr. FLORES. Mr. Coy, thank you for your testimony. Thank you 

for your service to our Nation’s veterans. 

And I will recognize myself for five minutes for questions. 

Share with us what feedback you have received so far about 

CareerScope and when you are doing that, tell me about what students are saying about whether it is helpful in finding a school and 

then let’s walk forward and tell me what your plans are for future 

functionality and tweaks and improvements and so forth. 

Mr. COY. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. I just want to be clear. Are you 

talking the CareerScope tool or the comparison tool? 

Mr. FLORES. CareerScope tool. 

Mr. COY. The CareerScope tool. The CareerScope tool is an assessment device for students or for anybody to go in and use it. We 

have had about 10,000 people use it. It is also used by our Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment counselors across the country 

as well. 

The feedback we have received so far has been good. It is a useful tool. It certainly does not solve all things, but it gives that individual a direction to head as they go forward in their school selection. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. And can you go into some of the funding 

issues that you ran into in the development of the CareerScope 

tool, the complaint system, and the comparison tool, all three of the 

systems that you talked about in your testimony. 

Mr. COY. Just to understand, what issues we had with funding? 

Mr. FLORES. Yes, sir. 

Mr. COY. Well, these were all tools that were as a result of the 

Public Law, the President’s executive order, and initiatives that we 

were doing within VA as well. 

With respect to the complaint tool or feedback tool, we leverage 

what the Department of Defense did. We took their system. We 

modified with the contractor that developed their tool and we modified it for the VA. So it was a minimal expense, if you will, for that. 

For the comparison tool, it was sort of an in-house effort and we 

strung that together with, my terms, duct tape and chicken wire 

and put it together. It is a fantastic success story. We took data 

from over 23 disparate sites and it is now at one place. 

As far as the CareerScope tool, that is a commercial off-the-shelf 

item. What we did, our investment in that, was put it on the site, 

pay the licensing fees, and actually doing the market survey with 

respect to that. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. And by the way, thanks for your help with 

the Million Records project. Appreciate the VA’s involvement with 

that. 

Mr. COY. Yes, sir. 


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Mr. FLORES. How does the VA define success and what are the 

barriers that you think are still in place when it comes to veterans 

accessing a quality education and the assistance they need while 

pursuing their degrees? 

Mr. COY. We are looking at a lot of different success factors as 

we go forward. Certainly defining success is a challenge as you 

might imagine. 

You have heard testimony earlier here today as well as prior testimony that veterans are nontraditional students. And so what we 

find in nontraditional students is many of them start full time, 

then they go part time, then they stop and say when the kids get 

older, you know, I will go back to school. And so defining what that 

success is is hard. 

We are doing a number of different things. We currently have 

seven measures that we hope to be rolling out in the next several 

months. One is retention rate. That measures the student attendance at the same institution over time. 

There is persistence rate and what that does is it measures veteran students full time and part time across the board. And I have 

some preliminary numbers that are interesting. 

We also are measuring the transfer rate. We are measuring graduation rates, certificate completion, the number of years to complete a degree or certificate, and the number of institutions veterans attend to complete their degree or certificate. 

As you heard this morning, the current IPEDS graduation rate 

tool is over a six-year time frame, but it does not allow for any 

transfer in or out. So that is certainly a challenge because no matter what we do, it is going to want to be compared to one or another. 

Interestingly as I go out and talk to many folks, I suggest to people that there were 16 million veterans who served in World War 

II. Eight million of them went to school on the GI Bill and, as we 

all know, that spawned the greatest generation. 

But when you ask what the graduation rate was, how many certificate completions, and any of those kinds of things, there has 

never been any of that sort of information because it is hard. And 

so defining the success outcomes, we are going to put this on the 

table, the Million Records project, put a stick in the ground. We are 

also doing similar type things. 

The other issue or concern that makes it a little bit hard is that 

schools input this data. So the data sometimes is only as good as 

the information that we get out. 

Interestingly, though, is as we go forward with the comparison 

tool and we start publishing some of that data on there, what we 

will find is schools and institutions sort of center themselves. 

For example, we went out before we launched the tool and we 

sent out all this information and said would you validate this, tell 

us. There were 400 schools within a week that said, no, we want 

to sign up for the Principles of Excellence as well. We did not know 

anything about it. 

So publishing those things, I think, will be a great opportunity 

for schools to center themselves. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Coy. 


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And I am sorry to my colleagues for going over. I will give you 

all an extra minute and 15 seconds each if you would like it. 

So I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Takano, for six minutes and 15 seconds. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Coy, thank you to the VA for creating these online tools for 

our veterans. 

With regard to the comparison tool, do you think that knowledge 

about default rates, student loan default rates would be relevant 

for a prospective student to be able to make a judgment about the 

potential for success at a particular institution? 

Mr. COY. Yes, sir, I do, and it is on the comparison tool. 

Mr. TAKANO. Oh, so the comparison tool does make clear to the 

veteran what percentage or just what the default rates are at a 

particular institution? 

Mr. COY. Yes, sir, it does. But I just want to make sure that I 

clarify that. That is for the school itself. It is not veteran specific. 

So when we say the default rate is X, it is for all the school, not 

just veterans. 

Mr. TAKANO. Okay. Is there—— 

Mr. COY. It is not veteran specific. 

Mr. TAKANO. Is there a possibility of being able to make that 

comparison possible in the future? 

Mr. COY. Anything is possible, sir. The issue is that we get that 

loan default rate from the Department of Education and so we 

would essentially almost have to set up a whole new cohort for 

them to help us track that. 

Mr. TAKANO. Okay. Thank you for letting me know that. 

Are prospective students able to figure out whether the institution is regionally or nationally accredited? 

Mr. COY. That is not currently on the tool. However, comma, we 

do for each school that is looked up have a link to the Department 

of Education’s college navigator. And if you were to click on that 

link and go into this huge pile of information that is on college navigator, you would be able to find that. 

Mr. TAKANO. Do you think making it very user friendly for the 

student to be able—I mean, I think that is an important consumer 

information to make that user friendly. Is that a goal of yours to 

make it more clear and easy for the student to discern whether the 

institution that they are looking at is nationally or regionally accredited? 

Mr. COY. The short answer is, yes, sir, I do. The longer answer, 

if I may, is the issue of whether it is regionally or nationally accredited, and I think I understand why, but to making sure that 

the veteran understands what that means. 

Mr. TAKANO. Yes. 

Mr. COY. That is the bigger issue. So rather than just tell somebody this is a regional or national accredited institution, giving 

them the perspective on what that means, that is a little bit of a 

bigger challenge. 

Mr. TAKANO. But you view it as an important piece of consumer 

information that the student should understand? 

Mr. COY. I would suggest, sir, that probably, and this is my opinion and the opinion that we found in a number of different inVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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stances, and that is on the comparison tool, we list whether that 

school is a private university, a for profit university, or a public 

university. So it labels that and I think that in some way touches 

on the accreditation issue. 

Mr. TAKANO. In some way, but many students may not understand which institutions are regionally or nationally accredited and 

what that might mean in terms of the fungibility of those credits. 

Let’s switch over to the complaint tool that you have. What are 

the most common complaints you have heard that you have received through the system so far? 

Mr. COY. The top issues that we have—and if you were to look 

at the tool, there are buttons that you can push, and then you go 

into sort of a verbal explanation—the top three buttons that we 

have received back is financial issues, quality of education, and 

then there is a button for other and that comes in number three. 

Mr. TAKANO. Okay. How do you ensure that the system is not 

being flooded with false complaints? 

Mr. COY. We do not other than we would know. And the reason 

we know is the goodness of the tool is that the front end of it is 

automated, in other words, that you can go in and—but the back 

end, meaning when somebody hits submit, every single one of those 

complaints is reviewed by our staff. 

And the decision and determination is made that probably about 

half of the, quote, complaints are on benefits issues that VA controls. For example, my housing allowance check is late or why did 

it go from $10.00 to $20.00 or vice versa. And we typically resolve 

those issues up front. 

The other issues that come in are sent directly to the school and 

the school has 90 days to complete and respond back to us. And 

so we have not seen, if you will, the system being flooded with false 

complaints. We have seen there have been some complaints that 

has driven to direct about 25 risk-based reviews of schools that we 

have gotten complaints on. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you. 

My time has gone over. I yield back. 

Mr. COY. Yes, sir. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Takano. 

Ms. Brownley, you are recognized for questions. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you, Mr. Coy. 

You were talking in your testimony about the challenges of defining success and you talked about the seven measures, I think, that 

you are going to roll out. 

So when is this rollout going to occur? 

Mr. COY. We expect these measures to be available sometime in 

the academic year 2015 which begins in August of this year and 

ends 31 July of next year. So trying to give us as much wiggle room 

as possible, we said we are going to have these things out. 

I am personally hoping that we will begin having some of the initial results late summer, early fall. We already have some of those 

results that are interesting, for example, persistence rates. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. So in all of these areas, you will be collecting 

data and input across the board for all veterans who are enrolled 

in school? 


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Mr. COY. Yes, ma’am. And much of that data schools are reporting now and now it is a matter of getting the information and sort 

of making sure that we are reporting it accurately. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. And in terms of the measurements, did you ever 

consider an additional measure which is to say did the veteran find 

employment and gainfully employed and if the veteran majored in 

let’s say business administration, were they able to go and find a 

job in the field of their interest? 

Mr. COY. Yes, ma’am, we have considered that. We are looking 

at that. We have included a question similar to that in our voice 

of the veteran survey. That is being mailed out to about 26,000 veterans as we speak. It is a survey that is being done by J.D. Power 

and we hope to have those results in the fall of this year as well. 

Clearly a challenge, but we have talked with a few other government agencies in terms of being able to get that information with 

respect to employment and be able to do that. Most of the, if you 

will, education versus employment would initially come in terms of, 

if you will, dollars. In other words, I make $10.00 a year now and 

after your degree or your training or your certificate completion, 

how much do you make the following year, if you will. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. And so these measurements and the collection of 

data then, you know, how will you utilize that as you get the results to sort of be hopefully in a model of continuous improvement 

and a model of always being focused on improving success? 

Mr. COY. The challenge of this data is that you almost have to 

look at it by year and then you look at it by various aspects. So, 

for example, we have persistence data and we break it down into 

essentially three categories. 

In other words, when you start in a certain year, how many 

started full time and then came back the next year full time, the 

next year full time, the next year full time. Then how many started 

part time, came back part time, came back part time. Then how 

many came back—started either way, full time, part time, and 

stayed going to school. 

Then you have that by year. We started the Post-9/11 GI Bill in 

August of 2009. So now we are getting data for 2009, 2010, and 

then we have, if you will, the next year which is 2010 and their 

next four years. 

And the challenge, as I stated in my oral statement, was we have 

to be looking at this over the course of 15 years because that is 

what a veteran has. 

In addition to that persistence data, you can also begin slicing it 

as how many of them are going after a bachelor’s degree, an associate’s degree, a certificate, and so the list goes on. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you. 

And I will yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Brownley. 

Ms. Titus, you are recognized for five minutes. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you. 

Just following up on Ms. Brownley’s comments, I appreciate that 

you all are doing this massive study and it is over a 20-year period. 

I understood it, but I hope we do not wait until the 20 years is up 

when you get all the data to come up with some suggestions and 

some improvements because that often tends to be the case. 


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Also, sometimes the right hand does not know what the left hand 

is doing and we have different programs and different departments 

or agencies who might be working on similar kinds of efforts. 

I have a bill with Representative Cook to do a similar kind of 

study of the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and 

Training Service, so I know they have an effort too. 

I wonder if you could talk about how you all coordinate or if you 

see any ability for us to use the results from the two studies to just 

provide a better, more effective way for our veterans to transition 

into the workplace. 

Mr. COY. Thank you, Congresswoman. That is a great question. 

And we work with our colleagues at Department of Labor, VETS 

often. In fact, I was over at the Labor building just last week, I believe, and I commented I should just get a badge because I am over 

there. 

We started our collaboration, our significant collaboration or at 

least I did with the VRAP program. As you know, we partnered 

with the Department of Labor on that program. We work with the 

Department of Labor and the VETS program a lot. 

When we start talking about our employment projects and programs that we are doing, as you know, we recently launched a new 

employment center on e-benefits, we worked with the Department 

of Labor across the board to develop that employment center. 

We very much coexist with them. They have over 2,500 American 

job centers with well over 2,500 DVOPs and LVERs in those American job centers. We believe that that is a wonderful tool for veterans to be able to leverage and use when they start looking at 

their employment goals as well. 

So there is really I do not think any project that we have undertaken in the last three years that has not involved our colleagues 

at the Department of Labor. 

Ms. TITUS. Well, that is good to know. And I hope that we can 

move forward with the study of their program like the one that you 

are doing so we can be sure that it is operating most effectively. 

But Mr. Cook and I will be pursuing that and I hope you will help 

us with that. 

Also, now, just a more specific question about Las Vegas which 

is the area I represent. There is a school there right next to the 

airport that provides technical training for students who are interested in working in the aviation field. This is part of chain of 

schools around the country. 

But because of the rules you have, they have to be in existence 

for two years before anybody can qualify to receive veterans’ benefits to help them pay to go to school there despite the fact that this 

company has schools operating in other places around. 

Is there not any way to have some kind of flexibility when it 

comes to evaluating schools where students can get the GI Bill because their colleagues in another state where the school is operating are able to do that? 

Mr. COY. The short answer is we would be happy to look at that, 

you know, on an individual basis. And I will take that back and 

we will get back to your staff. 


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Generally to be approved for GI Bill benefits, if you will, there 

are two key rules to be followed. One is the two-year rule. In other 

words, the school has to be in operation for at least two years. 

Ms. TITUS. Yes. 

Mr. COY. These are both in statute, by the way. They are not policy decisions by the VA. 

And the other is the 85/15 rule which means that at least 15 percent of the students that are going to that course are nonveterans. 

Both of these statutes were developed so schools would not pop up 

for veterans only and abuse the GI Bill in some way, shape, or 

form—— 

Ms. TITUS. I appreciate that. 

Mr. COY [continuing]. And so on and so forth. 

Ms. TITUS. Yes. 

Mr. COY. We will certainly look at your or that individual aviation school. Those approvals are handled by the State approving 

agencies, so there is sort of a twofer there. One is the statute that 

I just mentioned. 

Ms. TITUS. Yes. 

Mr. COY. The other piece is oftentimes there are state requirements as well which is why we have the State approving agencies 

in each state. But we will be happy to look at that, Congresswoman. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you. I appreciate your help. 

Mr. COY. Yes, ma’am. 

Ms. TITUS. I yield back. Thank you. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Titus. 

Thank you, Mr. Coy. You are now excused. 

I thank everyone in the audience for your attendance today and 

for the frank discussion that we have had regarding educational 

opportunities for our veterans and how to improve success for our 

student veterans. 

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any 

extraneous material in the record of today’s hearing. Hearing no 

objection, so ordered. 

If there is nothing further, this hearing is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:25 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

f 

APPENDIX 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DAKDUK

Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano, and members of the subcommittee, 

I am writing on behalf of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities 

(APSCU), our member institutions, their faculty and the nearly four million students who attend private sector institutions. We are grateful for the invitation to 

offer our views on the importance of successful educational outcomes for our returning servicemembers and veterans, the VetSuccess program, and the implementation 

of the ‘‘Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities for Veterans Act of 

2012’’ (P.L. 112–249). 

Since 2009, over one million veterans have used Post-9/11 GI benefits to pay for 

their educations. Private sector colleges and universities have educated more than 

325,000. Private sector institutions continue to grow as the education choice for veterans because our schools offer focused academic delivery and flexible schedules, 

which veterans favor. 


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1 Cate, C.A. (2014). Million Records Project: Research from Student Veterans of America. Student Veterans of America, Washington, DC. 2The White House Office of the Press Secretary. Executive Order—Establishing Principles of 

Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses, and Other 

Family Members, The White House, Washington D.C., accessed April 24, 2014, http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/27/executive-order-establishing-principles-excellence-educational-instituti 

We understand the challenges that arise when our military men and women transition back to civilian life and enter into postsecondary education. Our military and 

veteran students are not the fresh-out-of-high school, first-time, full-time student 

living on campus and attending college thanks to the generosity of family. Our military and veteran students are like many of our new traditional students—working, 

with a spouse and children and paying for their education with money they have 

earned. Given the student profile of veterans enrolled in higher education today, 

many are not captured in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Database Systems (IPEDS), which is narrowed in scope in tracking first-time, full-time students. 

However, new partnerships and initiatives have been introduced to better understand the success of veterans in higher education. 

Measuring Student Veteran Success 

Most recently, Student Veterans of America (SVA) in partnership with the National Student Clearinghouse and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released the 

results of their Million Records Project. During my tenure at SVA as executive director, I was responsible for brokering this partnership leaving me with an appreciation for the details captured in the report and the gaps in research on student veteran outcomes. In regards to the Million Records Project, I found the following items 

of interest: 

• The overall completion rate was approximately 52%, above nontraditional 

peers. 

• Existing research on post-WWII and Vietnam veterans indicate that the vast 

majority of veterans complete their postsecondary programs; post-Vietnam-era 

veterans have GPA’s greater than or equal to their peers. 

• Recent research (2010) conducted by the VA showed that 63% of veterans 

self-reported as completing their postsecondary training. Over half of the post9/11-era respondents said they completed as well. 

• While the private nonprofits had the highest completion rates (64%), approximately 22% later completed at a public or proprietary institution. 

• The completion rate for the private sector was approximately 45%. 

• Private sector institutions had higher proportions of veterans completing degrees faster. 1

Overall, the report suggests that student veterans are succeeding at levels comparable to, if not greater than, their peers. This refutes previous notions that student veterans drop out in high numbers. 

Additionally, the Million Records Project provides the framework for future research and data collection efforts on military veterans pursuing postsecondary education. Moving forward, we expect that new data will be available for Congress and 

the public to analyze given the President’s recent issuance of Executive Order 

13607, or Principles of Excellence. Section 3(c) of the order states: 

‘‘The Secretaries of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Education shall develop a 

comprehensive strategy for developing service member and veteran student outcome measures that are comparable, to the maximum extent practicable, across 

Federal military and veterans educational benefit programs, including, but not 

limited to, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Tuition Assistance Program. To the extent practicable, the student outcome measures should rely on existing administrative data to minimize the reporting burden on institutions participating in 

these benefit programs. The student outcome measures should permit comparisons across Federal educational programs and across institutions and types of 

institutions. The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretaries of 

Defense and Veterans Affairs, shall also collect from educational institutions, as 

part of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and other data collection systems, information on the amount of funding received pursuant to the 

Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Tuition Assistance Program. The Secretary of Education shall make this information publicly available on the College Navigator 

Website.’’ 2

We understand that the process for collecting outcomes data on student veterans 

is already underway. We suggest a concept similar to the Million Records Project 

be further explored as a compliment to the IPEDS system. Congress, though, should 


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3 Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities(APSCU), Reauthorization of the 

Higher Education Act, accessed April 22, 2014 http://www.career.org/policy-and-issues/federalissues/hea/upload/HEA—Reauthorization—Proposal—032013.pdf 

be keenly aware of the limitations of IPEDS in its current state. As of today, IPEDS 

does not disaggregate data based on military or veteran enrollment. 

We have provided recommendations for tracking student outcomes in our proposal 

for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). Our proposal offers 

thoughts around five key areas: retention and progression rates; completion and return on investment; employment of graduates; earnings and/or salary gains; and 

graduate satisfaction. We believe the Common College Completion Metrics as proposed by the National Governor’s Association Chair’s Initiative provides a good foundation for advancing dialogue around student outcomes and success metrics. 3 Conceptually, this model may be applied to veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill and 

other Title 38 programs. 

At a minimum, though, we should appreciate the unique life experiences of veterans and servicemembers. They differ drastically from the 18 year old, first-time, 

full-time college student. Current federal databases are lacking when it comes to 

tracking student veteran success. They should be updated, or new proposals should 

be explored, to fully capture the success of new learners that take a different and 

sometimes longer path to completion. 

Vetsuccess on Campus 

Since the initiative launched in 2009, the VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) program 

has expanded to 94 sites. While only one VSOC site is located at a private sector 

institution, ECPI University, it remains a valuable addition to their veteran support 

network. 

ECPI University has 10 campuses throughout Virginia, North Carolina, and 

South Carolina. In addition to their ground locations, ECPI University provides online courses and programs that are flexible for adult learners like veterans and 

servicemembers. ECPI University officially welcomed their new VSOC counselor to 

the Virginia Beach campus in October 2013. 

According to university officials, since being assigned to ECPI University the 

VSOC counselor has averaged seeing over 100 veterans per month. She also manages a case load of roughly 40 Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, or Chapter 31, veterans. Executive Director of Military Affairs at ECPI University and retired Navy Captain, Bob Larned, said the following regarding their VSOC counselor, 

‘‘She has an open door policy and always works around her schedule as necessary 

to see someone. She has put the word out via the student veterans organization on 

campus that she will assist any veteran, not only those attending ECPI University.’’ 

I have long been a proponent of providing resources to veterans by meeting them 

where they are located. In the case of student veterans, placing counselors on campuses is a smart approach for connecting with many college-going veterans that may 

not visit VA centers. 

In the event VSOC is expanded, it would be helpful to student veterans for VA 

to consider diversifying the scope and reach of VSOC sites by including more private 

sector institutions. 

Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities Act of 2012 (P.L. 112–249) 

In 2012, APSCU along with other higher education groups and veteran advocates 

sent a coalition letter to this committee calling for more consumer education and 

supports for student veterans. Congressman Gus Bilirakis quickly responded by 

sponsoring H.R. 4057, the ‘‘Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities Act 

of 2012’’ (P.L. 112–249). We remained supportive of the bill from its inception to 

eventual passage. Regarding the implementation of the law, we look forward to 

working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies to strengthen 

supports for servicemembers and veterans. 

Finally, we want to work with you to ensure servicemembers and veterans are 

armed with the tools and resources to make an informed, thoughtful decision about 

which educational opportunities will best prepare them for the workforce. In short, 

we share your commitment to veteran success. 

Thank you for allowing APSCU to provide our thoughts on important topics related to the military and veteran student community. We welcome the opportunity 

to work with this subcommittee and members of Congress to support student veterans and student servicemembers. 

Executive Summary 

On behalf of APSCU, our member institutions and the military and veteran students we serve we welcome the opportunity to provide our views on the importance 


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of successful educational outcomes for our returning servicemembers and veterans, 

the VetSuccess program, and the implementation of the ‘‘Improving Transparency 

of Education Opportunities for Veterans Act of 2012’’ (P.L. 112–249). 

Measuring Student Veteran Success 

• Measuring student veteran success is not fully reflected in current federal 

databases 

• Recent and previous studies show that veterans perform at or above their 

peers 

• New methods for tracking nontraditional students, like veterans, should be 

explored 

VETSUCCESS ON CAMPUS (VSOC)

• he program provides important access to services and supports to veterans on 

campus 

• VSOC is on 94 campuses; only one is located at a private sector institution 

• Future program expansion should take into account the diversity of veteran 

enrollment 

IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY OF EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2012 (P.L. 112– 

249)

• APSCU was an early supporter of H.R. 4057, now P.L. 112–249 

• APSCU remains supportive and looks forward to working with VA on implementation 


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STATEMENT PRESENTED BY RICARDO D. TORRES

Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano, and Members of the Committee, 

thank you for inviting me to speak with you on this important topic. We are honored 

by the opportunity to help inform this very timely discussion on Defining and Improving Success for Student Veterans. I am Ricardo Torres, President and CEO of 

the National Student Clearinghouse (‘‘Clearinghouse’’), a nonprofit organization 

serving the education community by facilitating the exchange and understanding of 

student enrollment, performance, and related information. We work with colleges 

and universities that collectively enroll 96% of all students in our nation’s degree 

granting, Title IV Student Loan Program institutions. Through our partnerships 

with these institutions, we work to reduce administrative burdens on students and 

school administrators, allowing them to focus more on achieving successful educational outcomes. 

We are proud to have supported the Veteran’s Benefits Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Student Veterans of America and to have enabled the groundbreaking Million Records Project, which provided this committee 

with never before available information regarding the success of the programs you 

have funded to provide education opportunities for our veterans. Today, we would 

like to suggest some powerful possible ways we can further help you evaluate and 

facilitate veterans’ education programs. 

What is the National Student Clearinghouse? 

The National Student Clearinghouse is the nation’s trusted source for education 

verification and student educational outcomes research. More than 3,600 colleges 

and universities, including public and private, for-profit and nonprofit institutions, 

participate in the Clearinghouse. Participating institutions provide access to actual 

enrollment and degree information on each of their students to us. As a result, only 

the Clearinghouse can offer access to a nationwide coverage of enrollment and degree records—encompassing more than 144 million students and growing. Through 

our verification, data exchange and reporting services, the Clearinghouse saves 

higher education institutions nearly $500 million dollars annually. Most Clearinghouse services are provided to colleges and universities at little or no charge, including enhanced transcript and research services, enabling institutions to redistribute 

limited staff and budget resources to more important student service efforts. The 

Clearinghouse is a nonprofit that does not receive state or federal appropriations. 

Our data process is supported through the fees we collect from third-parties for 

services provided on behalf of our participating institutions. 

Today, the Clearinghouse is also the leading provider of educational reporting, 

verification and research, on behalf of its participating institutions, to the nation’s 

colleges and high schools, the student lending community, the Department of Education, state and other educational agencies, students and alumni, and thousands 

of employers and other organizations. All of the Clearinghouse’s services are designed to facilitate an institution’s compliance with the Family Educational Rights 

and Privacy Act, The Higher Education Act, and other applicable laws. 

The Clearinghouse was founded over 20 years ago to cost effectively address Title 

IV program inefficiencies. Before the launch of the Clearinghouse in 1993, student 

lenders had no dependable way to determine if a borrower was still in school and 

eligible for a loan deferment. Institutions spent thousands of hours each year processing 20 million deferment forms. Students were often mistakenly placed into default status, jeopardizing their credit rating and artificially inflating the reported 

default rate on these federally guaranteed loans. The higher education community 

created the Clearinghouse to simplify and standardize student deferment reporting. 

Instead of submitting millions of individual deferment forms to hundreds of lenders, 

schools now transmit a single electronic report of all their enrolled students to the 

Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse matches each enrollment record to electronic lists 

of student loan recipients and, whenever a match occurs, forwards the relevant enrollment data to the appropriate lender. The success of our efforts to reduce higher 

education’s student loan reporting burden is best evidenced by the fact that over 

3,600 institutions have chosen to participate in the Clearinghouse. All of the nation’s guarantee agencies, the Department of Education’s Direct Loan Servicer, and 

most student loan servicers participate in the Clearinghouse as well. Think of us 

as a back office to the university’s registrar, financial aid officer, and institutional 

researcher. The Clearinghouse is the largest electronic education data exchange ecosystem in the country, with over 1 billion secure and legally compliant transactions 

annually. 

The public-private partnership approach used by the Clearinghouse can be a 

model for a better way to serve our veterans while reducing the burdens on both 

government and educational institutions. The Clearinghouse helps educational instiVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00047 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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tutions improve efficiency, reduce costs and workload, and enhance the quality-ofservice they provide to their students and alumni, lending institutions, employers, 

and other organizations. We provide our services as an agent to our participating 

institutions, supporting their administrative, student access, accountability, and analytical needs. Moreover, through our educational research services that access our 

unique national dataset of student enrollments and degree outcomes, the Clearinghouse also serves as a valuable source for longitudinal and other studies on educational progress. 

Clearinghouse Research and the Million Records Project 

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (‘‘Research Center’’) is the 

research arm of the National Student Clearinghouse. The Research Center works 

with higher education institutions, states, districts, high schools, and educational organizations to better inform practitioners and policymakers about student educational pathways. Through accurate longitudinal data outcomes reporting, the Research Center enables better education policy decisions leading to improved student 

outcomes. The unprecedented nationwide reach of our information resources takes 

education researchers beyond the limitations of institutional data to provide the 

most accurate picture of student outcomes ? even when students transfer among 

multiple institutions, in different states, and over long periods of time ? while still 

being respectful of student privacy. 

Working in partnership with the Student Veterans of America and the Department of Veterans Affairs (‘‘VA’’), the Research Center participated in a 

groundbreaking research project that broadens perspectives and informs many of 

the pressing questions about the educational pathways and outcomes of student veterans. As part of the Million Records Project, we searched our unique dataset to 

help inform the nation about the return on our federal government’s investment of 

the more than $20 billion spent to provide education benefits to veterans. Through 

this public-private partnership, for the first time, comprehensive national statistics 

on the postsecondary outcomes of veterans from Operation Enduring Freedom and 

Operation Iraqi Freedom were made available, including degree completion, timeto-degree, and field of study preferences. 

The Unique Enrollment Patterns of Veterans 

One of the clear observations that emerged from the data that we provided to 

make this study possible is the highly non-traditional nature of veterans’ educational pathways. Student veterans are more likely to transfer or change institutions, and take longer to complete a degree or certificate, than other students. This 

makes defining success and measuring success for these veterans a particular challenge. The current federal Department of Education metrics that define successful 

outcomes for students and institutions are based on a definition of ‘‘first-time fulltime’’ students. This is the basis of the standard Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (‘‘IPEDS’’) institutional retention and graduation rate. It counts 

as a success only those students who have no previous higher education experience, 

enroll full time in a degree granting program, and graduate from the same institution where they started. Only three-quarters of degree-seeking students today begin 

by enrolling full time, and nearly one-quarter of those who complete a degree do so 

somewhere other than the institution where they started. So, using the standard 

definitions to measure the success of student veterans would be like computing 

baseball players’ career statistics by only counting members of the starting lineup 

who never changed teams, and ignoring everyone else on the team’s roster completely. 

For student veterans, the rates of institutional mobility are particularly high. The 

data provided by the VA for the SVA’s Million Records Project, matched to the 

Clearinghouse’s unique enrollment database, show that recipients of the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 benefits are much more likely than other students 

to enroll at more than one institution in pursuit of their degrees. The SVA report 

shows that these students are older, take longer to graduate, and more likely to stop 

out and change institutions due to external circumstances, like reserve mobilizations, job changes, or family status changes. They may also try to combine credits 

earned online while on active or reserve duty with on-campus courses in a new degree program after their service. 

The Million Records Project clearly demonstrated that today’s veterans are capable and determined when it comes to pursuing postsecondary educational goals. 

Using the Clearinghouse’s unique ability to track and measure student outcomes 

across institutions, states and sectors, the Million Records Project has demonstrated 

that more than half of veterans benefit recipients since 2002 have completed degrees, in spite of the challenges and hurdles they faced. It is a great disservice to 

the hard work, dedication, and perseverance of our veterans to continue to define 


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and measure their postsecondary success using only the traditional yardstick designed for 18-year-old students who enroll full time at a single institution. It also 

creates undue hardships for student veterans when the simple act of transferring 

credits or changing institutions generates new administrative hurdles and burdensome, time-consuming requirements for obtaining and retaining the tuition benefits 

that were promised to them when they enlisted. 

Meeting the Challenge of the Influx of Veterans Into Higher Education 

Given the influx of veterans expected to enroll in higher education programs over 

the next few years, it is important that we have the ability to successfully meet veteran program demands in a way that responds to the varied needs of these nontraditional students. The Clearinghouse is offering suggestions regarding what can 

be done to help ensure veteran success in two areas: 1) facilitating entry to colleges 

and universities and 2) enabling continued enrollment sufficient to accomplish what 

the veteran set out to do. 

The first opportunity to assist veterans is facilitating entry to colleges and universities. The newly released GI Bill College Comparison tool was an important breakthrough in providing information to veterans about their benefits in a school-specific 

manner. Unfortunately, the tool has two limitations for which we would like to offer 

solutions. First, the tool does not calculate an individual veteran’s entitlement and 

track what part of that entitlement has been used. Veterans can only designate 

themselves as belonging to one of 10 categories based on their recollection of their 

number of post 9–11 months of active duty service. The tool is, as it describes itself, 

an estimator. Although this information is informative, it does not fully remove the 

barriers necessary for a veteran to easily shop for a school. 

The second limitation of the tool is that it does not provide information on the 

graduation rates that is accurate or relevant to the unique enrollment patterns of 

veterans. In authorizing the creation of the tool, the Committee and the VA wisely 

chose measurements of graduation rates that would not place an additional reporting burden on institutions of higher education. It is clear that duplicative reporting 

burdens take institutional resources away from directly serving the needs of enrolled veterans. The graduation rate metric chosen was the IPEDS rate which, as 

we pointed out, is based on first-time full-time 18-year-old students, a population 

that has little relevance to the educational patterns of veteran adult learners. This 

metric also does not account for student mobility which, as the Million Records 

Project shows, is particularly high for veterans. In addition, a degree based graduation rate may be misleading or uninformative to a veteran who wishes to achieve 

a certificate or take a few specific courses for a workforce credential. The tool was 

an important step in the right direction, but can be misleading in helping veterans 

understand the probability of graduation at an institution for people like them. 

The National Student Clearinghouse has solved the problem of providing accurate 

information while not increasing reporting burdens on institutions through its work 

with the education community on the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) and 

the Student Achievement Measure (SAM). By using our data that tracks students 

across institutions, not limited to first-time full-time enrollees, VSA and SAM 

schools can provide students with a graduation rate that is not subject to the firsttime full-time IPEDS limitation. With the recent addition of veteran status as a 

data field for the information on individual students that schools supply to the 

Clearinghouse, we could easily calculate a graduation rate that is not restricted to 

the limitations of IPEDS and is also veteran-specific. This can enable great schools, 

like those in the University of North Carolina system, to claim full credit for the 

success of their support services in ensuring the successful program completion of 

their veterans. 

Meeting Enrollment Challenges 

In their ongoing dialogues with us, institutional administrators have reported recent improvements in their interactions with the Veteran’s Administration. Even 

with the VA’s hard work, there is still a significant lag time between the concept 

of a system improvement and its actual implementation. There is also great concern 

around the scalability of existing processes. Development of new technology can require a significant investment of federal dollars, institutional resources, and staff 

time. Given the large influx of members of our armed forces expected to join the 

ranks of veterans in the next few years, the problems of multiple aging systems will 

become even more acute. 

Veterans and the schools serving them face a continuous stream of administrative 

complexities around activities, such as certificate of eligibility processing, residency 

verification, kicker processing, previous credential accumulation assessment, applicability of credentials to degrees, retaining benefit on transfers, and inconsistency 


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in branch of service requests. Registrars at institutions have pointed out some of 

the challenges to us: 

• Schools and VA customer service representatives do not have access to the 

same data at the same time and, therefore, see inconsistent or incomplete information regarding benefits eligibility. This makes it extremely difficult to counsel individual veterans. 

• The VA Once technology is a legacy system and is no longer being updated. 

Instead of transferring critical data through batch processing from their other 

systems, schools must manually enter data for each individual veteran. 

• Some student veterans were given enhanced benefits upon enlistment. Determining the level of this ‘‘kicker’’ can further delay the ability to establish eligibility and result in additional challenges in maintaining enrollment for students. 

• Residency and proof-of-residency requirements for veterans are determined on 

a state-by-state basis (in part because House Bill H.R. 357 has not yet been 

passed by the Senate), which adds to delays. 

• Establishing the eligibility for Post 9–11 benefits, which includes checking 

character of discharge and the amount of credible service through the Department of Defense, results, can further delay the enrollment and registration of 

student veterans. 

• Inconsistencies between the requirements for veterans’ education benefits and 

those for Title IV cause challenges for institutions. A veteran who needs supplementary aid and wants to qualify for Title IV must register as degree seeking, 

even if he or she is seeking a credential that requires fewer courses. 

As pointed out in the discussion regarding the complexity of education pathways 

taken by veterans, issues of transfer and transfer of credit pose a particular challenge for these mobile students. Department of Veterans Affairs has worked with 

the American Council on Education (ACE) to solve many of these challenges by providing recommended credits that can be awarded for military training and experience as well as resources to colleges and universities to assist in evaluating and accepting these credits and applying them toward degrees. Despite this work, schools 

report to us that challenges remain, including: 

• Delays and difficulties in accessing information regarding postsecondary 

course work a veteran may have taken before military service to ensure transfer 

of these credits. 

• No way to easily understand how acquired military credits translate into time 

to graduation. 

• Delays and difficulties in determining remaining veterans’ benefit entitlement 

when a veteran transfers. In mid semester, a veteran and his or her institution 

can often be surprised to learn that benefits are exhausted and the veteran 

faces a tuition bill. 

Some of these challenges result from multiple programs with divergent requirements. The possibility of a new and additional GI Bill will simply add to complexity 

and the potential for confusion. 

Individually, these procedures serve a purpose, but they could be greatly simplified to enable the enrollment of the veteran at the institution of his or her choice. 

One solution we recommend is two-fold: first, employ electronic document ordering 

capability in the eBenefits portal, enabling veterans to securely and privately send 

their benefits summary directly to the veteran’s certification office of their chosen 

institution. Second, in collaboration with ACE, the Department of Veterans Affairs 

and the Department of Defense allow the Clearinghouse to be the repository of active duty and veteran competencies, academic credits, and credential aggregation 

providing a one-stop data shop for veterans to enable efficiency in enrolling in a 

postsecondary institution or applying for employment. Providing a way for a student 

veteran to authorize a secure eBenefit financial summary to be sent to an institution where they have applied would further facilitate the process. 

Ensuring Successful Program Completion 

One of the biggest barriers to completion we have heard from veterans and the 

institutions serving them is uncertainty and delays in tuition assistance requests 

and aid disbursement. Current remediable pain points include: 

• Manual processes necessary for repetitive end-of-semester completion status 

reports, interim add/drop and major change processes, uploading of course catalogs, and constant reporting outside normal cycles; and 

• Delays and uncertainty in determining entitlement balances. 

Leveraging our Title IV experience, we can certainly enable a significant improvement in reporting these requirements, thereby allowing school staff to spend more 


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time serving student veterans and allowing the veteran to be less focused on paperwork and more focused on classwork and homework. The manual processes we 

noted are very reminiscent of the challenges in the Title IV loan program which we 

were created to solve. 

One available tool is our open source application, Meteor, which provides an integrated view of student debt and could be connected to the VA benefits database to 

provide the veteran with an integrated view of all financial aid, debt, and benefits. 

This application could be leveraged to provide an integrated financial snapshot of 

all benefits and aid in order to help financial aid administrators counsel veterans. 

Meteor displays real-time summary and detail loan information on a borrower’s student loans from the various data providers in the Meteor Network. Secure, online 

access is available to students, borrowers, and financial aid professionals through 

a Meteor access provider. Individuals can see their cumulative debt and can utilize 

unique tools, such as payment plan and income-based repayment calculators, helping them to avoid over borrowing. Financial aid professionals can compare the information submitted for an individual borrower by all sources on the Meteor master 

screen, allowing them to pinpoint issues at specific organizations in order to assist 

students with problem resolution. Adding a link to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense benefit databases would give the student veteran 

up-to-the-minute information without reporting delays. This would allow a veteran 

to register for courses with confidence without the risk of learning midsemester that 

his or her benefits had been exhausted. 

Measuring Success 

Educational success for veterans can only be measured by the answer to one question: did the veterans achieve the goals they intended when they enrolled. For 

many, this is an associates, bachelors, or graduate degree. For others, it may be a 

certificate of skills or similar credential that gives them entry to the workforce. 

Whatever the goal, veterans also face challenges staying enrolled due to re-mobilizations, employment changes, and family circumstances. Student veterans take longer 

to graduate, and change institutions more often, than traditional students. This not 

only makes it harder for the students to maintain momentum and focus on their 

goals, it also makes it harder for colleges, universities, and policymakers to track 

their progress and measure their success. For example, traditional reporting 

metrics, such as degree completion within 150% of normal program time, are clearly 

inadequate for student veterans. According to the Million Records Project, only 43% 

of student veterans who successfully completed an associate’s degree did so within 

three years, while nearly one-third (31%) took more than six years. We assume that 

this is due to extensive stopouts, transfers and re-enrollments, but we do not know 

enough of the details to address the challenges. Those who wish to serve veterans 

better, whether through campus support programs, college transfer policies or VA 

benefit policies, need better information in order to do so. 

We need further research, like the Million Records Project, but with more details 

and greater focus, to determine which veteran support programs are working best 

to serve the needs of veterans today and which need to be improved or modified. 

We need to use longer tracking periods, with more term-by-term enrollment details, 

to fully capture the success of student veterans who stop-out and return to college, 

and to understand why not for those who do not return. And we need better information about the potential administrative and financial constraints that veterans 

face and their effect on student success to assess the effectiveness of veterans’ education benefits programs. By combining the data of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Student Veterans of America, and the Clearinghouse in a manner similar to 

the collaborative model of the Million Records Project, additional breakthrough research could be accomplished within a year. 

In particular, we propose a research project that would build upon the Million 

Records Project with more detailed data on individual enrollment patterns before, 

during, and after receiving VA benefits, with longer tracking periods to capture 

more of the range of successful degree pathways, and with additional data collected 

from colleges and universities on the types of support programs available to veterans at the specific institutions in which they enrolled. This would allow us to answer key questions like: 

• How do the education success rates of student veterans compare to those of 

non-veterans of similar age, at similar institutions, and enrolled within similar 

time-frames? 

• How do veterans’ enrollment behaviors like stop-outs, transfers, and multipleinstitution enrollments affect success rates? 


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• Where are focused interventions, such as reducing administrative burden, delivering more timely and accurate eligibility information, and streamlining benefit disbursement, likely to have the most impact? 

• Which on-campus veterans support programs have the highest impact on success rates, both at the starting campus and at any subsequent institutions 

where a veteran transfers? 

We firmly believe that student veterans should have a level administrative playing field with other students when it comes to attaining success in pursuit of their 

educational goals. One way to do this is to eliminate the extra hurdles that student 

veterans must overcome to certify their eligibility for benefits, access those benefits, 

and continue to receive those benefits. The second is to provide policymakers, institutions, and veterans with the research to enable them to assess what is working 

and what needs improvement. Providing these two types of support will increase the 

probability of success for all student veterans. Our veterans deserve our support to 

ensure that they can attain their education goals and successfully move into the 

workplace. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. 

CURRICULUM VITAE RELEVANT TO THE TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONAL STUDENT

CLEARINGHOUSE

Ricardo D. Torres, President and CEO 

Mr. Torres joined the National Student Clearinghouse as its President and CEO 

in 2008. The Clearinghouse, a nonprofit organization founded in 1993, is the nation’s trusted source for education verification and student educational outcomes research. Its participants include more than 3,600 U.S. colleges and universities. In 

the last year, the Clearinghouse processed over one billion digital transactions. 

Prior to joining the Clearinghouse, Mr. Torres had a long and distinguished career 

in the private sector, both in the U.S. and abroad, including serving as COO at Best 

Practices, a nationally-recognized provider of emergency medicine and physician 

practice management, and COO of a division of Capital One (a financial services 

company). Mr. Torres has also held management positions in leading organizations 

such as PepsiCo and Philip Morris/Kraft Foods (now known as Altria Group). His 

diverse background includes financial and strategic planning, marketing and sales, 

general management, and executive leadership. 

Mr. Torres is a board member of the John Tyler Community College Foundation, 

American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the National College Access 

Network (NCAN), and the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy. 

He also serves on the Advisory Board of Cohesive Knowledge Solutions (a knowledge 

management company). He was a recipient of the Washington Business Journal’s 

2013 Minority Business Leader Award. Mr. Torres recently wrote an article, entitled 

‘‘Barriers to Electronic Movement of Credentials,’’ which was published on September 10, 2013, in the Stanford University’s digital publication, Transcending the 

Maze. Mr. Torres holds an MBA in International Finance from Georgetown University and undergraduate degrees in both Marketing and Management from Manhattan College. 

FEDERAL CONTRACTS RELEVANT TO THE TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONAL STUDENT

CLEARINGHOUSE

The National Student Clearinghouse has a contract with the U.S. Department of 

Education to process weekly changes to the higher education enrollment status of 

direct loan recipients for the purpose of servicing these loans. The current annual 

contract amount is $2,800,000. 

2013 Memorandum of Agreement with the Veterans Benefits Administration for 

a) the transfer to and use of VA data by the National Student Clearinghouse for 

the purpose of a data match to support a postsecondary education completion database of Post-9/11 and Montgomery GI Bill beneficiaries, and b) providing these data 

services based upon funding provided by Student Veterans of America. There was 

no cost to the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Veterans Benefits Administration; however, the Student Veterans of America funded the research in the amount 

of $286,521. 


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1 UNC: Fall 2013 data. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THOMAS W. ROSS

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify 

today about defining and improving academic success for student veterans. 

I am Tom Ross, President of the University of North Carolina system. We enroll 

more than 220,000 students on 16 university campuses, and employ roughly 50,000 

faculty and staff across the state. Approximately 8,000 1 of our current students use 

VA educational benefits to pay for some or all of their post-secondary education. 

North Carolina is a big military state. We are home to 800,000 veterans. Our 

state has six major military installations with the third-largest active military force 

in the country, comprising 120,000 personnel, 12,000 members of the National 

Guard, and their nearly 145,000 spouses and children. 

I know that this subcommittee and Chairman Miller have a special interest in 

public institutions of higher education extending in-state tuition rates to certain veterans who may not qualify under current state law. I want to be clear that the University of North Carolina supports—and has always supported—extending in-state 

tuition to certain veterans and their families. We appreciate the leadership shown 

by Chairman Miller and this subcommittee on this issue. While North Carolina is 

not currently one of the states that offers in-state tuition to certain veterans and 

their families, please know that we are working aggressively with members of the 

North Carolina General Assembly to enact legislation to change this situation in the 

short session that begins later this month, and we are optimistic we will be successful. 

As the state’s public University, we are committed to offering students access to 

high-quality, affordable educational programs. We are working hard to enroll, educate and graduate as many academically prepared service members, veterans and 

their dependents as possible. Our motivation is simple: the success of student veterans and their families attending UNC institutions is vital to the success of the 

University and our state’s future. 

Federal Oversight 

After the Post 9/11 GI Bill became law in 2008, UNC institutions experienced a 

surge in applications for admission from military-affiliated students for the 2009– 

10 academic year. Programs such as the VA’s Yellow Ribbon Program emerged. 

Military-affiliated students were often confused about how their Montgomery GI Bill 

and the new GI Bill worked together. In 2010, Congress made changes to the Post 

9/11 GI Bill. In parallel, in March 2011 and again in December 2012, the Department of Defense (DoD) asked institutions participating in the ‘‘Voluntary Education 

Partnership’’ to sign new Memoranda of Agreement as a condition of permitting active-duty military to use Tuition Assistance funds to pay for their higher education 

on campus. The DoD continues to refine the agreement. 

Concurrent with these changes and requirements, President Obama in April 2012 

issued Executive Order 13607, ‘‘Establishing Principles of Excellence for Educational 

Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses, and Other Family Members.’’ Subsequently, in May 2012, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs asked institutions of higher education to commit to certain ‘‘Principles of Excellence’’ contained 

in the President’s Executive Order by August 1, 2012. In August 2013, the Department of Education launched an effort to have campuses sign its ‘‘8 Keys to Success’’ 

pledge in support of student veterans. 

To be clear, the University of North Carolina system agrees with the spirit of and 

intent behind each requirement or program. We hope that the federal agencies involved in these initiatives continue to work toward coordination of effort. We also 

ask to be included—on the front end—in any new federal initiatives, programs or 

requirements of higher education in support of veterans. UNC is proud of our selfimposed standards of excellence, and we believe we are well positioned to offer perspective and constructive feedback as future endeavors are contemplated. We have 

much to contribute to the national dialogue. 

The UNC System Self-Imposes Strong Standards for Serving Veterans 

In October 2010, the University of North Carolina system convened a working 

group of students, faculty, and administrators from across the 16 campuses to evaluate and recommend specific action steps for improving how the University and its 

individual institutions serve veterans and their families. Called UNC SERVES 

(UNC Systemwide Evaluation and Recommendation for Veterans Education and 

Services), this working group was presented with four questions: 

• How are UNC campuses currently serving active service members, veterans 

and their families? 


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• What are the accepted best practices for serving these students? • What can the University reasonably do to improve access to, retention and 

graduation of active-duty and veteran students? 

• What are metrics of success for the University in serving these students? 

The UNC SERVES working group was charged with developing a comprehensive 

report to the President with recommendations for: • Evaluation of current state of military and veteran affairs on UNC campuses; • Institutional, systemwide, and state/federal statutory policy changes, regulations and/or guidelines to improve access, retention and the graduation of active 

service members, veterans and their families on UNC campuses; 

• Institutional and systemwide best practices to improve access, retention and 

the graduation of active service members, veterans, and their families on UNC 

campuses; and 

• Opportunities for institutional and systemwide improvement. 

The working group also was asked to consider the following factors: • Diversity of campuses, including size, capacity, and number of active service 

members, veterans, and their families; 

• Constrained resources—Consider all options, but prioritize no-cost, low-cost 

recommendations; 

• Return on investment; and • Costs should accompany each recommendation, if possible. 

The UNC SERVES working group issued its report to me in April 2011. The report included recommendations for improvement at both the system and individual 

campus levels. The Chancellors and I quickly embraced the recommendations, and 

our UNC (system) Faculty Assembly passed a resolution in support of UNC 

SERVES. 

UNC System Progress With Self-Imposed Standards for Serving Student Veterans 

The University is making great strides toward implementing these recommendations. As a follow-up to the initial UNC SERVES report, the University system office issues an annual ‘‘UNC SERVES Resource Guide’’ that summarizes campus and 

system progress toward each action item. The Resource Guide also offers examples 

of campus initiatives, such as North Carolina Central University’s Veterans Law 

Clinic and Fayetteville State University’s Veterans Business Outreach Center. Within the Resource Guide, we publish a ‘‘matrix’’ of campus-by-campus progress toward 

each UNC SERVES recommendation. The most recent matrix is attached to my testimony. The UNC SERVES report and Resource Guides also are found online at: 

http://www.northcarolina.edu/frc/uncserves/serves.html 

Because serving student veterans appropriately requires leadership from the top, 

I am working with our 16 university Chancellors to aggressively implement UNC 

SERVES recommendations. To improve coordination of effort, our campuses have established Military Affairs Committees, and the UNC system periodically convenes 

the Military Affairs Council, a coordinating body with representatives from every 

campus. 

The UNC Board of Governors is equally engaged. In June 2013, the Board approved a Military Student Success Policy that provides framework for a comprehensive network of services for military-affiliated students. In August 2013, the also 

Board established a Special Committee on Military Affairs, with a particular focus 

on fostering success for the University’s student veterans. A copy of the Military 

Student Success Policy is submitted with my testimony. 

In very short order, I will establish internal University regulations for implementing the requirements of the Board’s policy and promoting the general welfare 

of service members, veterans, spouses, and dependent family members attending 

our constituent institutions. Under this new policy, any individual who has completed at least two years of cumulative active-duty service in the United States 

Armed Forces will be considered a transfer student in the admissions process. The 

service branch is the transfer institution of record, and the military transcript is the 

starting point for evaluating the veteran’s military learning for academic credit. 

Data Collection and Reporting 

The University of North Carolina has implemented systemwide, uniform data collection procedures to ensure that we can identify and track the academic progress 

of service members, veterans, spouses, and other dependent family members. The 

University will evaluate and publicly report matriculation trends, including retention rates, graduation rates and length of time to degree. This information will also 

help us better understand preference trends among student veterans, including program choice and preferred delivery methods. 

National efforts to gather and provide information on student veteran success are 

also important. If we wish to truly understand matriculation and graduation trends 


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of student veterans, the data used must be accurate. The Student Veterans of America (SVA) Million Records Project is a great step in the right direction. I am especially glad that the Million Records Project uses National Student Clearinghouse 

data for its analyses, as this is currently the most reliable database for tracking student persistence and outcomes. The University of North Carolina enjoys a great 

working relationship with the SVA, and we routinely provide our enrollment data 

to the National Student Clearinghouse. 

UNC Institutions Aligning Academic Programs to Student Needs 

Individual UNC campuses have a long history of working with military-affiliated 

students and North Carolina’s military installations. Several of them—Fayetteville 

State University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, University of North 

Carolina at Pembroke, and East Carolina University—have academic advisors located on post at Fort Bragg, aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, or at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. These campuses’ geographic proximity, coupled with 

their regional focus, naturally align with serving these specific communities. 

Representing all UNC institutions, the UNC system office has academic advisors 

at Fort Bragg, aboard Camp Lejeune, and at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth 

City. UNC system personnel also hold academic advising office hours at the Camp 

Lejeune Naval Hospital, where the academic advisor is available to all hospital personnel, Marines and sailors from the Wounded Warrior Battalion East, the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. 

UNC campuses offer specialized programs of interest to veterans and active-duty 

military service members. Veterans are attracted to these programs because their 

military learning and experiences align with the academic programs and help prepare them for their desired career. In addition, many courses are structured to accommodate an adult student’s lifestyle. Many student veterans have family responsibilities, part-time or full-time employment, and other obligations. Examples of 

such academic programs include: 

East Carolina University: Bachelor of Science, Industrial Distribution and Logistics 

Fayetteville State University: Bachelor of Arts, Intelligence Studies 

North Carolina A&T State University: Ph.D., Leadership Studies 

North Carolina Central University: Bachelor of Science, Criminal Justice 

North Carolina State University: Bachelor of Arts, Leadership in the Public Sector 

North Carolina State University: Master of Geospatial Information Science and 

Technology 

UNC—Chapel Hill: Master of Arts, Military History 

UNC—Chapel Hill: Master of Business Administration (MBA@UNC) 

UNC—Chapel Hill: Master of Public Administration (MPA@UNC) 

UNC—Charlotte: Bachelor of Science, Neurodiagnostics and Sleep Science 

UNC—Greensboro: Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Studies 

UNC—Pembroke: Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Public and Non-Profit Administration 

UNC—Wilmington: Master of Arts, Conflict Management and Resolution 

Western Carolina University: Bachelor of Science, Emergency and Disaster Management 

Winston-Salem State University: Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling 

Centralized Information Sharing and One-Stop Shopping for Veterans 

We understand that veterans are nontraditional students. Student veterans come 

to us from the highly structured, bureaucratic environment of the military and are 

often uneasy with the loosely structured, bureaucratic environment of the University. University admissions and enrollment processes for veterans can be complex, 

sometimes requiring visits to different departments across campus. One of our top 

priorities is centralizing information sharing, using a technology-based platform 

that provides a virtual ‘‘one-stop-shop’’ for veterans. This enables us to provide reliable and consistent information in response to the questions most commonly posed 

by veterans. In addition, as unique situations arise, veterans always have the name 

and contact information for specific campus-based staff who are readily available to 

ensure that their questions can be answered. All campuses are encouraged to go beyond a technology-based solution and provide a centralized physical location where 

veterans can access the resources they need. Many UNC institutions already have 

veteran’s centers in place, and several others are working to establish them. To access the University’s virtual one-stop-shop: http://www.uncserves.northcarolina.edu 

Another technology-based resource now in development is the North Carolina 

Military Educational Positioning System, or ‘‘NCMEPS.’’ This website provides military-affiliated students the resources they need to explore with greater ease North 

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fully navigate the application, admission and enrollment process; and the knowledge 

to persist, graduate and pursue their career goals. To cite one example, the GI Bill 

module allows users to answer a series of questions about their personal circumstances to learn more about how to maximize their VA benefits. While the 

website was conceived by the UNC system, the goal is to help prospective students 

find, apply, and pay for the North Carolina college or university that is right for 

them. The website, which is live and available to student veterans now, will be fully 

functional by July 1, 2014. To access the NCMEPS: http:// 

www.ncmileps.northcarolina.edu 

Working With Community College Partners 

The University of North Carolina system works closely with the North Carolina 

Community College System to create degree programs and transition pathways that 

are geared toward active-duty service members, veterans, and their families. A 

Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA) between the two systems, revised and 

expanded in February, helps facilitate a smooth and seamless pathway for students 

transitioning from a community college to the University. This statewide agreement 

governs the transfer of certain academic credits among all North Carolina community colleges and North Carolina public universities. 

In addition, some UNC institutions have separate articulation agreements with 

selected community colleges that are specific to certain majors and enable students 

to progress from an Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree to a bachelor’s degree. Major study areas include Information Systems and Engineering Technology, 

both directly applicable to military education requirements. Specific examples include: • Fayetteville State University, North Carolina State University, UNC Pembroke, and Western Carolina University have partnered with Fayetteville Technical Community College and the United States Army Special Operations Command, Special Warfare Center & School at Ft. Bragg to develop an Associate 

of General Education (A.G.E.) degree that awards credit for military learning 

with seamless transition to Bachelor degree programs in areas such as Intelligence Studies, Criminal Justice, and Interdisciplinary Studies (http:// 

www.soc.mil/swcs/education/). This Associate’s to Bachelor’s degree pathway 

was created specifically for active-duty soldiers in the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. 

• UNC Wilmington and Coastal Carolina Community College have partnered 

with the United States Marine Corps to offer undergraduate and graduate 

courses and the Associate, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees on the community 

college campus and aboard Camp Lejeune for active-duty and veteran Marines 

and their spouses or dependents (http://www.uncw.edu/onslow/) and (https:// 

www.coastalcarolina.edu/military-partnerships/). • NCSU Engineering Online is a unique partnership between North Carolina 

State University and other North Carolina institutions to extend the offering of 

NC State’s undergraduate engineering instruction throughout the state. 

Through Engineering Online, students can complete a site-based pre-engineering program at Craven Community College, Johnston Community College, UNC 

Asheville or UNC Wilmington, and later transfer to NC State to complete their 

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering. 

Closing 

We believe that this ‘‘one-stop shop’’ approach works well for the University, for 

student veterans, and for the military. But the primary reason we have taken this 

approach is because we care deeply about the whole soldier. (I use to the term ‘‘soldier’’ to represent all of the men and women in uniform, including airmen, marines, 

guardsmen, and sailors, as well as our veterans.) We care about providing them 

with access to a high-quality, affordable education in support of their personal or 

professional goals. We care about the families that they leave behind when they deploy or return to upon separation from service. We care about the kit and equipment 

they carry down range. 

Our efforts in this regard are not because a government agency requires us to do 

something. We are committed to supporting student veterans because of North 

Carolina’s longstanding pride and support of the military. The service member who 

deploys may be our family member, friend or neighbor. The family that they leave 

behind may be our family. Higher education is crucial to the mission because the 

most important weapon that a service member carries is not an assault rifle, but 

rather his or her mind. They need to be able to adapt to changing environments, 

use critical thinking skills, learn a foreign language, employ negotiation skills, and 

apply conflict management lessons. Their kits and equipment must be the latest and 

greatest things because they need the ability to gather intelligence, execute a misVerDate Aug 31 2005 11:51 Aug 27, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00056 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 Y:\88-978.TXT PAT

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sion, and come home safely. And, when our service members make the transition 

from active duty to veterans in civilian society, we selfishly want them to remain 

in North Carolina for the long term. It is no secret that veterans make great employees, often start and grow successful small businesses, and make other economic 

and civic contributions, as well. 

The University of North Carolina can and should be a natural place of transition 

for veterans. They have earned an educational benefit, and that benefit can be the 

ticket to a brighter future. It is our duty to help make it happen. 

Our faculty report that they enjoy having veterans in their classes. I’ve attached 

to my testimony is a letter from a faculty member about her personal experience 

with service members in her classroom. As a group, student veterans attend classes 

regularly, take their assignments seriously, are attentive and provide a unique perspective in class discussions. All students benefit from their presence in the classroom. 

Finally, the University of North Carolina system is committed to partnering with 

the military because national security should be a priority for all us—not just for 

the less than one-half of one percent of us who serve in the armed forces. We can 

all do something to contribute. The faculty, staff and students of the University of 

North Carolina stand ready to do our part. 

Thank you, Mister Chairman. This concludes my testimony. 


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PREPARED STATEMENT OF CURTIS L. COY

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Takano, and other Members of 

the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) efforts to help Veterans achieve success in their educational endeavors. I will discuss implementation of the VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) program, Public Law (P.L.) 112–249, and the ‘‘Million Records Project’’ undertaken 

through a partnership with the Student Veterans of America (SVA) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). 

We are committed to ensuring that our Nation’s Veterans, Servicemembers, Reservists, and qualifying dependents receiving VA education benefits have access to 

high-quality educational opportunities that will enhance their ability to meet their 

academic and career objectives. The expansion of the VSOC program, the outreach 

efforts enacted in accordance with P.L. 112–249, and the data being made available 

as a result of the Million Records initiative will help foster educational success and 

provide information on how Veterans are performing in their educational pursuits. 

My testimony today will highlight the achievements made through these efforts. 

VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) 

Beginning in 2009, VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Service has worked to implement and expand the VSOC program, deploying Vocational 

Rehabilitation Counselors (VRC) to select school locations to help students succeed 

during their transition from active duty to the college environment. VR&E Service 

continues to enhance all aspects of the VSOC program to increase its effectiveness. 

In fiscal year (FY) 2012, VA had a total of 32 VSOC campus locations. In FY 2013, 

62 additional VRCs were added to the VSOC program, which now includes 79 VRCs 

located at 94 institutions of higher learning (IHL). 

The VSOC program and counselors, through education and career counseling 

(Title 38, Chapter 36) services, provide students seamless access to VA benefits and 

services and support their successful integration on college and university campuses. 

We are continuing our efforts to enhance support to Veterans on campus across 

a wide range of benefits and services. At each school site, VSOC counselors are 

working with their university partners to establish a student mentoring program. 

The goal of the mentoring program is to assist students with the challenges and/ 

or stressors of entering or returning to an academic environment. VSOC counselors 

also collaborate with VA Medical Centers and campus counseling centers to ensure 

that students are aware of available mental health services and receive referrals as 

necessary to support their needs. 

In addition, the Corporation for National and Community Service has entered into 

an interagency agreement with VA to enhance supportive services for Veterans on 

campus. The VetSuccess AmeriCorps members are now supporting the VSOC counselor in conducting outreach events and coordinating on-campus activities and services based on student needs. 

VR&E Service is developing a strategy to determine the way ahead to best align 

resources for the optimal VSOC coverage at school sites with significant Veteran 

populations. This initiative is considering current VSOC sites, schools with interest 

in hosting future VSOC counselors, the number of Veterans attending schools under 

VA education programs, and schools’ proximity to both VA health care facilities and 

military installations. 

Carrying Out P.L. 112–249 

P.L. 112–249, enacted on January 10, 2013 which enhances and complements the 

provisions of Executive Order 13607, requires VA to develop a comprehensive policy 

to improve outreach and transparency to Veterans and Servicemembers through the 

provision of information on IHLs, and to deploy online tools to implement the policy. 

The law also requires VA to develop a centralized mechanism for tracking and publishing feedback from students and State Approving Agencies (SAA) regarding the 

quality of instruction at IHLs, their recruiting practices, and post-graduation employment placement. The law prohibits VA from approving any course offered by an 

educational institution that provides any commission, bonus, or other incentive payment based directly or indirectly on success in securing enrollments or financial aid. 

Finally, it requires VA to perform two market surveys related to academic readiness 

and commercially available, off-the-shelf, online comparison tools. 

VA partnered with the Department of Education (ED), Department of Defense, 

Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Association of State Approving Agencies 

to implement P.L. 112–249. As required by this law, VA submitted a report to Congress in April of 2013 that included a description of the comprehensive policy, VA’s 


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plan to implement the policy, and the results of the market surveys conducted to 

determine the availability of commercial off-the-shelf online tools. 

As a result of the required market surveys, VA began piloting an online assessment tool called CareerScope® that gives prospective students career recommendations based on interests and aptitudes, and also provides information on related 

courses and training programs. Since August 2013, nearly 10,000 individuals have 

started or completed the free assessment. VA conducted another market survey for 

an online tool that provides prospective students with a list of providers of postsecondary education and training opportunities based on specific criteria selected by 

the individual. We discovered that many online tools provide much of the required 

information; however, none of the Web sites provide all of the data required by law. 

As a result, VA built an online tool that aggregates information from existing Web 

sites to provide all of the required data. 

The GI Bill® Comparison Tool, which launched on February 4, 2014 pursuant to 

the Executive Order and Public Law, helps Veterans become informed postsecondary education consumers. It displays median borrowing amounts, graduation 

rates, and loan-default rates by school, and it also indicates whether or not the 

school participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program or has agreed to adhere to the 

Principles of Excellence prescribed by Executive Order 13607. The tool allows beneficiaries to estimate the amount of funding they may receive under the Post-9/11 

GI Bill®. The tool was recently featured by Dr. Jill Biden on NBC’s Today Show 

while celebrating the three-year anniversary of the First Lady’s and Dr. Biden’s 

Joining Forces Initiative. As of April 11, 2014, there have been 133,970 unique visitors who have used the tool. 

VA will continue exploring the development and refinement of the GI Bill® Comparison Tool. Some of the new features and functionalities we are considering include improving the school/employer search capability, incorporating the ability to 

compare multiple schools side-by-side, providing school-specific GI Bill benefit calculations, displaying feedback and/or complaints about a particular school, and displaying Veteran-specific outcome information, among many other features. These 

further enhancements would allow Veterans to compare schools across more dimensions and at a finer level of detail. 

Pursuant to Executive Order 13607, VA developed and launched the GI Bill® 

Feedback System, a centralized online reporting system that allows Veterans, 

Servicemembers, Reservists, and eligible dependents to report negative experiences 

with educational institutions. Depending upon the nature of the complaint, VA may 

serve as an intermediary between the student and school to assist in the resolution 

of the complaint, or VA may launch a targeted risk-based review of the school. Complaints may also be reviewed by state and Federal law enforcement agencies, including DOJ. VA began accepting complaints through the GI Bill® Feedback System 

when it was launched on January 30, 2014. As of April 13, 2014, there have been 

16,701 individuals who have viewed the Feedback System’s information Web page, 

3,671 individuals who logged into the system, and 1,269 submitted complaints. In 

March 2014, VA began transmitting the complaints to the centralized FTC Consumer Sentinel database, where they are accessible by law enforcement agencies. 

VA has successfully completed several other activities needed to meet the requirements of Executive Order 13607 and P.L. 112–249 since January 2013. Specifically, 

VA updated the School Certifying Official handbook; published student outcome 

measure definitions on ED’s College Navigator; registered the GI Bill® Trademark; 

and began enforcing legal terms of use of the trademark. 

Million Records Initiative 

VA established an agreement with SVA to create a new education completion 

database for Post-9/11 GI Bill and Montgomery GI Bill beneficiaries in order to 

study the outcomes of these VA education programs. VA also established an agreement with NSC to match VA’s records and provide graduation and program completion information. The resulting data set contains information on Veteran beneficiaries enrolled in education programs from 2002 through 2013. NSC was an available source for tracking student completion rates at the individual level. After NSC 

matched the VA records, the de-identified results were released to SVA for analysis. 

On March 24, 2014, SVA released the ‘‘Million Records Project’’ report, a study 

which provides a baseline on Veteran student success. Overall, SVA found that Veterans have an education completion rate of 52 percent, which is much higher than 

non-Veteran, non-traditional students who have a completion rate of 23 to 30 percent based on previous studies. Non-traditional students are defined as individuals 

who do not go into postsecondary education directly from high school; are financially 

independent; have dependents; are enrolled part-time; and are working full-time 

while attending school, among other criteria. These characteristics are shared by the 


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majority of our Veteran students. SVA also highlighted the fact that approximately 

9 out of 10 Veterans initially earn degrees at the associate level or higher, with 

many Veterans going on to achieve higher levels of education. The results also indicated that a high percentage of Veterans are pursuing degrees in business, public 

service, health, science, and engineering. 

The results of the study show that continued research on Veteran graduation 

rates is imperative. Prior to the ‘‘Million Records Project,’’ accurate data on Veterans’ academic outcomes has been nearly impossible to find, and the lack of data 

has caused confusion about Veteran success in the postsecondary education environment. 

The current study provides one of the most widely scaled perspectives on Veterans’ academic achievement and provides an important baseline. The success of the 

public-private partnership between VA, SVA, and NSC provides a clear path forward for future data-sharing and analysis. VA will continue working with them to 

expand and refine the research on Veterans’ academic outcomes. Some of the future 

collaboration efforts being discussed include reviewing retention, persistence, and 

transfer rates, as well as adding data for subsequent academic years. 

Conclusion 

VA has worked with key stakeholders to ensure that Veterans are utilizing their 

education benefits efficiently and successfully. Through ongoing interagency cooperation and student outreach, VA will continue its efforts to ensure Veterans are 

informed consumers and schools meet their obligations in providing education and 

training to this Nation’s ‘‘next greatest generation.’’ 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be happy to answer any 

questions that you or the other Members of the Subcommittee may have. 


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STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD

From Northern Arizona University 

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is dedicated to providing a quality educational experience to the young men and women who have served our nation so 

honorably in the armed forces. Our veteran services are led by the NAU Office of 

Military and Veteran Affairs (OMVA), whose motto is, ‘‘Serving the Heroes Studying 

Among Us!’’ 

NAU has received state and national recognition as a leader in higher education 

service and support to our student veterans and we appreciate the opportunity to 

share our experiences with the committee. NAU bases its service and support to our 

student veterans on national best practices. We are proud to be signatory to both 

the Principles of Excellence for Education, established in Executive Order 13607, 

and to the Department of Defense Voluntary Education Partnership Memorandum 

of Understanding. The Arizona Legislature established a separate process to 

incentivize attention to serving student veterans through the development of a process for postsecondary education institutions to be designated as Arizona Veterans 

Supportive Campuses, and we have proudly met that standard. 

Research and experience has revealed that the first year experience is the most 

critical in the successful transition of any new student. Such is true for new student 

veterans from the military, compounded by the need to adjust to the academic rigor 

and other demands of a university setting. This fall NAU will introduce Veteran 

Educational Transition Success (VETS), a third generation transition program comprised of the following seven initiatives: 

Orientation for New Student Veterans: All new student veterans and their loved 

ones are strongly encouraged to attend a new student veteran in-processing session 

just prior to fall classes. The session addresses VA benefits, on- and off-campus resources, academic resources, and the Student Veterans of America (SVA) club activities. In addition, volunteer professors will offer tutorials on college writing and communication, library navigation, and how to establish a personal finance plan. 

Transition Checklist: As soon an incoming student veteran is identified, OMVA, 

through its one-stop Veteran Student Center (VSC), reaches out to the student with 

a welcome letter and the transition checklist that provides a detailed step-by-step 

guide that serves as the veteran’s road map to a successful transition to NAU. 

Math Prep: It may have been awhile since a new student veteran has taken a 

math class. NAU offers a free, online, six week Summer Bridge program, with or 

without coaching support, designed to help ease new student veterans back into 

math, reduce math anxiety, and/or to improve math placement scores. 

Veteran’s First-year Cohort Transition Seminar: All student veterans new to campus are strongly encouraged to enroll in the academically accredited and VA accepted 3-credit hour first year cohort transition seminar. The average student veteran 

at NAU is 28 years old, has 15–30 credit hours from military training and technically qualifies as a transfer student. Student veterans arrive with limited to no 

exposure to a college or university classroom or environment. Therefore, a transition 

course is offered to veterans taught by veterans, introducing the new students to 

the skills and resources required to succeed within a rigorous academic environment. The course is presented in a traditional classroom with an online component 

that allows students to explore potential career opportunities following graduation. 

The course’s focus on degree determination and future career paths increases the 

individual commitment toward student success, retention and graduation. 

College-Based (non-residency) Learning Community (CBLC): All students enrolled 

in the transition seminar also participate in the student veteran cohort CBLC. New 

student veterans arrive on campus with much anxiety about fitting into the campus 

culture. The CBLC is sponsored by the NAU chapter of the Student Veterans of 

America and supports the new student veteran in transition to NAU through social, 

informational and recreational activities alongside other student veterans on campus. Providing a community of fellow veterans they can relate to, trust, and connect 

with is key to a positive, engaging and successful experience. 

Student Success Coaching Program (SSCP): The Student Success Coaching Program (SSCP) is designed to empower our new student veterans through a voluntary 

coaching relationship with an NAU employee or retiree who also is a veteran. 

Coaches are professionally trained volunteers who meet with new student veterans 

once a week to offer life-coaching tools and resources. 

Veteran Peer Mentorship: In collaboration with the Transfer and Commuter Connections Center, we extend to new veterans the opportunity to work with a trained 

peer mentor who also is a student veteran. Experience and best practices have validated the personal contact of a peer mentor in aiding student veteran transition. 

The mentor and student often discuss topics that may arise up in a group session. 


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This program serves as an important early alert system to ensure all veterans receive personal, medical, academic, career and financial advice before challenges become overwhelming. 

These initiatives are a culmination of research and experience over the last four 

years during which we have incorporated national best practices, veteran feedback 

and collaboration with a myriad of on- and off-campus resources to develop a comprehensive student veteran transition program. Challenges remain to successfully 

serve our veteran population and we continuously strive to improve both our services and data collection in this area. One area in which federal assistance would be 

appreciated is the timely processing of financial aid for veteran students. Approximately one-half of our veteran students at NAU are married and have children. 

Supporting a family takes an additional toll on students struggling to meet financial 

obligations and the current process for awarding veterans federal financial aid averages 6–8 weeks. 

Thank you for the opportunity to present information on this important student 

population. I hope I have demonstrated Northern Arizona University’s dedication to 

providing comprehensive services necessary to help our veterans succeed as they 

move into their next career. We will continue our work to increase the number of 

veterans seeking and achieving a postsecondary education degree. If we can offer 

any additional information or clarification please feel free to contact LTC (ret) Andrew Griffin, Ed.D., Director of the Office of Military and Veteran Affairs at (928) 

523–8555 or Andrew.Griffin@nau.edu. 

Æ 


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