Opinion ID: 2276761
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Harrison's Individual Claim

Text: On his own behalf, Harrison also contends that the elimination of the Office of Veterans Affairs and his position as director of that office violated a federal regulation, 34 C.F.R. § 629.5. According to Harrison, the University received $576,436 from the federal government under the Veterans Education Outreach Program (VEOP). He maintains that section 629.5, which governs grants awarded under VEOP, requires UDC to use that money to maintain a separate veterans affairs office. This argument is entirely without merit. Even assuming that Harrison has standing to assert this claim in this litigation, [7] nothing in section 629.5 requires UDC to establish and maintain a separate Office of Veterans Affairs. In pertinent part, the regulation provides that a grantee may use VEOP funds only for the following activities: (1) Maintaining an office of veterans' affairs which has the responsibility for veterans' outreach, recruitment, special education programs, and the provision of educational, vocational, and personal counseling to veterans. [8] The money must be used to maintain an office which carries out the functions listed in the regulation, but there is nothing which says that it must necessarily be a separate office. Nor is there any language in 34 C.F.R. § 629.30 that imposes such an obligation. The latter section simply requires a grantee to use [a]t least 90 percent of the amount it receives under this part, or the amount of funds needed to carry out the activities described in § 629.5(a)(1), whichever is greater, to carry out those activities. We read this language as saying that ninety percent of the money can be used either to maintain a separate office or to perform the duties prescribed by the regulation in an office with other responsibilities. We therefore conclude that Harrison's insistence that the University maintain a separate Office of Veterans Affairs is without any legal foundation.