Students want say in veterans committee

Some student veterans are upset about a lack of representation in a new veterans committee.

IU President Michael McRobbie started a committee to enact an upcoming law that would expand college-bound veterans’ benefits in January. The committee consists of
IU officials from each campus who work with veterans.

Student veterans, at least for the present, are missing from the committee.

Student veterans learned about the committee from a press release, said Megan Lewis, Indiana director of Student Veterans of America.

All of the decisions were made behind closed doors, said Russell Silver, president of IU-Purdue University Indianapolis veterans group. He said he wants students to be involved, even if being on the committee would be impossible.

“At this point we would take information,” Silver said.

The committee has yet to meet, but officials said student representation is coming.

The head of the committee, Kirk White, said at first the committee will look at current University administrative procedures, which might not be of interest to student veterans. Later the committee will get advice from students, he said.

“I understand the importance of student input,” White said, adding he was IU Student Association president in 1983.

He said it was “crazy” to think the committee could solve all the problems without student input.

Margaret Baechtold, a member of the committee, said she can’t imagine the committee getting very far without asking about student needs.

“That’s why we’re here, to serve students,” Baechtold said.

But being excluded from the committee is just part of a larger problem for many veterans.

Upon entering the military, recruits are promised a certain amount of money for tuition, Lewis said.

Often those promises are not fulfilled, she said, and the money student veterans do get comes with a lot of paperwork in a process Lewis said is too bureaucratic.

“You don’t show up to the University as a veteran and everything is taken care of,” Lewis said.

Many students have trouble adjusting from military life to student life, Lewis said. She said the University can do a better job of taking care of veterans by supplying scholarships, stipends and counseling.

The new law would provide more of that, but not all of it, she said.

“We really feel marginalized,” Lewis said, but added that IU does try, and Baechtold does a good job.

IU Bloomington’s veterans’ services were “bare-bones” for several years, Baechtold said. They had a small staff and fewer resources. The services were expanded in
recent years, she said.

In order for people to pay attention to veterans’ issues, student veterans have to put themselves out there, said Nick Bielinski, president of Student Veterans Association.

“That’s the problem with student veterans, we’re all too independent,” he said.