MICUA

MICUA Matters

Summer 2009

 
The Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act—the most generous veterans’ benefit for higher education since the WWII GI Bill—goes into effect on August 1, 2009. June 15 was the deadline for colleges to sign up for the bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program, which allows colleges to enter into matching agreements with the federal government to cover any difference between the base GI Bill benefit and total tuition and fees.

The following independent colleges and universities in Maryland have elected to participate: Baltimore International College, Capitol College, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Goucher College, Hood College, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola College in Maryland, Maryland Institute College of Art, McDaniel College, Mount St. Mary’s University, St. John’s College, Stevenson University, Washington Adventist University (formerly Columbia Union College), and Washington College.

“This is a remarkable level of participation by Maryland independent colleges and universities and demonstrates their commitment to serving veterans,” says MICUA President Tina Bjarekull. Almost all member institutions are participating in the program. Sojourner-Douglass College maintains tuition that is low enough to be fully reimbursed without need for the Yellow Ribbon enhancements.

“Our veterans serve on our behalf. We have an obligation to give back to those who have given so much to each of us. I applaud Maryland’s community of colleges and universities for honoring our veterans by making a college education more affordable and more accessible,” said Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and the nation’s highest-ranking elected official to have served in Iraq.

The Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act provides for payment of tuition and fees, a housing allowance, and a stipend for books and supplies for eligible veterans who have served on active military duty since September 11, 2001. The maximum tuition and fee benefits available under the law is capped at the level of the in-state charges at the most expensive public institution in a state. The benefit cap in Maryland has been set at $458.13 per-credit-hour and $2,380.00 per semester for fees.

Institutions that charge higher tuition may elect to enter into an agreement with the Veterans Administration to fund tuition expenses that exceed the highest public, in-state undergraduate tuition. This portion of the program is known as the Yellow Ribbon Program. Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, an institution may fund up to 50 percent of the tuition and fee costs that exceed the state cap. The federal government will match these institutional contributions dollar-for-dollar.