CONTACT:
American Council on Education:
Erin Hennessy, 202-939-9365 (office), 202-360-9484 (cell)
erin_hennessy@ace.nche.edu
Walmart Foundation: Amy Wyatt-Moore, 800-331-0085
Lumina Foundation for Education: Dianna Boyce, 317-951-5116
ACE Launches Serving Those Who Serve Initiative
Will Recognize Veteran-Friendly Campuses, Connect Student
Veterans with Colleges, and Support Vital Research
Washington, DC (Nov. 10, 2008)—The American
Council on Education (ACE) today launched Serving Those Who Serve: Higher
Education and America’s Veterans, a broad-based
initiative designed to promote access to and success in higher education
for more than 2 million service members and their families who are
eligible for newly expanded benefits under the Post-9/11 Veterans
Educational Assistance Act of 2008.
Serving Those Who Serve is a multi-year effort designed to
effect major changes in how veterans learn about their education
benefits and postsecondary options and how institutional leaders can
build capacity to serve veterans on their campuses. The agenda will
include competitive grants to veteran-friendly institutions, a college
planning web site and outreach campaign to inform veterans about
accessing and utilizing their education benefits, research-based
publications, and regional meetings to ease implementation of the new GI
Bill benefits.
Initiative Goals
ACE’s efforts to help veterans transition to higher education
reach back to World War I. From the evaluation of military courses and
occupations for academic credit, to support for the severely injured in
their transition from soldier to student, ACE has implemented programs
and services to reduce the many obstacles that veterans face as they
attempt to begin or resume postsecondary education.
As the August 2009 deadline for implementation of the Post-9/11 GI
Bill approaches, ACE will build on this history with a major effort to
remove barriers veterans face in seeking and completing their
postsecondary education.
The goals of the Serving Those Who Serve initiative are to
better understand the factors that affect veterans’ decisions
about pursuing higher education; to identify institutions that are
helping veterans succeed academically and socially and to spread these
promising practices to other campuses; to compile reliable demographic
information about the veteran population; and to assist colleges and
universities in navigating the process of administering those
benefits.
“The higher education community is in the unique position to
help ease the transition from soldier to student,” said ACE
President Molly Corbett Broad. “However, we must do so in a
deliberate way to ensure that returning soldiers who are eager to take
advantage of expanded education benefits for themselves and their
families are offered every opportunity for success.”
Wal-Mart Foundation Funding
With the support of a $2.5 million grant from the Wal-Mart
Foundation, ACE will implement a competitive grant program, the
ACE/Wal-Mart Success for Veterans Institutional Awards, to identify and
reward institutions that operate model programs advancing access and
success in higher education for veterans and their families. Recipient
institutions will be required to provide technical assistance to other
institutions in order to extend these promising practices. Twenty grants
of $100,000 each will be awarded in the spring of 2009.
“In conversations with veterans, we have heard, time and time
again, that their needs are modest but our policy decisions on campus
carry significant weight,” said Broad. “Giving institutions
the ability to accelerate their programs to support veterans—and
to expand promising practices to other campuses—will tell our
former service men and women that we are committed to their success. We
are so grateful to the Wal-Mart Foundation for their generous support of
our goals.”
“We are proud to partner with ACE to help meet the needs of our
nation’s heroes,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the
Wal-Mart Foundation. “Wal-Mart is committed to supporting programs
that help our veterans get the resources they need to succeed in their
education and their re-adjustment to civilian life.”
Support from Lumina Foundation for Education
With the support of an $800,000 grant from Lumina Foundation for
Education, ACE will develop and launch a web site to provide veterans
with easy access to information about their education benefits and
opportunities for postsecondary education.
The grant will also fund a publication that will compile the results
of a 4,300-institution survey, providing a broad picture of campus-based
support services and programs currently available to veterans.
Additionally, grant funds will enable ACE to analyze and publish
extensive amounts of demographic data published by government sources,
such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Education,
and the Census Bureau, to provide policy makers and institutional
leaders with a comprehensive demographic portrait of active duty
military personnel and veterans.
“We have learned that information—about institutions and
about the veteran population they are poised to serve—is vital in
our efforts to help veterans achieve their education goals,” said
James Selbe, ACE assistant vice president for lifelong learning.
“Being able to fill the information gap will ensure that the
benefits included in the Post-9/11 GI Bill are best used by both
veterans and institutions.”
“We have reached a critical juncture in America where we need
more students pursuing and successfully completing higher
education,” said Jamie Merisotis, president and chief executive
officer of Lumina Foundation for Education. “Returning service
members, veterans and their families are critical to achieving the goal
of having 60 percent of Americans as college-degree holders by 2025. As
we work to ensure all Americans are prepared for success in higher
education, we need to focus on factors beyond cost that affect a
veteran's decision to enroll as well as eliminate non-financial barriers
for them.”
Other Resources
To set the stage for this ambitious agenda, ACE today releases
Serving Those Who Serve: Higher Education and America's
Veterans. This issue brief provides an overview of today’s
veterans, identifies obstacles to transitioning from military service to
college enrollment, and highlights successful veteran-friendly policies
and practices, including 10 that can be quickly and easily implemented
on campuses. Serving Those Who Serve is available on
ACE’s web
site (PDF).
In addition, ACE will make available to campus leaders a
comprehensive question and answer document that addresses many of the
most common questions asked by institutions about the new GI Bill
benefits. To further ease the implementation of these expanded education
benefits, ACE will convene meetings in Los Angeles, Chicago and
Washington, DC, in January 2009 bringing together campus officials and
representatives of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
About the American Council on Education: Founded in 1918, ACE is
the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education
institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university
presidents, and more than 200 related associations, nationwide. It seeks
to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education
issues and influence public policy through advocacy, research, and
program initiatives.
About the Wal-Mart Foundation: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT)
and the Wal-Mart Foundation are proud to support the charitable causes
that are important to customers and associates in their own
neighborhoods. Through its philanthropic programs and partnerships, the
Wal-Mart Foundation supports initiatives focused on enhancing
opportunities in education, job skills training, sustainability and
health. In 2007, Walmart, Sam’s Club and the Wal-Mart Foundation
gave $296 million to communities across the United States. To learn
more, click here.
About Lumina Foundation for Education: Lumina
Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based private foundation,
strives to help people achieve their potential by expanding access to
and success in education beyond high school. Through grants for
research, innovation, communication and evaluation, as well as policy
education and leadership development, Lumina Foundation addresses issues
that affect access and educational attainment among all students,
particularly underserved student groups such as minorities,
first-generation college-goers, students from low-income families and
working adults. The Foundation bases its mission on the belief that
postsecondary education remains one of the most beneficial investments
that individuals can make in themselves and that a society can make in
its people.
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