As the Student Senate moved forward supporting a resolution granting in-state tuition to undocumented students, Student Government, External Affairs and the Collegiate Veterans Society pushed for a similar cause.
UF administrators and student veterans from UF and Santa Fe College attended an event supporting in-state tuition for nonresident veterans held at Pugh Hall on Tuesday night.
So far, 20 states have laws granting veterans in-state tuition, according to Student Veterans of America’s website. Eight states have a university system for in-state residency for veterans, and 10 states have pending legislation, including Florida.
Two bills were introduced into the Florida Senate and Florida House of Representatives in September in favor of a one-year residency waiver to veterans only.
Student Body President Christina Bonarrigo welcomed veterans and guests to the event.
“Their dedication to ensuring all 50 states are kept safe is reason enough to allow our vets to be eligible for in-state tuition,” she said.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dave Kratzer, who served as a general in the military, expressed his support for the bill. Close to 500 UF student veterans are currently on the GI Bill and another 180 are dependents who receive benefits from the GI Bill, he said.
“We need to make sure this gets done for Florida this year,” Kratzer said. “It’s simply the right thing to do.”
The event follows the release of U.S. News and World Report’s inaugural Best Colleges for Veterans rankings.
Analysts matched top-ranked schools in the Best Colleges ranking with those colleges that are members of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Consortium, certified for the GI Bill and participants in the Yellow Ribbon Program. The list was broken down into national universities, liberal arts colleges, regional universities and regional colleges. UF made no appearance in any of the categories, neither the national level nor the regional level.
John Gebhardt, veterans advocate at SFC and UF, would not comment on UF not making it into the rankings.
“It’s not because we don’t do the job, that’s for sure,” he said. “In fact, we have the Veterans Success Center now, one of the premiere centers in the state. We have all the elements to be in the top ranking.”
Along with Gebhardt, former president of Collegiate Veterans Society Michael Filipelli heralded the Collegiate Veterans Success Center, located in Yon Hall.
“That’s where you find your true bonding with the other vets,” he said. “It brought together a centralized location for people.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 11/13/2013 under the headline "UF veterans show support for in-state tuition legislation"
