Deadline for Colleges to Sign New Agreement on Military Tuition Assistance is Extended
The Chronicle of Higher Education
by Collin Eaton
December 20, 2011
Bowing to pressure from members of Congress and colleges, the Defense Department has agreed to postpone its January 1 deadline for institutions to sign a controversial new memorandum of understanding in order to remain eligible to receive military tuition assistance.
The 90-day extension gives colleges and the department more time to negotiate changes in the document, which the department has said is intended to improve educational outcomes for service members and safeguard taxpayer dollars. In 2010, the department awarded $542-million to active-duty service members through the Tuition Assistance Program. The program is distinct from the GI Bill, which offers tuition support to veterans.
Several prominent universities have threatened to forgo the aid if the department does not change certain criteria in the memorandum. Those include requirements that colleges award credit for military training and allow service members to spend as little as a year on campus before receiving a bachelor's degree.
In a letter sent to the department last month, the American Council on Education said those requirements, and others, were "at odds with traditional assumption about federal versus institutional control over academic affairs."
The Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, has urged the department to expand its oversight of the Tuition Assistance Program.
The delay, announced in a letter sent late last week, came a week after 52 U.S. senators wrote to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requesting that the department push back its deadline. The bipartisan letter contends that the memorandum, as drafted, "fails to address many legitimate concerns that veterans and military service organizations have about the recruitment, enrollment, and support provided to members of the armed forces, their families, and veterans," and that it "discourages institutions from continuing to participate," in the Tuition Assistance Program.
The senators also say they believe the memorandum would "infringe on the educational integrity and academic plans of our nation's best colleges and universities."
In its response to the senators' letter, the Defense Department said the extension would "permit the department to work with Congress and other key stakeholders to address their concerns and ensure that our service members are afforded the widest variety of choices for their continued education."
The memorandum, issued in March, says colleges participating in the Tuition Assistance Program must follow guidelines written by the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges, a higher-education group with mostly community-college and for-profit-college members. Those guidelines include a 25-percent cap on residency requirements, as well as rules governing transfer of credit, placement by exam, and prior-learning credit.
In its November letter, the American Council on Education called those requirements "incompatible with well-established academic policies and academic practices."
In October, the department issued a series of clarifications to the memorandum. The changes reassured some colleges, but critics remained skeptical.
"It's sort of like asking someone to sign something that says one thing and then informally reassuring them that they won't require anything," said Barmak Nassirian, director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. "From a legal aspect, that's a really troubling outcome because you're asking people to sign a legally binding interaction with the Department of Defense."
Higher education groups welcomed the delay, but said they still aren't sure how much the department will bend its rules. the new deadline for signing the memorandum is March 30, 2012. On Monday the department said existing memoranda of understanding remain in effect.
Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Deadline-for-Colleges-to-Sign/130133/