- Trevor Grant ’10 served in Iraq. He returns to campus this fall with financial assistance under the new GI Bill.
For returning WWII veterans, the 1944 GI Bill proved a fitting way for America to say “Thank you, vets, for a job well done. Now let us help you with the next step.” Tens of thousands of GIs took advantage of its educational benefits; in 1947, veterans accounted for 49 percent of college admissions. For 2009, the original GI Bill has been expanded and updated, and UMass Amherst once again is pleased to anticipate more veteran students. As a result of the original GI Bill, there wasn’t room enough on the Amherst campus of Massachusetts State College for all the eager returning vets. And so, between 1946 and 1949 Fort Devens (north of Worcester) was transformed into Mass State College at Fort Devens. Close to 2,700 veterans studied there. Devens included academic buildings, dorms, sport facilities, a library, fraternities, drama, and music offerings; in effect most of what the Amherst campus offered, but on a smaller scale. The 80 faculty taught exclusively freshman and sophomore-level courses; in their junior year students transferred to the Amherst campus. The average age of the freshman veterans was 22.
Edward L. Gilfix ’50 was one of these veterans. He worked in radio communications as a GI in China, Burma, and India and eventually became principal engineer in Raytheon’s Patriot Missile program. “The ability to use a number of disciplines across the board, not just one, to solve a problem – that I learned at Devens and Amherst,” he says.
For Gilfix’s 21st-century successors, the GI Bill was enhanced to keep pace with the rising costs of higher education and changes in military service. The new GI Bill, which went into effect in August, provides very generous educational benefits. It covers the cost of tuition and fees for veterans with active duty service on, or after, Sept. 11, 2001; benefits are tied to instate public university rates. It also provides a monthly housing allowance as well as a yearly stipend for books and supplies. In effect, vets eligible for full benefits may now attend UMass Amherst essentially for free. Additionally, some vets may transfer unused educational benefits to their spouses and children.
Trevor Grant ’10, an arboriculture and forestry student, is returning to Stockbridge School with Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. As a Marine reservist, Grant received minimal benefits of a few hundred dollars for his first year at Stockbridge in 2007-2008. He was then called to active duty in Iraq, where he worked in security and counter-insurgency. “We spent a lot of time patrolling the streets,” he says, “never knowing if that piece of trash was an IED [improvised explosive device] or if the next car was a bomb.”
Based on his service, 60 percent of Grant’s tuition, fees, and housing expenses at Stockbridge this year are covered under the new GI Bill. “It will make a huge difference,” he says. In addition, UMass Amherst has signed on to a voluntary provision of the GI Bill—the Yellow Ribbon Program. As part of this program, UMass Amherst can now provide greater support to eligible out-of-state vets, who pay higher tuition and fees. UMass Amherst will fund half the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition and fees, while the Veteran’s Administration will cover the other half.
The campus community is proud to welcome its first Post-9/11 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon students this semester, says Eileen Stewart, associate dean of students and head of veterans affairs. “We are serving the people who serve our country.”
