Binghamton University was originally founded as Triple Cities College in 1946 as a response to the GI Bill, which afforded the veterans of World War II an opportunity to attend college for free. Sixty-nine years later, there are still a number of resources on campuses for veterans to further their higher education.

According to Zachary DuBord, the assistant director of Transfer and Veteran Services, for years the University didn’t offer much assistance for students who had served or were currently serving in the Armed Forces, and was limited to walking students through paperwork-heavy GI benefits, which are federal laws that offer veterans higher education funding, among others things.

“For a long time, we were mainly focused on helping veteran students get their GI benefits, since it can be such a complicated process,” DuBord said. “But now, we have started to offer a lot of new services in order to bring the veterans together.”

In the past, BU’s veteran services were conducted by a single individual in the TRiO office, another federally mandated program that provides educational opportunity for disadvantaged students. However, starting last year, the office has been integrated with the Office of Transfer Student Affairs due to the overlap in student needs; both transfer students and veterans are new to campus and are looking to receive credit for past experiences.

“We are better suited to meet students’ needs this way,” DuBord said.

Services offered other than those federally mandated include the formation of the Student Association-chartered Veteran Student’s Organization and events such as bringing a two-star general to students this past Veteran’s Day. A lecture series addressing issues facing veterans is also in the works.

Veterans and reservists face unique issues on campus, ranging from academic support to a lack of knowledge among their student peers regarding issues that pertain to them.

“There’s a misconception that all veterans are deployed in wars,” said Zachary Salisbury, BU’s student veteran advocate. “But in reality, that’s just a small percentage of those who served, especially with the wars winding down.”

Manthan Patel is a Private First Class (Pfc.) in the U.S. Army Reserves and a junior majoring in economics. He said he has never had a bad experience with veterans’ services on campus and thinks they provide a good level of support for students, as well as guidance with funding for living expenses and tuition.

“We have really great VA services on campus, they’ve always been helpful,” Patel said. “The biggest problem is that most people don’t know how to use their benefits, but they can help with that.”

Pfc. Gabriel Fernandez, a senior majoring in history, said he finds BU’s veterans services useful. However, he said he had issues getting information from Harpur Advising about receiving academic credit for military service, which is available in some circumstances.

“Other than that, it is mostly just not being able to register for some classes like Backpacking,” Fernandez said. “I will have to miss some weekends for training so I know I can’t take that.”

Despite the support services offered, some students feel somewhat alienated from the general body of campus.

“Because we are such a liberal campus here, there can sometimes be some issues with students identifying as a veteran,” DuBord said. “There are political issues involved and so some students may not want to deal with that.”

Earlier this month, SUNY and the State of New York made an amendment to the rules governing in-state tuition that would allow all veterans and active-duty military personnel to pay only in-state tuition to attend all SUNY universities and colleges, regardless of their actual place of residence.

“Military personnel, veterans and their families living on our campuses and in the state’s communities deserve the same access to affordable public higher education that all New Yorkers enjoy,” SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said in a statement.