At War with the SJSU

It is June 2008 and Britney Spears stares down the dusty streets of a small town in Iraq. Her hollow smile is emblazoned on the shirt of a young Iraqi. From his gunner’s post Carl Cavezo watches him walk by. Cavezo, a freshman engineering major, is still months away from returning home to San Jose, but he knows that his time serving in the Marine Corps will pay for his education if he manages gets back.

According to the Department of Defense, 41 percent of our armed forces are 24 or younger. Most of them, like Cavezo, will earn a college education. However, despite the guaranteed economics involved, many veterans are feeling the crunch and rejection common across the California State University system.

Cavezo’s motivation to join the Marine Corps was rooted thrice. Since he was young he always wanted to be a Marine. In addition, he knew that the military would give him opportunities to better himself and his service would afford him a way to pay back the country that he says has given him so much. Cavezo is originally from the Philippines. In great earnest he explained his bond to our country.

“I wasn’t born here, but this country has done so much for me,” he said. “I might have paid it back, but I want to pay it back again.”

Coming back home, veterans bring with them a truer description of the Middle East than most could  ever get. Notions of roaming camels and the vision of a region devoid of green are quickly replaced with a reality that is even more odd and fantastic.

Huge camel spiders, found in bunks and boots, star as gladiators in death matches with centipedes and scorpions. Massive lightning bleaches the skies and frigid nights can drop into the 20s. Bootleg Hollywood is easy to find and Optimus Prime, Captain Kirk and Harry Potter provide an escape from the triple-digit temperatures and the brutal and frequent sandstorms.

“It made me hate sand with a passion,” Cavezo said. “Sand over there is baking powder fine. It gets in your lungs and your lungs feel like bowling balls.”

College overtly provides returning veterans a bridge toward a new career and a sharp educational contrast from what they learned while serving. However, for many it can also provide much needed internal decompression from an often stressful life.

“Honestly, I think that a lot of them, myself included, wanted to return to school because not only are we going to better ourselves through higher education, but also, it’s a low-stress environment,” said Brandon Hoge, a junior justice studies major.

Hoge returned and served as a marine in Kuwait for most of 2005. Four generations of his family have served in the military. He finished high school early so that he could go to boot camp and be back in time to graduate as a Marine. His military career started two days before the Sept. 11 attacks and he still remembers the name of the village where the man who recruited him was killed.

At 26, he may have had a longer educational career than many at SJSU, but like amost every other student, he has never seen anything like the current CSU budget. He explains that as a result, he now refers to his formerly concrete graduation plans as “tentative.”

“I’ve been in community college and higher education since 2001,” Hoge said. “But this is the first semester that I’ve seen where adds were not permitted. That’s pretty much the universal story for most veterans.”

Particularly now, even for qualified applicants, finding a job is difficult. Veterans often plan on falling back to college as opposed to the stress and uncertainty of a post-military job hunt. Finding an employer who matches the secure pay and benefits that a veteran leaves behind is difficult to match.

“In the economy right now, the only stable job you can have is the military,” Cavezo said. “They give you free room and board, a guaranteed paycheck with promotion, guaranteed 30 days vacation, free medical, free dental, free education and retirement for the rest of your life.”

In a 2008 CSU news release Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stated, “The sacrifices the men and women of our armed forces have made for our freedom truly earn them a place of honor in California and a seat in our state’s great colleges and universities.”

But the governor’s desire to provide veterans access to the CSU system is at odds with California’s budget. The university system is dealing with a $584 million deficit and has made cuts to services for all students, veterans included.

According to the CSU, no applications were accepted for spring 2010 at either quarter or semester campuses. This means that for hundreds of recently discharged or soon-to-be discharged soldiers their “step one” wasn’t picking classes, but instead wondering what’s next.

“Now they’re going to be coming back home, stressed out from the transition, and they’re not going to be allowed to go to school?” Hoge said. “They’re going to be forced to find a job? In this market? That’s bullcrap.”

As veterans’ affairs coordinator for SJSU, Andrei Ingalla is the main point of contact for current veterans or those planning to enroll. “I’ve definitely had about a dozen or so students who have contacted me,” he said. “They will be leaving the service and are looking at furthering their education and for those students I’ve been giving them the bad news that we’re not accepting for spring.”

According to Ingalla, the state’s community colleges are a common place for veterans to start and are an important primer for state universities. While also subject to funding shortfalls, local community colleges appear to be sufficiently handling the educational needs of returning veterans.

“[At SJSU] they might be having problems, but here with us, not my veterans,” said Sandra Talavera, Gavilan College’s veteran certifying official. “They haven’t really had any problems.”

CSU spokesperson, Erik Fallis, sums up the difficult and frustrating position that educators deal with in regards to fulfilling California’s obligation to educate not only veterans but an entire generation of students.

“The CSU has the mission to educate all eligible students in California and certainly assisting our state’s veterans in making the transition to college is a priority,” he said. “The ability of the CSU to provide quality, accessible education to all qualified students, whether they are veterans or not, depends on the support of the state of California.”

 

Sidebar-

 

The Post-9/11 GI Bill gives  

• The cost of tuition and fees for education pursued after August 1, 2009.

• A monthly housing allowance equal to the basic housing allowance paid to an E-5 (sergeant) with dependents, in the same zip code as the school. For those 100 percent entitled at SJSU it’s $1956.00.

• A yearly books and supplies stipend of up to $1,000 per year.

 

What Soldiers have to do

• A scaled percentage of the benefit is given to those with at least 90 days of
 total active duty service.

 • A 100 percent benefit is earned after serving 36 months of active duty service. Those discharged for a service-connected disability earn this with 30 days.

• Individuals will generally receive 36 months of full-time education benefits.

Chris Curry

-Features Editor