He started as a student at the University of Michigan.  Then he left for a while to serve in the navy and he spent time overseas for four years before returning to the university to complete his education.  Then something strange happened.  The University of Michigan informed him that since he had served overseas, he would be considered an out-of-state student and was charged at that rate.

Brian Stone, who is a part of the Student Veterans Association, went to University officials and asked them to change the policy.  It also affected others.  In other examples,

In one case, the residency classification office told a veteran she needed to legally separate from her spouse, who is working out of state to pay for her extra tuition, in order to 'cut out-of-state ties' and receive in state tuition.

In another case, they told an Iraq war veteran and Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, who had never left the state of Michigan except for military deployments, that he was an out of state resident because he 'left the state of Michigan and went to Iraq for a year.'

It is one thing for this to be a misunderstanding.  That sort of thing happens.  It is quite another for a university to use this as a way to discriminate against veterans and that is exactly what is happening in this case.

While I would never ask for the government to intervene, in this case you begin to wonder where Veterans' Affairs is on this particular topic.  Veterans should be able to continue their education and they should be able to do it in their home state.

In this case, it would be interesting to see other schools in the area take advantage and say to veterans something to the effect of "Come on over, we'll transfer everything and you can come to school here.  We'll do what's right by you."  Indeed, that is what should have happened at University of Michigan.

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