With more vets returning home from active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq in the coming months, the college has been working in conjunction with the Veterans Affairs Office of Suffolk County to provide opportunities for financial aid as well as other benefits to returning veterans.
The Ammerman campus alone now contains a decently large number of veterans and is expected to grow in coming semesters.
“Currently on Ammerman I am told we have approximately 250 vets. How many to expect is anyone’s guess but I would not be surprised if our population doesn’t come close to doubling over the next couple of years. Suffolk County has the largest number of veterans in New York State,” Ammerman Campus Associate Dean of Student Services Charles Bartolotta said.
These veterans, along with those on the Grant and Eastern campuses are entitled to various local and federal financial aid benefits, such as tuition discounts, disability aid and money for textbooks.
Some of the official federal benefits supported by the college include the post-9/11 G.I. Bill which provides educational benefits to veterans who served on or after 9/11, or the Survivors and Dependent Educational Assistance Program which offers up to 45 months of benefits to disabled veterans, and the Montgomery G.I. Bill which is an aid program exclusively for members of the National Guard or Army Reserve.
According to Dean Bartolotta, the college’s financial services department has an advisor that can help veterans with financial aid concerns, as well as getting in touch with the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency. There are also two mental health counselors with the Ammerman campus counseling center (located in the Ammerman building) that can specifically help veterans with personal concerns in acclimating back to campus life.
Veterans can also potentially attain college credit toward military experience that they’ve attained during active duty. Upon acceptance Suffolk, veteran students can submit a form of their training and experience for a counselor to determine how much of it will transfer over onto their degree transcript.
For vets hoping to apply for college credit from their military experience or those seeking financial aid benefits must visit the campus registrar office on the lower level of the Ammerman building or contact the office at (631)-451-4004.
A new campus club has also been established known as the Veterans’ Group. The club is primarily a social club in which veterans and fellow students discuss social issues concerning veterans acclimating to civilian and college life and how to improve upon these issues. The club is currently run and organized by Campus Associate Dean Thomas Coleman and is held on the Ammerman campus. The Grant and Eastern campuses have their own veterans’ clubs run by Professor Ina Casali and Professor Janine Tortorella respectively.
Although these services and programs provide a better college experience for returning vets and furthers their education, a major hindrance is the fact that each of these programs acts independently and without a centralized department exclusively created for the sole purpose of student veterans aid. Some have expressed the need for the college to form a more collective, organized means of catering to the veteran population, particularly in the coming semesters when even more veterans are expected to return to campus due to the Obama administration’s military withdrawal efforts continuing into 2012.
“I believe the campus and College has to come up with a more coordinated approach to handling this very special and deserving population. I am confident that we will,” Bartolotta said.
For more veterans’ resources and further information about the benefits and services available to veterans on campus, students can visit the admissions page of the SCCC website. To contact the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency, call (631)-853-VETS.
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