SVA Update

[Derek Blumke]

All,

Welcome back to school, and congrats on all of your hard work over the
past 8 months. SVA has done some incredible things, and the majority
of the credit goes to you.

I’ll do my best to keep this brief, but I did want to make sure
everyone is kept up to speed on what the leadership of SVA has been up
to and to get some information out there regarding the new GI Bill.

First, Elizabeth O’Herrin, who just completed her term as SVA’s first
Executive Director, was invited by the VFW to speak in Orlando at
their national convention. While there she had the opportunity to
address the convention and to inform their leadership and members of
the VFW about who SVA is and of the issues which need to be addressed
on campuses across the country for veterans education.

While Elizabeth took the trip to sunny Florida, I proudly accepted the
invite to address the American Legion’s general assembly in, EXTREMELY
sunny, Phoenix. While there, I informed their membership of the need
for campuses to get resources set up and of the collaborative
opportunities of Legion Posts working with our local chapters and the
need for their local posts to assist vets in getting groups started at
local campuses.

The feedback Elizabeth and I received from their leadership and
members was nothing but positive. They want to get involved and help
you out on the ground level. Our recommendation is to reach out to
the posts in your area and see how you might be able to work
together.

In regards to the GI Bill and its implementation:

I had the opportunity to sit down with Senator Jim Webb for about a
half-hour and then participated in a round table discussion with
Senator Webb, Congressman Harry Mitchell, representatives from other
VSO’s, and student vets from the greater Phoenix area. The primary
topic of discussion was the implementation and running the programs
for the “21st Century GI Bill”, and as Senator Webb put it, the
“responsibility” of our government and campuses to ensure there are
programs set up for vets when they arrive to school to use this new
educational benefit.

The big issue to come out of these talks, is the huge problem of the
Department of Veterans Affairs plans to not only contract out the
initial start up and implementation of the new GI Bill, but also the
long term operations as well. The feedback around the table was
unanimous. No one wants this to happen!!! And a few of the reasons are
as follows:

1) As we all know, government oversight is difficult as it is.
Moreover, oversight over the VA has proven to be extremely difficult.
Should the VA contract these services out, and should there be
problems with the new programs, an overgrown game of finger pointing
is likely to be produced. All at the cost of a poorly running program
whose only victims are the members of our organization.
2) Contracting these programs out has already proven to be somewhat of
a misadventure. For those of you who had to use the call in line a
few years back, when we called in we could guarantee on sitting on
hold for sometimes in excess of an hour and at other times the
automated answering service would just tell us they were experiencing
too high of a call volume and would hang up on us.

When I asked Keith Pedigo of the VA why the VA would want to contract
the new GI Bill out, considering the VA did successfully implement and
has run the educational benefit programs since its creation in 1946,
he was left somewhat speechless. The answer he gave which did make
sense was the urgency of getting the program up and running, but in
regards to long-term operations, he was left without an answer to
speak of.

Just as you were involved with the GI Bill’s passage, this is again
where you come in. Please have your members call their senators and
congressmen and inform them that they are against the VA contracting
the “21st Century GI Bill” out for anything beyond its initial
implementation. Again, your work has done far more than anyone would
have ever predicted and your involvement is again needed.

On a closing note, congrats to OIF Marine Infantry, Nate Donnelly on
becoming SVA’s Executive Director and congrats to John Powers on
becoming SVA’s first Director of Outreach. Both of these people are
absolutely on point and will do an incredible job of driving SVA
forward.

Thanks again for giving me the incredible opportunity to represent
you.

Best regards,

-Derek

Derek Blumke
President
Student Veterans of America
derek....@studentveterans.org