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Lawmakers Help Oregon Tech Student Vets at Wilsonville Campus Get Fair Housing Rates from VA

12.13.2012

Lawmakers Help Oregon Tech Student Vets at Wilsonville Campus Get Fair Housing Rates from VA
12.12.2012

Thanks to the efforts of Oregon Tech university administrators and Oregon lawmakers, student veterans studying at the university’s urban campus in Wilsonville soon will have a much easier time covering the costs of their housing. Oregon Tech received notice Tuesday afternoon that a facility code has been approved by the Veterans Administration for the Wilsonville campus. This assignment of a facility code allows student veterans attending the Portland-area campus to receive housing allowances at the local rate.

"We are grateful for the Department of Veteran's Affairs speedy resolution to the concerns we raised on behalf of our student-veterans and are equally grateful to the Oregon Congressional Delegation for their support and leadership in rectifying the situation," said Oregon Tech's President, Dr. Chris Maples. "We were honored when Oregon Tech recently was named one of the country's Top Military Friendly Schools, and we recognize the importance of doing everything we can to live up to that title, including advocating on behalf of our student-veterans.”

Student-veterans at Oregon Tech Wilsonville will benefit from the much higher urban residential rates, which will help keep them in school without further burdening them with educational debt. Due to the interpretation of language in the Veterans Administration’s guidelines, students previously had been compensated for housing at rates calculated for the university’s Klamath Falls campus, which is approximately $7,000 less per year. This resulted in student-veterans attending the Wilsonville Campus, which has a higher cost of living, being forced to make up the difference in housing costs themselves.

Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Representatives Greg Walden and Kurt Schrader helped to bring the discrepancy to the attention of the Veteran’s Administration, which then acted quickly on the appeal filed by Oregon Tech administrators to assign the needed facility code to the Oregon Tech Wilsonville campus.

http://www.oit.edu/news/12-12-2012/lawmakers_help_oregon_tech_student_vets_at_wilsonville_campus_get_fair_housing_rates_from_va.aspx