VCU receives $2.3 million federal grant to support student military veterans

By William Lineberry
Honors College

Virginia Commonwealth University has been awarded a $2.3 million federal grant from the Department of Education to support student military veterans.

The three-year grant, from the department's Centers of Excellence for Veteran Student Success, will directly support VCU's Military Student Services Office, the primary on-campus resource for student veterans.

"This multimillion-dollar investment reflects VCU's deep and enduring commitment to those who have served our country and to the success they pursue after their military service," said Hernan Bucheli, Ed.D., vice president of VCU's Division of Strategic Enrollment Management and Global Initiatives. "Our student veterans bring exceptional leadership, resilience, perspective and purpose to our university, and we are committed to ensuring they have every opportunity to thrive academically, professionally and personally."

Over the last three years, VCU has seen an increase in the number of student veterans it supports - currently, there are more than 400 student veterans enrolled as undergraduates or graduate students. VCU is also a leader in the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, and it is designated as a Military Friendly School, earning a gold award based on factors including retention, graduation, job placement, loan default rates and more.

The new CEVSS grant will support VCU's Military Student Services Office in:

• Hiring new full-time positions in the office.
• Expanding the office's physical space.
• Creating a reimbursement fund to waive the cost of application fees for veteran applicants.
• Covering the cost of training for non-Military Services support teams across VCU to address veteran-specific needs.

"It really allows us to make a lot of our dreams come true, in regard to everything that we would like to do for our veterans at VCU," said William "Tres" Morley, director of the Military Student Services Office. "There are service opportunities that will now be available to us that we previously didn't have access to because of funding or staffing restrictions. It will help us build a culture of service and support for our students, from their application to enroll at VCU all the way through graduation and into employment."

The Military Student Services Office applied for the CEVSS grant, led largely by the Assistant Director Bryan Sandford. The CEVSS program asks grant recipients to "develop model programs to support veteran student success in postsecondary education by coordinating services to address the academic, financial, physical and social needs of veteran students."

"This grant will allow VCU to strengthen the full continuum of support for veterans and their families, removing barriers, expanding access to critical resources and creating clearer pathways from enrollment to graduation," Bucheli said. "By investing in our student veterans, we are also investing in the leadership, talent and experience they will carry forward to strengthen our communities, our workforce and our commonwealth."