CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Over 400 military students at the University of Charleston have withdrawn for the semester because of the government shutdown.
UC hosts mostly seven-week terms for its online military-related courses, and President Marty Roth says students had barely started when problems arose.
“All of our students started that term, and about a week into it, a number of them were notified that their tuition assistance benefit from their military branch was being frozen or was being withdrawn,” Roth said on MetroNews Midday.
“Those students had a hard choice. They could either pay out of pocket, they could try to seek some other type of federal financial aid or hit pause and have to withdrawal. Unfortunately, we had about 400 of the 1,300 students that felt that they had to withdrawal and put their progress towards their Associate’s or Bachelor’s or Master’s degree on hold for a little while until the shutdown is resolved,” he continued.
For military personnel enrolled in colleges or universities, every branch has operated differently when it comes to the approach of tuition assistance during the government shutdown.
“Some didn’t suspend or withdraw the tuition assistance at all, others kind of did it immediately across the board, and others had more of a hybrid approach,” Roth said.
Roth says he and his team are confident the tuitions will be restored soon.
“We know that the Department of Defense knows how important the professional development and growth is for our active military personnel who are serving our country, so we’re certain that at some point, all the tuition assistance will be restored, we’ve just not quite gotten to that point yet,” he said.