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After a year-long struggle with the Veterans Administration, St. Tikhon’s Seminary is happy to report that Veterans Benefit use is being restored at the seminary!
The previous Presidential administration restricted such benefits to only schools registered for Title IV funding, which the seminary has never had, for numerous reasons.
While an exception clause was written into the law, the VA refused to grant such waivers. Seminary Dean, Fr. John Parker, worked through numerous channels and multiple Congressional offices seeking clarifications and a waiver during the last 12 months. The waiver was denied two times in that process.
Eventually, he obtained correspondence from Congress’ Committee on Veterans Affairs written to the head of the VA, indicating clearly that the VA itself was misinterpreting Congressional intent of the law. He used this correspondence to continue to fight for the use of benefits hard-earned by Orthodox Christian veterans to be able to be used at St. Tikhon’s, as they have for many, many years.
On January 3, President Biden approved a Law, which in part clarified the intentions of the Title IV question, in line with Congress’ stated intent.
St. Tikhon’s reapplied for the waiver a third time, which was promptly granted under the new law without an expiration date.
We are happy to announce that veterans will be able to employ their GI Bill benefits with the new academic year if all things go smoothly. Mrs. Katherine Cardell is working diligently to renew the seminary’s credentials, which we anticipate completing before Pascha.
While the loss of such benefits was completely out of the seminary’s control, we are sorry that it prevented veterans from applying last year. We look forward to doing so immediately moving forward.
For more information, please write dean@stots.edu.
