Bentonville's NorthWest Arkansas Community College Offers Tuition Help For Veterans

BENTONVILLE -- Veterans attending NorthWest Arkansas Community College will be eligible for the in-state tuition rate regardless of their residency status this fall.

The Board of Trustees approved the out-of-state tuition waiver for veterans in March. The in-state tuition rate is $122.50 per credit hour. Out-of-state tuition is $175 per credit hour.

Dianna Portillo, the college's director of veterans resources, said the college had 381 veterans enrolled during the spring semester, though enrollment is typically higher during the fall. About five of the veterans were considered out-of-state students. The college's total enrollment for the spring semester was 7,546.

"I'm hoping (the tuition waiver) will increase our numbers as far as out-of-state," Portillo said. "I think it's going to be a big deal."

College officials discussed the waiver "for quite a while" before it was approved, Portillo said. It will be available to any veteran with a Department of Defense Form 214 form discharged under honorable conditions.

The Department of Veterans Affairs covers only the cost of in-state tuition for a service member under the post-9/11 GI Bill, according to Portillo.

Amy Olsen, 22, is a 2009 Bentonville High School graduate. She spent about two years in the Coast Guard and now lives in Maine. She's taking two classes -- sociology and Western civilization -- online through the college. Olsen hopes to earn her associate's degree on her way to getting a bachelor's degree through the University of Arkansas.

She's pleased the college instituted a tuition waiver for veterans, even if it doesn't take effect until August.

"I think it's great to help out veterans," Olsen said. "We can use all the help we can get."

Olsen said she lives in a remote area of Maine, so it's difficult to attend a college in that area. She tried another online school but found it was more expensive than NorthWest Arkansas Community College.

"If the schools won't give us the benefits we need to go there, we'll just go to another school," she said.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., helped inspire the college's tuition waiver, Portillo said. Boozman, last year, co-sponsored a bill requiring schools eligible for GI Bill education provide veterans in-state tuition rates regardless of the veteran's residency status. That idea later was incorporated into a larger bill that hasn't passed.

"The life of Armed Forces members often requires many re-locations," Boozman wrote in a column published on his website in August. "The constant movement of our active duty military makes it difficult for them to have a place to call 'home.' As a result, obtaining in-state residency for college is more and more difficult."

The tuition waiver is one of several steps the college has taken to support veterans, according to Todd Kitchen, vice president for learner support services and an Army veteran. The college has an active veteran student organization with two staff advisers. It also recently added two scholarships for veterans.

The University of Arkansas doesn't offer in-state tuition to out-of-state veterans, but is studying the possibility, according to Steve Voorhies, university spokesman.

Erika Gamboa, director of the university's Veterans Resource and Information Center, said the university offers in-state tuition to any service member stationed within the state or anyone who joins the Arkansas National Guard, she said.

The Arkansas Department of Higher Education doesn't keep information on which schools offer tuition waivers for veterans, according to department officials.