Hopkins is discussing plans to participate in the yellow ribbon program, a new provision of the GI Bill that will offer increased financial aid to veterans at participating institutions.
While the provost's office is still determining the details of the University's level of participation, William Conley, dean of Enrollment and Academic Services, said that Hopkins would be involved at some level.
"Nothing is official yet, but I can say that there is a general level of interest for some participation, and Johns Hopkins University will to some degree be involved in the yellow ribbon program," he said.
Vincent Amoroso, director of Student Financial Services, agreed that the University was likely to participate.
The yellow ribbon program will increase the amount of financial aid available to military veterans pursuing an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. In the program, the federal government matches the financial aid offered by a university up to a maximum that is determined by the highest tuition of a public school within the state.
The percentage of funds that the government matches depends on how long the veteran has served. If he or she served for 36 months or more, or served for 30 months and received a disability-related discharge, then the government matches 100 percent of the funds provided by the school. The government funds decrease as the amount of time the veteran served decreases, to a minimum of 40 percent fund-matching for 90 or more days of service.
So, if a school paid for half of a GI's tuition, the government would match 100 percent of that value, up to the state maximum.
Since the program will raise the amount of aid the federal government is willing to pay, it will in turn increase the amount of financial aid that a private school will be able to offer to a veteran.
Amoroso wrote that the new maximums in the state of Maryland are $458.13 per credit hour for tuition and fees of up to $1,107.00 per term. The final rules of the program, released April 7, state that an institution may commit a specified dollar amount that they would be willing to offer per student, or a percentage of the tuition cost.
According to Paula Burger, dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Hopkins is most likely to commit to a dollar amount that equates to less than 50 percent of veterans' tuition.
As of September 2008, the last time a survey had been taken of the number of veterans enrolled at Hopkins, there were a total of 30. Of those, 27 were graduate students, two were Arts and Sciences undergraduates and one was an Engineering undergraduate.
Questions remain about how Hopkins participation in the program may affect finances.
"I know we are still clarifying some issues and determining whether we will limit the amount/number of awards we can make under this program because of financial impacts," Burger wrote in an e-mail to the News-Letter.
"We don't want to get caught off-guard and have to cut back need-based aid as a result. I think we could structure it so that it wouldn't be something that would compromise our commitment to giving need-based financial aid," she said.
She explained that the money for the program would come out of the University's financial aid budget and would essentially be similar to funding several more low-income students.
Though Burger did not anticipate that participation in the program would necessitate serious budget changes, she said that smaller changes may be in order.
"It might have a marginal impact on our financial aid budget or on tuition," she said.
According to Conley, the University has been aware of the program since late last year.
"We've been aware of this opportunity for going on six months now," he said. "When it first was announced, we sent in an unofficial survey response to the Veterans Affairs Administration."
This survey response was not a formal indication that Hopkins would participate. It simply served to indicate that the University was interested in the program.
Conley has been at the forefront of Hopkins's research into the program and in formulating its response. He organized a number of meetings with the various University financial directors to determine their levels of interest and communicate that level to Veterans Affairs.
Two week ago, Hopkins received the formal invitation to participate in the program. The University must confirm its level of participation by May 15.
Conley and Burger agreed that while this program certainly provided an incentive for veterans to attend universities, it was difficult to determine how it would affect enrollment.
"Given that right now in the undergraduate schools we're only admitting about 25 percent of applicants and it's a very competitive process, I don't think we'll see a large number of veterans there," Conley said.
"I think the part-time graduate programs is where we'll see the biggest change."
Burger said that many returning veterans might have families, making full-time enrollment too difficult to manage.
"The enrollment will vary from school to school," she said. "A lot of our part-time engineering programs, for example, might see more participation."
Generally, a part-time graduate program at Hopkins costs $2,750 per course, compared to the annual tuition of $57,966 for a full-time student.
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