flags

Flags honoring veterans on East Carolina University's mall. 

When the original announcement was made that stated the Veterans Affairs (VA) office would not provide benefits to students who chose the pass/fail option provided by North Carolina universities, some East Carolina University students did not approve. However, the status has changed and the VA will now allow students who receive benefits the pass/fail option.

Veterans Affairs Benefits Coordinator Josh Dail originally sent out an email on March 27 which stated the VA would treat the pass/fail option the same as they would with a withdrawal, and cause a debt to occur on student accounts.

Dail was then able to explain the situation a little more in depth for those who may be worried about the VA’s original decision.

“The VA can look at it as an audit and they’re going to tell us to go back and remove that course from VA certification. So anyways it’s going to cause a debt of some sort,” Dail said. “That’s the current rule. With that said, there’s a whole lot of schools out there doing a pass/fail right now so I really have a hard time believing they’re not going to change that.”

Dail said although a lot of students and faculty would be upset with this rule, he wanted to send out the email right away so people would be aware of the current status and situation.

Junior environmental health major Brayden Blackwell said he was personally affected by this decision. He said for the VA to take away benefits to students that utilize this pass/fail option adds unnecessary stress in an already difficult time.

Blackwell said lives are being disrupted and online classes can be more of a challenge so the VA’s choice to not support this pass/fail option is inconsiderate to those individuals who may be struggling.

“It just displays inadequate support for students receiving VA benefits during this time of unseen, unforeseen circumstances,” Blackwell said.

Although Blackwell said he would potentially consider the pass/fail option for one class and doesn’t understand why the option would be taken away from one particular group of people when the situation is nobody’s fault.

Sophomore biology, neuroscience and psychology major Tierra Jones said she didn’t expect to pay out of pocket for classes if she decided to choose the pass/fail option, which she had plans to use.

Jones said it shouldn’t affect students who receive VA benefits because the situation is caused by a pandemic. She said with ECU having to keep up academic standards and without the access to normal campus resources, courses have been harder and this makes things more difficult than it needs to be.

“Some people are here on their parents’ G.I. Bill and they don’t have the option to pay for it or it comes out of pocket,” Jones said. “Like that’s the main issue that a lot of people are having is that they don’t know what the prices of these classes are going to be and how they’re going to be changed,” Jones said.

Jones said she appreciated the early email sent out by Dail because it gives students more time to figure out what to do and get the money they may need to then pay for classes.

Dail then sent out an email the next week on April 1 that stated the VA adjusted their stance on the pass/fail option and will pay as normal if students decide to change their course grading to pass/fail.

“There will be no changes to your VA certification due to the pass/fail grading option,” Dail said in the email statement. “I hope this helps ease some minds & worries as you finish up the spring semester.”

Jones said it is amazing they came to this conclusion because the students receiving benefits shouldn’t be penalized for something they didn’t do.

“I’m glad that they see that it’s not our fault,” Jones said. “Because that’s kind of how it felt when they were like ‘you’re going to have to pay for it’.”

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.