Statement Announcing Establishment of a Veterans Administration Man-on-the-Campus Program

IN TRYING to solve the problems faced by veterans of the Vietnam era, one of the first goals of the Administration has been to ensure that all beneficiaries of the GI bill receive prompt and efficient service.

In a radio address to the Nation on March 31, I stated that "Veterans need to know if we can find a better way of delivering checks on time." I also directed the Administrator of Veterans Affairs to work with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to come up with sound, workable solutions to the problem.

Today I am happy to announce an important result of this mandate for action: the establishment of a VA Man-on-the-Campus program. In cooperation with colleges and universities, the Veterans Administration this fall will place full-time representatives on those campuses where more than 500 Vietnam-era veterans are enrolled. In addition, the VA will employ other representatives to visit those campuses where less than 500 such veterans are enrolled. Altogether, we expect to have more than 1,300 representatives of the Veterans Administration participating in this new program.

Considerable progress has already been made in expediting the delivery of benefit checks. Now, with the inauguration of the Man-on-the-Campus program, the veteran student population will have the services of a network of concerned, knowledgeable aides, fellow veterans, and contemporaries, to help iron out problems and correct clerical errors or oversights right on the campus. The VA representatives will work closely with campus officials and organizations already involved in helping veterans. In effect, this new program provides veterans utilizing the educational benefits of the GI bill with an accessible, concerned individual available to help when problems or complications arise.

This welcome addition to existing Veterans Administration educational services should prove invaluable to the nearly i million veterans currently in college under the GI bill, and to those other eligible veterans who will take advantage of the GI bill education benefits in the years ahead.