This one is just precious.
The University of North Carolina, which may soon offer reduced in-state tuition fees to illegal immigrants, does not have the same sentiments when it comes to military veterans who, in the university's view, have spent too much time in the past few years residing outside the Tarheel State.
I was stationed in North Carolina when I was in the Marine Corps and liked it so much that I have taken my family there every year for a summer beach vacation since then. From what I have been reading about the direction that the state is taking, such as the Agenda 21-friendly regulations on Public-Government corporate partnerships (Which eerily smack of fascism and will drive the recalcitrant out of business or the state), combined with sick moves such as this one, I am strongly rethinking my possible plans to someday relocate there.
When those who administer a university becomes aware that the rules on eligibility for in-state tuition are overly restrictive, but are content leaving them as they are while entertaining the thought of providing that very benefit to people who are not allowed to be in the state, we have a big problem.
The link at top has the whole article. Please consider signing the online petition linked below:
http://www.change.org/petitions/unc-board-of-governors-stop-discriminating-against-student-veterans?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11996&alert_id=jJuqEXxNOw_EjuYqcpgtU
"University of North Carolina, which is currently considering giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition benefits, denied an Army sergeant the same break even though she owns a home in the Tar Heel state and only moved away briefly because the military stationed her husband in Texas.
Hayleigh Perez, 26, hoped to use her G.I. Bill to attend the UNC’s Pembroke campus near Fort Bragg, but the young veteran -- who served a 14-month tour in Iraq -- was told she did not qualify as a state resident because she had been gone for about three years.
“I got frustrated. When I tried to inquire, they kept putting up roadblocks,” Perez told FoxNews.com. “It’s just disgraceful that life in Iraq, where you could die, is easier than trying to go to school here.”
Perez enlisted in 2005, and was stationed in Fort Bragg before shipping out to Camp Bucca in Iraq. That's where she met her husband and fellow soldier, Jose Perez-Rodriguez. The pair married and, when their tours ended in 2006, bought their home in Raeford, N.C. They lived there until 2009, when Jose Perez-Rodriguez was assigned to a base in Texas. But they continued paying the mortgage and taxes on the North Carolina property while she accompanied him on his deployment for six months, and Perez has been in North Carolina for the past two years, she said
Perez was honorably discharged in September 2009, and, after giving birth to daughter Calleigh, and sought to build a post-military career. When her husband won a transfer back to Fort Bragg to rejoin his family, Perez started applying to colleges in the area in hopes of pursuing a master's degree as a physician's assistant. She told FoxNews.com she was accepted to both UNC’s Fayetteville and Pembroke branches and chose Pembroke. But Perez was shocked when UNC-Pembroke officials told her she was not considered an in-state resident, even though the Fayetteville branch said she was. The G.I. Bill Perez hoped to use for school does not cover out-of-state tuition.
"I just figured I could appeal the decision," Perez said. "I thought it would be easy.”.........
Perez, who started an Internet petition
that has garnered support from across the country with nearly 120,000 signatures in just five days, and the Students Veterans Advocacy group intend to sue both the school and the federal government if the school's decision is not reversed...............
"I’m now attending a private college," she said, declining to name the school. "I don’t want to be associated with an institution that treats veterans this way."
that has garnered support from across the country with nearly 120,000 signatures in just five days, and the Students Veterans Advocacy group intend to sue both the school and the federal government if the school's decision is not reversed..............."I’m now attending a private college," she said, declining to name the school. "I don’t want to be associated with an institution that treats veterans this way."
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