Activating Your Chapter 31 Benefits at USC-Columbia

You have now been awarded Chapter 31 educational benefits through the Veterans Administration’s Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and Training. This highly specialized, developmental entitlement is designed to help you to overcome employment challenges resulting from the wounds or injuries you received while serving your country on active duty in the American armed forces. After months of evaluating your training needs, a board of qualified VR counselors has determined that completing a specific degree program at the University of South Carolina-Columbia will be the best way for you to position yourself in the job market as a competitive and highly marketable candidate for employment.

When you receive your VA Form 28-1905 from your counselor that lists the dates of your Chapter 31 eligibility and the degree program authorized in your Individual Written Rehabilitation Plan (IWRP), you are ready to apply for admission to USC-Columbia, and once accepted, to move on to the next stage of your program: activating your benefits at USC and matriculating successfully through the myriad administrative and academic complexities of a major research university. Helping to make your transition into the world of the university as smooth and productive as possible is a large part of our job here at the USC Office of Veterans Services.

However, because Chapter 31 students enjoy many educational benefits that are not awarded to regular prior-service and reserve component personnel, and because of the considerable amount of time that it takes for our office to notify and coordinate with such departments as the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, the Bursar’s Office, the Division of Parking and Vehicle Registration, and the University Bookstore, for each Ch. 31 participant, it is vitally important that you notify us of your intention to attend USC as soon as possible, preferably on the same day you receive your VA Form 28-1905 from your Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor.

It is equally important to realize that USC has its own bundle of rules and regulations governing your enrollment, and that these requirements and guidelines are totally separate from those imposed by the Veterans Administration. In short and in brief, being awarded Chapter 31 benefits through the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Training for a specific degree program at USC-Columbia is only the first stage in your quest for knowledge and enlightenment. In order for you to become able to use these benefits, the USC Office of Veterans Services must invest a substantial amount of time and personnel in arranging and preparing the administrative details for your in-processing.

Because our office is responsible for coordinating the benefit delivery systems for our current body of seventy (70) Chapter 31 students as well as over six-hundred other prior-service and reserve-component veterans who currently receive VA educational benefits at USC-Columbia, careful scheduling and prior planning of how best to deploy our limited resources are absolute necessities. We therefore ask that you notify the USC Office of Veterans Services at (803) 777-5156 promptly after receiving notice that you have been authorized to use your Chapter 31 Benefits at our institution. Not doing so can result in problems, financial and administrative, that you would hardly have thought possible. Please see page 4 of this handout for administrative deadlines.

*(REVISED: 25 January 2007)

What to Do First

Once your VA Caseworker puts your VA Form 28-1905 into your hands, call or report to The USC Office of Veterans Services as soon as possible. This office is located in Room 316 on the third floor of Russell House University Union. Parking is extremely difficult at the University of South Carolina, but once you have found a parking space and put sufficient time on the meter, report to the ground floor of Russell House. Get on the elevator and go to the third floor. Step off the elevator and execute a left face and our clearly marked office door will appear on your left.

Once inside the office, tell the receptionist sitting at the desk your name and that you are a new Chapter 31 student and would like to schedule a Chapter 31 Orientation with Dr. Rivers. The receptionist will get out a CHAPTER 31 Vocational-Rehabilitation INFO-PACK and ask you two very important questions.

The first question will be: Have you been accepted into an academic degree
program at USC-Columbia?

Your answer to this question should be yes, but if it is no, then ask the receptionist to give you directions to Lieber College (the Office of Undergraduate Admissions) or to the third floor of the Byrnes International Center (the Office of Graduate Admissions). Our office cannot do anything further for you until you have been accepted to the University.

The second question will be: Do you have a VA Form 28-1905?

Your answer to this question should also be yes, but if it is no, then you need to report back to your Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and get a VA Form 28-1905 that lists the institution you are authorized to attend, the degree you are authorized to pursue, and a range of dates that chronologically defines the extent of your eligibility for Chapter 31 benefits.

Once you are able to report to our office and to answer yes to both questions, you will be given a USC Enrollment Certification Request (ECR) to fill out. After the receptionist has checked your ECR to make sure it has been filled out completely and correctly, she will schedule a time for your Chapter 31 Orientation. After looking at the office work schedule, the receptionist will tell you which days and times that Dr. Rivers is available to meet with you. Choose a date and time when you are prepared to spend an hour to an hour and a half at this orientation.

The receptionist will write down your name, the date and time of your appointment, and ask you for a telephone number where you can be reached in case we need to contact you. She will also take out the Chapter 31 appointment book and enter the date and time of your appointment so that Dr. Rivers will know that he has an orientation scheduled.

Before leaving, you will be issued a Chapter 31 Handout (approximately 13 pages). Take this information home and read it thoroughly because you are responsible for knowing and adhering to the regulations set forth in this document. It contains a large part of the information that will be discussed during the orientation session. When reading this material at home before the orientation, be sure to write down any questions and concerns so that Dr. Rivers can answer them for you. Because the only person authorized to give the Chapter 31 Orientation is Dr. Rivers, you may have to wait several days for an appointment.

It is also rather important to understand at this point that the Chapter 31 Orientation that you are scheduling is entirely different from the University-wide Orientation offered by the Office of Orientation and Testing (803-777-2780/http://orientation.sc.edu). The Chapter 31 Orientation that you will arrange with the Office of Veterans Services is designed specifically and exclusively for Chapter 31 students, while the University-wide Orientation is required by all students attending USC-Columbia for the first time. During the University-wide Orientation, you will meet with your advisor, receive your PIN number, and register for classes.

If you have your Admissions fee receipt and USC Orientation fee receipt when you come to our office to schedule your Chapter 31 Orientation, give them to the receptionist to make copies. Make sure that you keep copies of these documents and that the originals are stapled to your other intake information. Dr. Rivers will process these receipts and send them to your Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for reimbursement. If you do not have these receipts with you when you come for your initial intake, be sure to bring them when you come in for your Chapter 31 Orientation.

If you paid an undergraduate admission fee online, contact the Office of Undergraduate Admissions immediately (777-7700). Some of our students have experienced difficulty in retrieving these receipts after the semester proper gets under way. For the first few weeks after your application has been processed, the Applications are stored in Leiber College on the Horseshoe. However, they are soon relocated to a storage area that is difficult for students to access.

Attendance at your scheduled Chapter 31 Orientation is not an optional component of activating your Chapter 31 benefits at the University of South Carolina-Columbia. At your Chapter 31 Orientation you will be briefed on how to pay your fees, how to recertify your enrollment, how to obtain parking permits, how and where to get books and supplies, and how we use the “Booklist” to notify other departments within the University of your eligibility to use your Chapter 31 benefits.

Finally, it’s rather important for you to understand that delivering the Chapter 31 orientation and processing the multiple administrative complexities involved in arranging for you to use your benefits at USC can easily take several days—more during peak enrollment periods such as just before classes begin for any of our major semesters: Fall or Spring.

If you cannot produce a Letter of Acceptance to the University AND a Signed 28-1905 from the VA at least five working days before the first day of class for the term you want to begin, you will have to wait until the next semester to activate your Chapter 31 Benefits at USC-Columbia. See the attached chart that provides the First-Day-Of-Class and Chapter 31 Cut-Off Dates for Spring and Fall Semesters through the year 2010.

Semester	Classes Begin	New Students Must Report NLT This Date
Fall 2007	23AUG2007	16AUG2007
Spring 2008	14JAN2008	07JAN2008
Fall 2008	21AUG2008	14AUG2008
Spring 2009	12JAN2009	05JAN2009
Fall 2009	20AUG2009	13AUG2009
Spring 2010	11JAN2010	04JAN2010

Graduate students: Remember that you must satisfy the University’s requirement for adequate Health Insurance before you can commit your Chapter 31 award to pay your tuition and fees. Please notify Dr. Rivers, during your orientation, if you plan to enter the University as a graduate student.

Thank you for your cooperation

The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or veteran status.