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Military veterans looking to enroll at Pima Community College are once again able to pay tuition with their education benefits.
After a review of more than 3,000 case files, Pima has received the green light to enroll new student veterans.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs suspended enrollment of new vets at Pima in March, citing a number of shortcomings including poor record keeping. Other violations included failure to notify the VA of changes that affected the amount of payment to beneficiaries, to ensure that veteran students were enrolled in approved programs, and to maintain a record of veterans' previous education and training.
The suspension applied only to new students. Veterans already enrolled were not affected.
PCC Spokesperson CJ Karamargin said the school has taken measures to ensure this doesn't happen again - most notably by hiring staff to review vets' case files on an ongoing basis, he said.
“The problem before was that we had a lot of turnover in the office that was responsible for this. Those problems have been remedied," he said.
In a letter to PCC Chancellor Lee Lambert, the state says the school is now fully in compliance with all areas reviewed and it praises Pima staff members’ efforts in addressing the citations.
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