Desiree Bliss knew Fayetteville State University would be a good fit. The public historically Black university in North Carolina checked off her must-haves: a forensic science program and a Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
Bliss, 19, thrived in her high school’s ROTC and hoped to build upon the experience in college. Although Army cadets can often forgo tuition, Bliss didn’t receive an ROTC scholarship. The Georgia native has borrowed about $8,000 to pay her way through school thus far and began to worry she was sinking herself into debt.
Bliss considered dropping out and enrolling in a college back home in Georgia but was lured back to campus by a grant from the congressional pandemic relief funds. She was still uncertain about whether she could afford out-of-state tuition for the next two years, but a new university initiative is easing her worries.
Starting next fall, Fayetteville State will cover full tuition for ROTC cadets, veterans, active-duty soldiers, and the spouses and children of service members.
“I don’t know what the universe is doing, but the stars are aligning for me,” Bliss said.
Minutes away from Fort Bragg, the nation’s largest military installation, Fayetteville State has long attracted service members and their families. Nearly 30 percent of its more than 6,700 students are connected to the military. But university leaders say they want to be more intentional in the way they recruit, enroll, retain and graduate them.
“We can go deeper,” said Fayetteville State Chancellor Darrell T. Allison. “Military students are focused. They are some of the highest performers you can have on your campus. If they are willing to meet us halfway, we will take them the rest of the way.”
Historically Black colleges and universities have a rich history of serving the military community. Black veterans, who were disproportionately denied World War II-era GI Bill benefits, were welcomed to their campuses when other schools shunned them. HBCUs have also produced more than 75 percent of Black officers for the U.S. Armed Forces through ROTC programs.
“There is an opportunity for HBCUs to really showcase how they are supporting this population,” said LeNaya Hezel, a higher education specialist at Evocati, a veteran-owned consulting firm. “We often think of HBCUs as the destination for preparing officers, but we need to flip that narrative and show how they are serving the broader military community.”
Siobhan R. Norris, associate vice chancellor for military affairs at Fayetteville State, notes that while there is an Ivy League Veterans Council to increase representations of student veterans at those schools, there is nothing equivalent for HBCUs. But there should be, she said.
Fayetteville State commissioned an independent analysis to gauge how it compared to other schools in educating students from the military community. The analysis, conducted by Evocati, found Fayetteville State exceeds the average undergraduate enrollment, retention and number of GI Bill students among four-year HBCUs.
University graduates, on average, took less than three years to earn more than what they spent on their education — four times faster than the average HBCU, according to Evocati. But fewer than 40 percent of Fayetteville State students make it to graduation, a trend that in part reflects the complexity of serving active-duty personnel, said Norris, an Army veteran.
“I’ve had folks emailing me to say they’ve been shipped off to another station outside of North Carolina, which means they no longer qualify for in-state tuition. When the price jumps, many withdraw,” Norris said.
The financial hurdle became a lot easier to clear when Fayetteville State joined NC Promise this year. The state program lowers tuition to $500 per semester for in-state students and $2,500 for out-of-state students at schools in the University of North Carolina system. The added state support made it feasible for the historically Black university to boost its financial aid for the military community.
Although members of the military enjoy generous education benefits through the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Military Tuition Assistance, those benefits have their limits and don’t always transfer to military spouses and children, Norris noted. She anticipates graduation rates will rise after the university implements the military tuition deal.
Because of Fayetteville State’s sizable military community, the university has a veterans center where students can meet with advisers, as well as a learning center at Fort Bragg. To build out that infrastructure, Allison hired Norris, who is bringing in more advisers and overseeing the expansion of the student center. The university is also beefing up its online and hybrid courses to give military students more flexibility.
Bliss had never seen so many uniforms until she landed at Fayetteville State, she joked. Both of her brothers are in the Navy, and her grandfather is a veteran. Military service is in her blood, although the option was never pushed, she said. In fact, Bliss said her family worried about her joining the service, worried about her being deployed someday.
“At the end of the day, I can get hurt walking down the street, so I’m not scared,” Bliss said. “Growing up seeing the people around me struggle, living paycheck to paycheck, that’s just not something I want to do. If I can do anything right now to help me have a set future when I graduate, then I’m doing it.”
Bliss is leaning toward committing to the reserves, which she hopes will give her the flexibility to work on a forensics team for a police department. Learning through the pandemic has been challenging, Bliss said. The isolation in her dorm sometimes gets to her, but her academic adviser has been a good anchor in keeping her grounded.
“I feel lucky,” Bliss said. “I almost didn’t come to school this year … and look at how things are just turning around. I was meant to be here.”
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