Munoz eases process for obtaining college credit for military courses

SPRINGFIELD – When Jauwan Hall, a former Marine, transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago from Kennedy-King College he was unaware that the same military courses wouldn’t be counted toward his degree, and he would have to retake the classes.

“There was no mechanism in place to designate those courses as UIC courses so there’s no mechanism that tells people in the registrar’s office that this course is equivalent to this course,” Hall said.

While Hall did receive credits for his military courses they didn’t count toward the courses necessary to complete his degree, essentially setting him back 17 credit hours.

“There were people at the university who were aware of the issue and were trying to work with the university to implement something university-wide,” Hall said. “But after having some conversations with administrators and other students it made sense to try to get something done legislatively because this is an issue that could be affecting veterans at a bunch of different state universities.”

State Senator Antonio “Tony” Munoz (D-Chicago) proposed legislation that was approved by the Senate today that requires the state’s public universities and community colleges to develop a written policy for awarding college credit for military courses taken through the Armed Forces, which.

“There should be a clear policy for accepting military courses into our university system,” said State Senator Antonio “Tony” Munoz, an Army veteran. “Veterans should not be short changed on the education they received while serving our country.”

Schools would use the Joint Services Transcript, a synchronized transcript presenting data for the United States Army, Marine Corp, Navy and Coast Guard, to determine areas where college credit is applicable and interpret the number of hours the institution would credit.

Senate Bill 2960 will now head to the House for consideration.

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