CSN VA

I have done everything on my end to try and recieve my ful benefits through this school. I have 9 classes left and so far I have not gotten 4 semesters of my BAH. I go in, talk to the counselors, and it’s like pulling teeth to get them to point you to which classes you need to take. They just don’t want t be held responsible if something goes wrong. I asked exactly what classes I need to take, and all they do is give you your degree sheet, and circle the ones you have not done. I tried to take a lab, which is what the counselor directed me to do, in which I did. However, they failed to tell me I needed A bio 105. Now I’M at 6 credits yet again, and getting no BAH. Why do they have counselors if they can’t go through your classes in depth with you? Every time I go in, it seems like I’m inconveniencing whoever is working at the time. Something needs to change please!!! This is how some of us survive!

Very slow service. It takes the school almost 2 months to send in your claim to the VA. They even make you sign a contract saying if the VA doesn’t pay by a certain time, then then you, the broke college student, has to pay out of pocket, and then wait until the school sends you a refund check. Also, if you drop or add a class, they are extremely slow at making corrections. Everytime I went into the office they only had about three people working which is weird because UNLV has the same amount of people working and they have more enrolled veterans and get it done faster!

This place is a joke, a bad one. They have the VA center at CSN filed under educational services but as far as services goes, they provide none. We all know how vague the VA can be about our GI Bill entitlements, so you would think an institution that specializes in taking money from vets can at least offer us some guidance on how we can effectively use our benefits, if you thought the CSN VA or V.E.T.S would offer this service, you’d be wrong. During my time at CSN, from Fall 2013-​Fall 2014; I would visit the VA center several times inquiring about the many benefits that the GI BIll should offer me, to my dismay, I was often greeted by Vanessa, who might I add was comparable to the wicked step mother in Cinderella, Vanessa had a very nasty attitude. I once asked her if it was something I did and she told me that I, a veteran who is seeking service, frustrate her! Really, is this how vets are treated at CSN?! If you cannot handle one veteran, how are you equipped to handle the 3500+ veterans at CSN, especially those who have mental health and/​or physical health issues. At another occasion, she told me her position was comparable to that of an officer in the military! Next thing you know, she’ll be comparing her life in Vegas to an actual deployment. The other student workers that work there seem overworked and underpaid as well.
Spending your GI BIll at CSN is a waste of money, you do not get a return on your investment; Chris the new head of whatever his title is ensures that. He has often promised the VA community many things at CSN; like job fairs, scholarship opportunities, a new Vet Center, got your six program, a veterans club, mentors for veterans, priority registration, ect. but they are nothing more than empty promises. The politics at CSN is ridiculous. They take FOREVER to process your claims, then turn around and blame it on the veterans *AHEM, Chris* for not filing in a timely fashion. if filing in a timely fashion is what you need, then why not publicize this?
The thing that honestly troubles me most about the VA center at CSN is that they give the misconception that they offer more services than they do. A more appropriate title would be «VA Processing Center» because all they really do is process claims for students. A representative from the Governors office came down to conduct an audit of CSN’s VA program and I was privy to the information that Vanessa and Chris submitted; it basically stated that the Veterans office offered a veterans center where veterans can study and etc… No, if you look at the pictures, it is basically a waiting area that is not conducive to the needs of the student veteran.
Since September 2014, there has been a federal grant awarded to NSHE (CSN will get about 1.7 million) that is suppose to go towards creating veteran resource centers in the community colleges in Nevada (Truckee Meadows already has one with 300 vets and CSN who has 3500 vets does not. hmmm, priorities?), it is also suppose to go towards other «education and training programs» for veterans… We will see if CSN properly allocates and utilize this money to enhance the overall Student Veteran experience.
This is CSN VA’s purpose statement:
Veterans Education & Transition Services (VETS) Certifies the enrollment of those veterans and their dependents using veteran’s educational benefits, assists veterans transition to civilian life, and works as a liaison between the Department of Veteran Affairs and other veteran service organizations.
If you feel that CSN VA is meeting your needs, I suggest you leave a comment in support of them, If not you can also leave a comment and/​or come on over to UNLV.

As of today, 5 March 2013 CE, I still have not received a single, zinc cent of my educational benefits for the 2013 spring semester, although right around the corner ‘Spring Break’ approaches — hell, mid-​terms loom on the horizon — shit, soon it will be summer. Fuck, I’ll be graduating to UNLV soon (moving on to be another VA office’s problem, one which is not exactly the most highly rated in the multiverse either:
).
Oh, there will be some expletives in this review; ye mormons be warned. Perhaps I should have stated that earlier. Ah, who gives a fuck.
It is March goddammit; I submitted my paperwork in January.
I am not even a new student at this shitty school. I am guessing new students get entitlements paid out sometime in the 20’s (2020).
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A break in the two-​star review for a ‘The More You Know…’ PSA:
Did YOU know that the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department spent an inordinate amount of taxpayer funds (200 mil [probably less than that, but two hund mil just rolls off the tongue]) to have specialized software developed so they can just automate the whole fucking claims boondoggle and only have to audit the very small percentage that have significant errors requiring human intervention? They have the technology; just don’t feel like using it. They are hand-​pulling every single fucking claim, I don’t know how many times, and pulling out their dumb ass iPhones so that they can access their calculator and do them all manually, because they simply like how it all looked in Revolutionary Road (the book was better).
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In sum — untrained, blind monkeys, who occasionally work for a couple of minutes every hour, but whose day really consists of chasing each other around and fucking a football could do a better job at processing claims than the CSN Charleston VA office.
I can now rest assured that I have driven my point across.
«But why the two stars, E? Give them ZERO (one)!!!»
Extra pity star since they did not take my paperwork and just shred or burnbag it, but that is not something the aforementioned disabled primates would have done either so let’s not go handing out medals, citations, or coins for such ‘accomplishments’. Fucking VA probably would. — E