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Major Project 4 – Research project

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Audrey Bachmann 

Professor Weaver 

English 1102 

April 18, 2023 

 

The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the GI Bill, signed in 1944, still has its influence on America today. This helped veterans start a new life after World War II by providing them with the education and basic needs needed to build a life in America. This Bill affected millions of veterans around the United States and was an important factor in the availability of post-secondary education, no matter what direction veterans took.  

 

The G.I bill impacted American lives more than imagined. The GI Bill : The New Deal for Veterans by Glenn Altschuler and Stuart Blumin says, “formally known as the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944, it was far from an obvious, straightforward piece of legislation, but resulted from tense political maneuvering and complex negotiations.” The GI bill passing the legislature was more complex than just being able to enact it. It caused democrats and republicans to come together who have previously opposed Roosevelts “New Deal.” The returning soldiers were more supported than they have ever been and were getting the support they needed to build new lives in America. This bill provided veterans with job training, unemployment compensation, assistance in tuition, and housing loans.  

The BI Bill affected the whole family at home. In the book The GI Bill Boys : A Memoir by Stella Suberman, it accounts a personal anecdote of how the War, Great depression, and other major events during this period of time affected her family, friends, and herself. I focused on Chapter 12, which is all about how the GI bill affected the veterans she knew. Some of them were relatives, others just peers. When the news came out about this new document, the people all gathered together and read through this bill over and over again, showing its significance. The bill included everyone who participated in the military, which was very inclusive to everybody. “All enrollees got the same benefits, no matter their rank…the bill did not state who were not eligible but who were.” (The GI Bill, 179) The government officials who were in charge did a decent job at trying to include everyone to get good benefits from this, but it was not 100% inclusive. There was still discrimination against Jewish people and people of color, which was not supposed to be the case.  

Jack, who served four years in the military, got covered by the GI Bill for four years, which would cover his Ph.D. It would also cover the new people to college to get their undergraduate diploma, which was great. It seemed to cover everything, as the preparers knew the war took a lot of time apart from families. It also offered a home loan which was guaranteed with a zero down payment and a low interest rate. This was a really good deal for returning veterans as it offered so much.  

After the War, an estimated 15 million soldiers would be unemployed. Its official name was the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, which was pushed through the congress. The National Archies, Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944), states “President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on June 22, 1944, just days after the D-day invasion of Normandy,” This was put into place quick, right after the scraps of World War II. This bill was proposed since before the war was over. The name “The GI Bill of Rights” is the public name for it, as it explains more of what it is in the title. The areas it focused on were hospitalization, business and home purchases, and education, which was its main focus. Around 8 million veterans received benefits to help with their education, around 2,300,000 attended a secondary institution, 3,500,000 received training for school, and 3,400,000 received training for jobs. Although this was not everyone who participated in the war, there were a decent amount of people who used the benefits of this bill. The degrees given to post-secondary institutions doubled between 1940 to 1950, and the percentage of Americans with advanced degrees rose from 4.6% to 25%, which is a drastic rise.  Not all veterans were able to use this bill to the best of their abilities, as Black vets were not often able to get loans from banks for mortgages in Black Neighborhoods, but also could not really buy homes in suburban white neighborhoods because of the discrimination they received. (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, 1) 

Nowadays, the original GI Bill is not still around, but programs and deals used to benefit veterans stemmed from this bill. There is something called the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which is very similar to the old Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (The GI Bill of 1944). In the article, Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) by Veterans Affairs explains the qualifications for this newer bill. To be eligible, veterans must meet at least one qualification. Some include serving 90 days (about 3 months) on active duty on or after September 11, 2001, receiving a Purple Heart on or after September 11, 2001, and were honorably discharged, or a dependent child using benefits transferred by a service member that is qualified. (Post-9/11 GI Bill, 1). Some benefits can include, “Tuition and fees…. Money for housing (if you’re in school more than half time) … Money for books and supplies… Money to help you move from a rural area to go to school.” (Post-9/11 GI Bill, 1). These benefits do expire though after a certain amount of time. If the service a veteran did, ended before January 1, 2013, the benefits will expire 15 years after their last separation date from the active service. If they ended after/on January 1, 2013, the benefits would not expire, due to the law called the “Forever GI Bill – Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act.” (Post-9/11 GI Bill, 1) 

This brings me to the newest GI Bill, called the Forever GI Bill. This was signed by Donald Trump in 2017, and this bill officially called the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, but the shorter name is the Forever GI Bill. The article, G.I. Bill – Definition, Forever GI Bill & Benefits states that, “The bill also helped build America’s Middle class, although it left many minority veterans behind… decades since President Roosevelt signed the first GI Bill, yet it continues to empower and enable veterans and their families to reach their goals.”  This bill contradicts the 15-year limitation put into place by the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the benefits veterans got from that older bill. This Bill provides more benefits, like inputs a rehabilitation program to students across the country, helps veterans with educational counseling, and offers veterans who lost eligibility under the Post-9/11 GI Bill program. (G.I. Bill – Definition, Forever GI Bill & Benefits) 

Even though the original GI Bill that was signed into law in 1944 expired in 1956, it influenced other Bills to take its place and prosper today to still help the service members of the country today. There are still benefits for veterans, which did not end in the 1950’s, and still provide useful resources to live a healthy and educational life.  

Sources Cited: 

Glenn Altschuler, Stuart Blumin. The GI Bill : The New Deal for Veterans. Oxford University Press; 2009. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=273843&site=eds-live&scope=site 

Stella Suberman. The GI Bill Boys : A Memoir. Vol 1st ed. Univ Tennessee Press; 2012. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=nlebk&AN=471648&site=eds-live&scope=site 

Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) | Veterans Affairs. (2023, March 9). Veterans Affairs https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11/ 

G.I. Bill – Definition, Forever GI Bill & Benefits. (2019, June 7). History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/gi-bill 

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944). (2022, May 3). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/servicemens-readjustment-act 

University Of California – Los Angeles

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Summary:  

The University California, Los Angeles is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is very prestigious, as it has an 11% acceptance rate, and they are looking for well-rounded students. While a lot of applicants have impressive academic records, they are looking for more. The community would strive with students who demonstrate skills in leadership, intellectual curiosity, tenancy, and showing initiative. The APATSARC strategy I am using is Rhetorical style (logos) and the Large Rhetorical Strategy I am using is Imagining Ideal Readers.  

 

U.C.L.A. and U.S.C. Are Expected to Leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten - The New York Times

Analysis:  

 

For academics, they want prestigious and hardworking students that have challenged themselves throughout high school. The author uses the Large Rhetorical Strategy Imagining Ideal Readers to show this because they want their audience to show how competitive this school is, and also what students should have in their application when applying to UCLA. What Imagining Ideal Readers means is the readers that will be affected by the writing, like the ideal readers. In this case, the Ideal Readers will be in the upcoming class who are looking at applying to their school to see what they should have to have a good application that is exactly what the college is looking for. Honors classes, AP classes, college classes, and other advanced classes are important factors that applicants have to show to prove they have had a good rigor for the four years of high school. The author at the undergraduate admissions states that there needs to be good qualities that the student must have. These include, “leadership ability, character, motivation, tenacity, initiative, originality, creativity, intellectual independence, responsibility, insight, maturity, and demonstrated concern for others and for the community.” (UCLA, Undergraduate Admission).  

These characteristics go past academic achievement, as they have to be well-rounded in other activities as well. Other evidence of achievement beyond academics, like extracurricular activities, including sports, clubs, organizations, community service is a big factor of what admissions counselors look for. Some challenges or hardships that the applicant has strived through and overcame challenges to show maturity and determination are also strong factors. All these factors are what makes a strong applicant, and it shows that the admissions counselors want a wide range of students with varying hobbies and achievements. The Ideal Readers they are looking for are students who are well-rounded and have the qualities that they list on their admissions website that makes them a strong applicant. In their Principles of Community section, they highlight the importance of diversity, open-mindness, freedom of expression, and do not tolerate acts of discrimination of any kind while promoting awareness and education around campus. (UCLA, Principles of Community) This shows readers what the community is like at UCLA, and the strive to promote equality and diversity.   

The APATSARC strategy I chose is Rhetorical style, Logos, which uses logic to help your argument. The UCLA uses a lot of data to conclude their facts to show how good of a school they are. They used data and numbers to show how many applicants they have gotten for the fall 2023 admission. Ricardo Vazquez, the author of the article, “UCLA applications for fall 2023 admission remain at near-historic highs” says, “UCLA has received more than 169,800 applications for fall 2023 admission, with approximately 145,900 coming from freshman applicants and nearly 24,000 from transfer applicants – making UCLA once again the most applied-to-four-year university in the nation.” (UCLA, Newsroom) This right here is exactly what they want to show: a high demand college. The logos are the numbers and data they collected from the large applicant pool of students. From the previous year, Freshman applications decreased 2.6% from the record total, but still the applications have increased by 34% in the past three years. The Basketball team – the Bruins – for UCLA is currently the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, which is very good. Using data and numbers from previous games, they got their No. 2 seed title, and have won (31-5) games this season. (UCLA, Men’s Basketball) The logos show how good of a team the Bruins are and how UCLA is more than a prestigious college.   

  UCLA players embracing the start of their last run together - On3

Response:  

I would go to this college, as it is a very good college in aspects: academically, socially, inclusivity, and equality. I like that it is in Los Angeles because the location is something that is important to me. When I went to Los Angeles this past February, I saw a glimpse of the campus and it is very pretty. While Los Angeles is good for tourism, I would never live there. Maybe other parts of California, but the traffic is crazy, and I would not be able to deal with that every day. That being said, it would be kind of hard going to college in Los Angeles, but I would stay on campus for most of the time, as it has a lot to show. The value from the “values inventory” I am using is community. I specifically chose community because from looking at UCLA’s website, community and togetherness is very important to them. It shows up multiple times in separate pages, and a university like UCLA has a great community to go along with it. Community is something that they really care about, and so do I. People are stronger in a community than individually because there are other people that you can lean on. We share a lot of similar values, which is why UCLA would be a good school for me to go to.   

 

 

Works Cited:

“Undergraduate Admission,” UCLA Admissions https://admission.ucla.edu/ 

“Mission and Values, Principles of Community” UCLA https://www.ucla.edu/about/mission-and-values 

“Newsroom,” UCLA Newsroom https://newsroom.ucla.edu/ 

“Men’s Basketball,” uclabruins https://uclabruins.com/sports/mens-basketball 

 

 

 

Manuel’s Academic Profile

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Manuel Alcoser-Mejia is a Freshman at Georgia State, and he graduated from Macintosh High School. The main reason he is going to college is for his family.  Both of his parents are immigrants, and he is a first-generation college student. One of the bigger reasons his parents moved here was better opportunities to go to school. If he doesn’t go to college, he feels like he will disappoint them.  He has two younger siblings, 7 and 12, and he wants to set an example for them. 

His 3 words to describe his academic self are lazy, hard-working, and procrastinating.  If he could change anything about his work ethic, he would change his scheduling because sometimes there are conflicts with his schedule, and he does not really feel like doing something, so it is hard for him to find the motivation to finish it. His mom is his biggest influence on his academic self, as she pushed and helped him through high school.  

One of his favorite subjects is math, and that is the one he is most proud of. Sometimes it is hard to understand, but he likes learning it. He takes an online math class that challenges him. It takes him a long time to complete the assignments, as they are difficult.  The major he wants to pursue is engineering, as it was his pathway through high school, and he really enjoyed it. When he is older, he wants to become a mechanical engineer. The article I feel that most relates to him is Intro to The New Education because he wants to not just learn technology, but also apply it to help the world. He wants to set an example for his younger siblings so that they too can go to college. These ideals are very important to him.  

In high school, he felt stressed with the SAT test, as he didn’t know how much it influenced college decisions. Towards the end of the year, he realized this and booked a last-minute SAT, and it was the last one he could take.  On testing day, he forgot his ID, so he had to go back home and grab it. When he got back, the doors were closed, but the people inside were able to bring him in at the last minute and put him in a different testing room.  

One thing about college that frustrates him is not fully knowing what classes he needs to do for engineering. He asked academic advisors, and he has a plan of classes he needs to do, but he doesn’t know if he needs to do them. If he could go to another school, he would go to Kennesaw and get a bachelor’s in engineering and a lot of his friends go there. He would also like to go to Georgia Tech because he believes it is the best in the state. He doesn’t know what degree to get yet, hoping bachelors then get a job. If it’s hard for him to get a job to get a bachelor’s degree, then he will go and get a masters.