Government shutdown leaves PLNU military students in limbo

The United States federal government shutdown, which began over a month ago, has forced about 1.4 million employees to go on unpaid leave or work without pay. At Point Loma Nazarene University, active-duty service and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) members say the future is unknown, and the lack of communication has added fuel to the fire.

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 due to Republicans and Democrats disagreeing on passing a bill, which funds government services. It has caused difficulty for active-duty service members to pay their bills, uncertainty for military students about whether they can continue their education and an inability for PLNU’s military program to better help them.

Seamus Pilette, a third-year business administration and philosophy double major, has been in PLNU’s ROTC program for three years. He was in the process of transitioning from the Marine Corps to the Navy before it was postponed, since San Diego’s Naval Base administrative workers are on leave.

While his tuition for this semester is covered since it was paid before the shutdown, he said coverage for the spring semester is uncertain. 

“If there is no continuing resolution or new budget passed, we won’t know how that’s going to affect us,” Pilette said. “Without a new budget, we’re not sure what’s going to happen with our new tuition payments for the spring semester.”

He said that while there hasn’t been much communication from his chain of command, he remains positive, knowing that they are working together during the unknown period.

“They’re navigating this for the first time in several years just as we are, and so between the active-duty staff, the midshipmen and the enlisted personnel in the unit, it’s a working together trying to get through this,” Pilette said.

For active-duty service members, it’s the everyday expenses that cause worry, according to Gunnery Sergeant Domonick Sena, a fourth-year marketing major. 

Sena, who has been in the Marine Corps for over 11 years, said he was concerned about receiving his bi-weekly paycheck. To his relief, he has been paid on time since the shutdown, but he doesn’t know how the money was put together, which makes him uncertain for future paychecks.

“A lot of active-duty military members live paycheck to paycheck,” Sena said. “How do you navigate a time where you don’t get paid and you can’t make a payment during the government shutdown … because you know it’s awkward being a grown adult and saying, ‘Sorry, I can’t pay my bill.’ It’s challenging.”

Sena has experienced a government shutdown before, in late 2018 to early 2019, caused by a dispute between President Donald Trump and Congress over funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he wasn’t worried during that time due to its short length, but he is now.

“There was nothing that I saw that was kind of in writing that said we were going to get paid, and then me personally, like crisis mode started happening, trying to figure out how I’m going to pay bills,” Sena said.

Lauren Lahn, PLNU manager of military billing, compliance and outreach, said the biggest challenge for PLNU’s military programs has been a lack of communication with administrative officers, specifically regarding tuition and fee payments for ROTC scholarship recipients.

“We also haven’t been able to contact anybody to reconcile, you know, older account students who maybe were waiting for money before the shutdown, and now we can’t call anyone, even just to ask questions,” Lahn said. “It’s been really a challenge for our students, mostly, but as administrations here, it’s been a challenge for us as well.”

Lahn said there have been issues with students who were in the process of applying for military benefits and were not able to continue because most of the administrative counselors were forced to go on leave.

At least three students are currently in limbo, Lahn said, waiting for approval for the Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E), a benefit that provides resources like education to service members and veterans with service-related disabilities. 

“I have a couple other students who potentially might drop from the university because they were waiting on things with VR&E,” Lahn said.

Lahn said active-duty service members aren’t able to request tuition assistance for next semester; however, when the time comes, PLNU will work with students.

“We are willing to work with students if it comes up where the next semester starts, and we still haven’t gotten the tuition — we know the military, the DOD [Department of Defense], the federal government is good for it, so we can wait basically,” Lahn said.