Nebraska Veteran Promise Act

The Veteran Promise Act, sections 85-2901 to 85-2905, requires each public postsecondary institution in Nebraska to automatically accept, upon application, any eligible military student or eligible veteran student to enrol as an undergraduate in virtual and in-person courses and programmes. Read subsection (1) of 85-2903 to the end before relying on it. The duty to accept applies to a student "who otherwise meets the admissions requirements for such postsecondary institution". The Act does not lower an admissions standard; it removes discretion once the standard is met. And subsection (2) preserves every other policy and practice of the institution, including additional criteria and prioritisation for capped enrolment academic programmes. A veteran who meets the university's general admission requirements is in. A veteran applying to a nursing programme with a capped cohort is subject to that programme's selection on the same terms as anyone else. The definitions in 85-2902 are where the Act is genuinely broad. An eligible veteran student graduated from a Nebraska high school on or after January 1, 2002, or graduated from a high school in another state on or after January 1, 2002 and served in a uniformed service while assigned to a location in Nebraska; signed enlistment papers to serve in a uniformed service; and received an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions. The second limb of that first requirement is easy to miss and it matters for anyone stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. A veteran who has never lived in Nebraska before service, but who was assigned here during it and graduated high school somewhere on or after January 1, 2002, is inside the Act. An eligible military student graduated from a Nebraska high school on or after January 1, 2022, signed enlistment papers, and is either serving under a six-year obligation at the time of application or has served at least two years of active duty and is still serving. Uniformed service is defined more widely here than anywhere else in Nebraska law. It means an active or reserve component of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine or Space Force; the Commissioned Officer Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or of the Public Health Service; or the Nebraska National Guard. The Merchant Marine appears in very few state definitions anywhere in this catalog, and the NOAA and Public Health Service corps appear in almost none. What the Act is worth. For a veteran with a clear record it removes uncertainty and a wait. For a veteran whose application would otherwise have been marginal on general admission criteria it is the difference between a place and a refusal. For a veteran who does not meet the institution's general requirements it does nothing, and no state programme in this catalog does. The high school graduation dates are the real gate. A veteran who left high school before 2002, or who did not graduate from high school at all, is outside both definitions regardless of service. For them the ordinary admissions route, and the in-state tuition provision in 85-502.01, are what matter.